NFL Week One Shows Continued Offensive Struggles With Lowest Numbers In Decades

We're just one week into the 2025 NFL regular season, but already there's a clear pattern emerging from the results. Offense continues to struggle in the modern era, and it's making more games harder to watch.

It might seem unreasonable to complain about offense, given the spectacular game between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. The 41-40 score undersells how exciting the finish was, with a miraculous Bills comeback making for one of the more memorable NFL games in recent memory.

But as a whole, the league's offenses struggled in week one. Struggled a lot.

In 2024 NFL teams, on average, scored 22.9 points per game. They averaged 5.4 yards per play, 6.2 net yards per pass, and 4.4 yards per rush. Through the first week of games in 2025? All of those numbers are down, significantly. There may be no better example of how bad week one was for the league's offenses than the Cincinnati Bengals and Tennessee Titans. 

Both teams, combined, put up 274 total yards on offense. Combined. The Bengals averaged 2.9 yards per play. Amazingly, they managed to win their game against the Browns. Somehow, the Titans were even worse at 2.4 yards per play. It's ugly, and it's become a consistent issue for the league.

CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 07: Joe Burrow #9 of the Cincinnati Bengals throws a pass during the second quarter against the Cleveland Browns during the game at Huntington Bank Field on September 07, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Offense Continues To Struggle Across NFL

So what were the league's offensive numbers as a whole? 

Even including the few high-scoring games, points per game were just 20.7, compared to 22.9 in 2024. Yards per play was down to 5.1 from 5.4. Net passing yards per attempt dropped to 5.9, and yards per rush to 4.2. Every single relevant offensive metric dropped in week one relative to last year.

And that's with the outliers propping those numbers up.

For example, 16 teams averaged less than four yards per carry. The Ravens 8.2 ypc though, helped prop up the rest of the league. 15 teams averaged less than five yards per play, and three more averaged five on the dot. Put differently, just 15 of the league's 17 teams averaged more than five yards per play. That's ugly.

It's just one week, and things can change as the season goes on. Injuries affecting defensive players frequently thins out rosters, making it easier for offenses to move the ball. 2024 started out slow, but picked up as the season moved on.

Still, this is the a problem the league is going to have to deal with – they've stacked the deck in favor of offenses, throwing flags if a defensive lineman breathes too heavily on a quarterback. Adding the illegal contact penalty to make it harder for defensive backs. Protecting offensive players with punitive penalties for targeting and hitting defenseless wide receivers. And offenses across the league are still struggling.

Were the 5.1 figure to stay the same all season, it would be among the lowest numbers over the last three decades. Same with points per game. Put simply, the NFL as a product, has all too often become a series of short passes, incomplete deep passes, or runs into the line of scrimmage that go nowhere. Thanks to gambling and fantasy, the league can essentially do no wrong or lose viewership. And the popularity of the RedZone network allows fans to avoid the most boring plays or games in favor of exclusive focus on the exciting ones. But for fans who enjoy watching fast paced offensive football, it was an ugly start.