New York Jets: Stopping the run

As it happens, the league has quietly undergone an extraordinary transformation over the last decade or so. In 2015 the league set an all time record of 244 passing yards per game. Passing offenses seemed unstoppable. 13 NFL teams surpassed 4000 passing yards that year. Even the Jets got in on the fun, passing for 4057 yards. Everybody was trying to figure out how to slow down all the high powered passing offenses. Gradually, over the next 10 years, they largely succeeded.

Ten years later in 2025, NFL teams averaged just 210 passing yards per game, the lowest total since 2006. That represented an enormous drop of 34 passing yards per game from the peak of 2015. There has never been another ten year stretch with that level decrease in passing yards in post-merger NFL history.

Just six teams surpassed 4000 passing yards in 2025, down more than 50% from a decade earlier. The average team attempted just 32.1 passes per game in 2025, the lowest total since 2006. The last time the NFL had a substantial stretch of years where teams averaged lower than 32.1 passes per game was more than 40 years ago, in the late 1970s through the early 1980s. Back then nobody was calling the NFL a passing league. In fact, there was such a dearth in passing and scoring back then the NFL started a series of rule changes to encourage passing and scoring.