How could something so undeniably correct turn out to be so indescribably wrong at the same time? Shoot, it\u2019s an impossible question to answer, really; but hey, since we live in the world of impossible-to-find answers (New York Jets land), let\u2019s dive into it, nonetheless. <\/p>\n
Bart Scott\u2019s recent words on ESPN NY Radio<\/a> were music to many football fans\u2019 ears. On Tuesday, while working with Jake Asman, Scott discussed some defensive football when asked about the Jets\u2019 current woes. <\/p>\n After discussing how amazing it was that Philip Rivers took his dad-bod off the couch for the Indianapolis Colts\u2014which is just another sign of the burgeoning old-man quarterback era we\u2019re set to soon endure\u2014Scott opined on the state of the NFL. <\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that we had\u2014and it\u2019s not Bart Scott, \u2018Get off my lawn\u2019\u2014but we had football acumen,\u201d Scott proclaimed when referring to his era of the NFL. \u201cIt literally was chess, checkers, because guys were playing at such high levels. Did you see how easy it was for Philip Rivers to smoke them out of their looks?<\/p>\n \u201cHe hasn\u2019t paid attention to the San Francisco 49ers (schemes) in how long? This is the first week he\u2019s looked at them.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott, 45, has become a prominent media voice since retiring from the league in 2012. Once Rex Ryan came over from the Baltimore Ravens in 2009 to coach the Jets, he took some players with him, including Bart Scott, his MIKE. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re running the same stuff,\u201d Scott continued. \u201cIt\u2019s just elementary. It\u2019s why a guy like Philip Rivers can play, and it\u2019s why Tom Brady said, \u2018Hey man, give me a month, and I could come back.\u2019 And he\u2019s serious, dead serious, because the guys today play the game from the shoulders down. The guys I played against (and played with) played the game from the shoulders up.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re getting dumbed-down, reality TV. You\u2019re not getting some beautifully written sitcom.\u201d<\/p>\n When evaluating Scott\u2019s message about how \u201cdumbed-down\u201d the modern game really is, it\u2019s pretty easy to come away with an overarching response \u2026 <\/p>\n He\u2019s not wrong. <\/p>\n Firstly, there\u2019s no way I could disagree with him about the \u201cdumbed-down\u201d angle, particularly in relation to the older quarterbacks\u2019 success. After all, I was firmly on the \u201cAaron Rodgers isn\u2019t washed<\/a>\u201d bandwagon for a long time, and many examples of the savvy vets getting things done have smacked us in the face all season.<\/p>\n Flacco, Rodgers \u2026 how are these old men doing this tonight, some are asking? It ain\u2019t 1998 anymore. The rules = can\u2019t touch the QB without a spotlight and sniper warning from above. <\/p>\n Can\u2019t imagine how long guys like Mahomes and others will play. At least Rodgers and Flacco\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 Robby Sabo (@RobbySabo) October 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Moreover, inject anything Bart has to say about the 3-4, odd-front tactics he learned under Rex Ryan, firmly into my veins (something he did discuss, particularly how Chris Harris played more odd fronts in his first game as defensive coordinator). <\/p>\n \u201cGive me three months,\u201d is how Bart responded when Asman gauged his interest in becoming the Jets\u2019 defensive coordinator. <\/p>\n When guided by Asman, via needing three months to learn the modern schemes, the brashness of Bart shone through the screen and screetched soundly through the airwaves:<\/p>\n \u201cNo, no, no, we don\u2019t need modern schemes to \u2026 this stuff is elementary, bro. This is the dumbest football era.\u201d<\/p>\n Again, he\u2019s not wrong. When evaluating it from a pure objective standpoint, I could and would argue that Bart is on the money in most ways\u2014particularly from a football purity perspective. <\/p>\n Yet, as correct as he may be to most of the living, breathing football world, he is wrong as it relates to building a successful football team in the modern age. <\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to understand just how dumbed-down the game is today; it\u2019s another to recognize and fully accept why it\u2019s so dramatically foreign to the lifelong eye. That\u2019s the real rub, and it\u2019s precisely this attitude the New York Jets must move away from as an organization. <\/p>\n The reason the sport is dumbed down is the genesis of actual success: The NFL moved in another direction via the rules. <\/p>\n By any and every metric, the late 2000s commenced the party. When Bill Belichick\u2019s cornerbacks continuously mauled Peyton Manning\u2019s receivers in the early to mid-2000s, the noise increased. When the NFL began embracing fantasy football as a significant revenue driver, noise turned into action. <\/p>\n And when the league began feeling more heat than Kenny O\u2019Brien behind his usually porous late-1980s offensive lines\u2014regarding player safety\u2014everything changed. <\/p>\n The late aughts saw the league enforce defensive coverage contact and overall physicality (particularly relating to quarterbacks) in unprecedented ways. In some ways, certain aspects of the game took some time to change their colors. <\/p>\n When Bart and Rex were shocking the world in 2009 and 2010, physicality was still a significant part of the game. Scott would fill and spill like a madman, making it that much easier for David Harris and others to make a play. Nick Mangold<\/a> and company didn\u2019t just believe in ground-and-pound; they worshiped the altar it stood for (and appropriately so). <\/p>\n In 2011, Eli Manning\u2019s New York Giants won the Super Bowl with the 32nd rushing attack. In 2012, Robert Griffin III and Colin Kaepernick led potent offenses that featured zone-reads and option play\u2014something the traditionalists would have never thought could infiltrate pro football. <\/p>\n Had Buddy Ryan consistently done that with Randall Cunningham, he would have set him up for a Lawrence Taylor-served hospital stay. The sheer physicality and understanding that quarterbacks were \u201cone of the fellas\u201d made it clear that allowing those guys to venture into the real world (defensive EDGE, between the tackles, etc.) wouldn\u2019t end well. <\/p>\n Season by season, the way this sport is played has changed. Today, the top nine all-time passing yards leaders all played, at the very latest, in the 2010 season. Dan Marino, who some thought could never be caught, is now 10th with 61,361 career passing yards. <\/p>\n Matt Ryan ranks ninth. Philip Rivers ranks eighth. Eli Manning ranks 11th. I mean, come on, now. Sights such as these can only force the brain in one direction: The times, they are a-changing. <\/p>\n As much as I live for those old Rex schemes, they simply would not work today\u2014at least not how they were exactly, and not with the same vigor. It\u2019s this realization that must always begin the conversation. <\/p>\n Thanks to the pass-happy ways of the NFL, led by its insane short-passing efficiency, defense as we all knew it has evaporated. Poof, it\u2019s gone. The quicker we can all accept this reality, the better. <\/p>\n