The NFL may have achieved its greatest ever parity this 2022 season, and the league is getting closer games than ever before.
But you can’t have it all. The NFL has a point problem, and there are people in league circles who are starting to worry.
NFL teams are averaging 20.76 points per game this season, the lowest production since the 2017 season and the second lowest in the past decade.
This comes two years after the NFL recorded the most points in a season. The 2020 NFL season netted a record 12,692 points, breaking the previous record of 11,985 points set in the 2013 season.
But it didn’t hold. Even with an extra game for all teams, the league still only recorded 12,502 points in 2021. Now the points tempo has dropped even further.
NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent said at owner meetings last week that he considers the cause of the 2022 points drop to be the inefficiency of teams in the zone. red. This year, teams are scoring touchdowns on 56.5% of red-zone trips, the lowest mark since 2017.
Perhaps what stands out the most is that teams come away with fewer points in the red zone than in recent history. The percentage of points scored in the red zone – meaning a touchdown or a field goal – is 84.6%, by far the lowest of the last 10 seasons with an average of 87%. In fact, the 84.6% point percentage in the red zone is the worst in the league since the 2009 season.
A league source believes the defenses have figured out the ways of the offense in the red zone, especially when it comes to the run-pass option.
There are no immediate rule changes coming, I am told. But 2017 was the last time so many of those low marks were hit, and the league instituted the bodyweight rule to bully the passer the following season.
