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Mel Kiper Jr. Gets Roasted for Saying NFL Needs to Ban a Basic Defensive Scheme

Stephen Douglas

Mel Kiper Jr. yelled at a cloud on ‘Get Up’ this morning.
Mel Kiper Jr. yelled at a cloud on ‘Get Up’ this morning. / Get Up

The NFL season is off to a slow start with teams not scoring a lot of touchdowns while they load up on field goals. Teams are averaging just 21.4 points through two weeks, which is the lowest scoring has been since teams averaged 20.6 points per game in 2006.

One of the main reasons for that is the two-high safety defense that many teams are employing to limit deep passes by some of the strongest armed quarterbacks the sport has ever seen. This is really bothering some people, including ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. who went on Get Up on Thursday and suggested that the defense was "ruining" the sport and "should be outlawed."

"Well, I grew up with the best of the National Football League, 60's, 70's, into the 80's," Kiper argued. "You're talking about deep shots. The go route, the nine route, the post. You're talking about Terry Bradshaw in the Super Bowl hitting John Stallworth. 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 tihhnk 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 brough back."

That is a veritable who's who of legendary quarterbacks whose highlights almost no one has ever seen. And in Kiper's mind, we must go back by banning the two-high safety defense. The competition committee must make the defenders line up closer to the line of scrimmage so quarterbacks can throw deep again to save the sport, which by most metrics, is as popular as ever.

It should be noted that while most of the guys Kiper named had very high yards per completion averages—much higher than even the most proficient passers of the 2020's—they also occupy many of the spots on the list of the NFL's all-time interceptions leaders.

The thing about the good old days is that quarterbacks were also turning the ball over a lot. Not to mention most seasons those guys failed to throw for more yards in a 14 game season than Justin Herbert did in 13 games last year.

And that 21.4 points per game teams are averaging this year? At no point from 1968 to 1982 did the scoring average ever eclipse 21 points per game.

Unsurprisingly, Kiper's calls to change the rules to help the benefit the offense (yet again) have not been met with open minds, but salient arguments making points about how the game and defenses are simply adapting. And it's not really that big of a deal anyway.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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