DENVER (AP) — Defenses have finally figured out how to keep all those high-powered offenses from lighting up NFL scoreboards, and they’re also showing that in 2022 this is no league for old men.
Tom Brady, whose unretirement at age 45 is looking like a big mistake, was held without a touchdown throw Sunday by a woeful Carolina Panthers team that throttled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21-3 after trading its best player and starting a third-string quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers, 38, was held without so much as a third-down conversion — or one on fourth down, for that matter — for the first time in his career in the Green Bay Packers’ 23-21 loss to Washington and Taylor Heinicke.
Matt Ryan, 37, separated his throwing shoulder in the Indianapolis Colts’ 19-10 loss at Tennessee, but coach Frank Reich said Monday that’s not why he’s benching his bruised and battered 15-year veteran in favor of second-year QB Sam Ehlinger.
Russell Wilson, sidelined by a pulled hamstring, donned a headset instead of a helmet in Denver, where the offensively-challenged Broncos lost another close one Sunday with backup Brett Rypien making his second career start against the Jets.
Nathaniel Hackett said afterward that Wilson was trending toward returning against the Jaguars in London next weekend, although it might be best for the 33-year-old QB who’s off to the worst start of his career to sit out until after the Broncos’ bye and return against the Titans on Nov. 13.
There’s a multitude of reasons for the quarterbacks’ struggles and the league-wide dip in point production so far, including more blitzes and a rash of elite receivers getting traded, leaving their former teams to recreate chemistry, which takes time.
A major factor is the explosion of shell coverages where players cover portions of the field to form a “shell” defense, a strategy popularized by former Broncos coach Vic Fangio that is menacing offensive play-callers and ruffling quarterbacks this season, especially in the red zone.
Some of the game’s most accomplished QBs are really feeling the pinch.
Brady doesn’t look like a seven-time Super Bowl winner without retired sidekick Rob Gronkowski, and Rodgers doesn’t look like the league’s two-time reigning MVP without pal Davante Adams, who was traded to the Raiders in the offseason.
Conversely, Patrick Mahomes, 27, doesn’t look like he misses superstar speedster Tyreek Hill at all.
Mahomes already has thrown for 20 touchdowns, putting him on pace for 48, just shy of the 50 he threw his first season as a starter in 2018. He’s averaged 34 TDs over the last three seasons, all with Hill, who asked out of Kansas City in the offseason and was dealt to the Dolphins.
“I know this sounds crazy, but I’m telling you, they’re a better offense without Tyreek Hill,” NBC Sports analysts Chris Simms said on “Football Night in America.”
Josh Allen, 26, also is on pace for 48 TDs, and Joe Burrow, 25, is on pace to throw for three dozen touchdowns. Lamar Jackson, 25, has 13 TD throws, three shy of last year’s total, and he’s fifth in the league with 510 rushing yards.
Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Jackson make up the league’s new upper echelon of elite quarterbacks, supplanting the likes of Brady, Rodgers, Ryan and Wilson.
With 11 TDs through seven weeks, Rodgers is on pace for half about half of Mahomes’ projectied TD total — 26 — after throwing for 37 last year and 48 the year before.
