NFL should ban Mel Kiper rather than follow his advice to fix declining offense

The 2024 NFL season has seen offenses get off to one of the worst starts in recent memory. Specifically, the quarterbacks are playing much worse than everybody is used to. It just seems like most of the young signal callers around the league drop back to pass and see a ghost.

Well, they see two ghosts. Because the main reason that many speculate quarterbacks have struggled is because of the resurgence of the two high safety look. This look is forcing quarterbacks to check down and use the middle of the field. They have to identify the defense and make plays based on that and most of these young quarterbacks just can't do it.

Big plays are taken away by the fact that safeties are playing far off the line of scrimmage, eliminating the idea of getting beat on a go route or a deep post route. NFL analyst Mel Kiper has an idea on how to fix offenses in this new "two high safety" era.

Get rid of two high safety looks.

Mel Kiper goes unhinged with recent NFL rule change idea that makes no sense

As much as I wish that I was joking, I'm not. Kiper was on ESPN's Get Up this morning where he went on a rant about how these defenses are ruining the NFL. Here's the full rant from Kiper:

"Well, I grew up with the best of the National Football League, 60's, 70's, into the 80's," said Kiper, h/t Sports Illustrated. "You're talking about deep shots. The go route, the nine route, the post. You're talking about Terry Bradshaw hitting John Stallworth in the Super Bowl. You see Leeroy Irving diving, right? Just off his fingers. There's the receiver. They laid it out there, right? Hit the receiver in stride. 65-yard touchdown. It's a beautiful thing to watch. That's what I want to see brought back to the National Football League. Okay? Checkdown kings. Bubble screen sensations. Boring football. Uh-uh. Game manager I get it. I want to see those deep shots. That's what the NFL was built on. I grew up with Johnny Unitas, Fran Tarkenton, Ken Stabler, Daryle Lamonica. You talk about quarterbacks—Joe Namath, Brett Favre when he was doing what he did. Herb Jones with the Baltimore Colts. You think about those quarterbacks who would thrown the ball down the field. I said what Bradshaw did with Stallworth and Swan. Roger Staubach. That's what I want to see brought back."

Future Hall of Famer, JJ Watt quickly responded in a simple post of his own.

Sadly, it doesn't seem like a bit. Kiper is extremely serious about this and it makes absolutely no sense.

Football is such a beautiful sport because it's played on an even playing field. 11 men on offense, 11 men on defense. May the best team win. Dominant offenses have used motion, big plays, the run game and a ton of other features to dominate defenses. Dominant defenses have used disguises, dominant edge rushers, blitzes and much more to take over games.

But Kiper seems to just be a fan of offense. Sure, this idea of handicapping the defenses would result in more points and a more exciting game, but if we wanted more points, why don't we just force defenses to play with 10 players (note the sarcasm here). Let's just eliminate double teams and disguised coverages and hand the offenses 50 points a game. That would be more fun to watch for the casual viewer.

But it would ruin the game. The answer? Allow the quarterbacks to adapt and adjust. Derek Carr and Baker Mayfield don't seem to have much of a problem with beating these looks. Let the rest of the league catch up before we outlaw an entire defensive scheme.