In Buffalo, Josh Allen is having a breakout season for the Bills. In Tennessee, Ryan Tannehill is having a great follow-up performance to last year’s breakout second half. In Oakland Las Vegas, Derek Carr is building on his underrated 2019 season, with Henry Ruggs III and Nelson Agholor helping him reach new heights. And in Houston, Deshaun Watson is having his best year yet — and that’s without DeAndre Hopkins!

These four AFC teams have something else in common: if you don’t adjust for era (which one should always do except when writing articles like these), they are currently guiding the best passing offenses in franchise history. This season, NFL teams are averaging 6.35 ANY/A, which would be the greatest passing season in league history. Now, Raiders fans may not think 1976 Ken Stabler has been guiding the team this year, but hey, we are ignoring era-adjustments in this article. As always, we are using Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt to grade the passing offenses.

Bills

No, Allen isn’t quite Jim Kelly 1990, the best passing season by a Buffalo quarterback after adjusting for era (7.50 ANY/A during an era where the league average ANY/A was 5.29, giving Kelly a Relative ANY/A of +2.21). The ’90 Bills had an ANY/A of 7.21, second-best in the NFL that season; together with the ’91 Bills (ANY/A of 6.89), they are the two highest ANY/A seasons in Buffalo history. That is, until 2020, when Allen’s Bills are averaging 7.44 ANY/A. Allen is actually slightly behind Kelly (7.50 to 7.38) in ANY/A, as Buffalo’s third string quarterback in ’90 dragged down the team averages slightly. But on the team level, this year’s Bills have the most efficient passing offense in franchise history.

Titans/Oilers

The franchise founded by Bud Adams has a strong history of great quarterback play. In fact, there are four seasons in history where the team averaged over 7.00 ANY/A, and it happened under four different quarterbacks. Behind George Blanda, the sophomore version of the Oilers averaged 7.90 ANY/A in a historic 1961 season that is not celebrated only because historians (understandably) view the numbers as misleading in a watered down league. In 2003, with Steve McNair, Tennessee averaged 7.73 ANY/A, and last season with Tannehill, the Titans were at 7.54. Finally, the ’90 version of the Oilers and Warren Moon averaged 7.18 ANY/A. Without any adjustments for era, the Blanda team is the clear winner, and with adjustments for era (but not for league), that team looks even more impressive. Moon ’88, ’90, and ’92 were all great ANY/A seasons, and Tannehill last season averaged 8.52 ANY/A in a 6.16 ANY/A league, giving him +2.36 RANY/A. Of course, he split time with Marcus Mariota in 2019, so the team numbers were not as strong.

This season, it’s been all Tannehill and he’s averaging 8.07 ANY/A. As a team, the Titans passing offense is averaging 8.03 ANY/A, finally enough (if it holds) to push aside the ’61 version for the best un-adjusted for era passing season in franchise history. It may feel weird to say for a franchise that has had Moon, McNair, and Blanda, but Tannehill is leading an absurdly efficient passing attack that is the best they’ve ever had (without adjusting for era).

Raiders

Stabler’s ’76 season was the stuff of legends: 7.45 ANY/A in a 4.07 ANY/A environment, giving him a +3.38 RANY/A average. He had similar numbers in ’74, too (7.04/3.91/+3.12). The Raiders have had lots of great individual passers: Daryle Lamonica, Rich Gannon, Jim Plunkett in the postseason, and even Tom Flores and George Blanda in limited action. Derek Carr might not be a Raiders legend, but he’s had several very good passing seasons. At the team level, you would probably be shocked to learn that the best passing season didn’t come with any of those quarterbacks, or even Jeff George (who led the NFL in passing yards with the Raiders in ’97).

Before Carr, the best ANY/A season unadjusted for era came from the 1990 Raiders, with Jay Schroeder throwing passes to Willie Gault and Mervyn Fernandez. This was the ultimate deep ball offense: the Raiders averaged 15.8 yards per completion when no other team averaged more than 13.8 yards per catch! ^[1]Since 1978, the five best Y/C seasons belong to the ’98 Falcons, the ’90 Raiders, the ’89 Raiders, the ’88 Bengals, and the ’88 Raiders. Schroeder was there each year, … Continue reading The Raiders easily led the league in yards per attempt despite the NFL being filled with great quarterback performances that season. The Raiders averaged 7.17 ANY/A in 1990, the best in franchise history until… last season, when Carr’s Raiders averaged 7.26 ANY/A. And this year, Las Vegas is averaging 7.35 ANY/A, meaning Carr’s team could post the most efficient passing season in franchise history for the second year in a row. Even if it feels a little empty (which, of course, is why we use era adjustments) given the team’s 14-15 record over the last two years. The ’69 Raiders led the AFL in ANY/A, while the ’76 and ’02 teams ranked 2nd; the current team ranks 6th in ANY/A. That said, this is a good reminder that if Las Vegas misses the playoffs, the blame rests solely on the back of an awful defense.

Texans

The 2009 Texans don’t quite have the storybook history of the other teams we’ve mentioned today, but this was the prime era of the Matt Schaub/Andre Johnson Texans. Houston averaged 7.23 ANY/A, 6th-best in the NFL. Schaub averaged 7.44 ANY/A (league average was 5.65, RANY/A of +1.80); he actually did slightly better (7.83) in 2011, but was injured after 10 games, and the offense collapsed, finishing with a 7.00 ANY/A average. But no matter: this season, Watson’s Texans are averaging 7.93 ANY/A, with Watson at 7.99. It will go down as the best passing season in Houston history without adjusting for era, and perhaps as the best one after you adjust for era, too.

The worst passing offense since…

Let’s move on to some of the struggling teams. For 27 of the 32 teams, their current passing offense — without adjusting for era — is at least more efficient than one of the 2017, 2018, or 2019 seasons. But for five teams, they are currently having a pretty down year, at least relative to recent history.

In New Orleans, with Drew Brees injured and Taysom Hill unsurprisingly not being Drew Brees good, the passing attack is having a down year. The Saints are still averaging 7.13 ANY/A, but because of how good Brees has been, this goes down (for now) as the worst passing season in New Orleans since 2014. Things are even worse in the northeast.

The Jets, enduring the final days of the Sam Darnold and Adam Gase era, are somehow “only” having their worst passing season since 2013. That Geno Smith-led passing offense had 13 TDs and 22 INTs, and averaged 4.18 ANY/A. Darnold is actually doing much worse than that (3.64 ANY/A), but Joe Flacco has propped the team average up to 4.21. The Jets may finish the year with an ANY/A below 4.00, which hasn’t happened for them since the rookie season of Mark Sanchez (3.96).

In 2013, the Giants (4.35 ANY/A) weren’t much better than the Jets; this was the last of three years where Eli Manning led the NFL in interceptions. But the current Giants, at 4.60 ANY/A, are only slightly eclipsing that mark. For both New York teams, being slightly better than 2013 is the coldest of compliments.

For the Patriots, this is the worst passing season since 2000; I am not sure what else the 2020 and 2000 Patriots have in common, but the ’00 team averaged 4.68 ANY/A while the current version is at 4.99. New England averaged at least 5.37 ANY/A in every season from 2001 to 2019, and at least 6.00 ANY/A in every year from ’04 to ’19.

But New England doesn’t get to be least on this list: that’s because one team is having it’s worst passing season since 1999! That, of course, would be the Philadelphia Eagles. Carson Wentz has imploded this season, and the Eagles are averaging just 4.18 ANY/A (which may rise as Jalen Hurts gets more pass attempts). The ’99 Eagles averaged 3.12 ANY/A, a mark that even the ’20 Eagles can beat. But the stats back it up: this looks like like the worst Philadelphia offense since (at least) the late ’90s.

They were better when??

Finally, a fun bit to close out on. We noted that four AFC teams are having their best season ever; for a fifth, only the 2018 Chiefs can top what the current team is doing. Given how passing stats have generally risen over the years, you wouldn’t expect too many old teams to have more efficient passing games without adjusting for era than the current versions. But in fact, there are 13 teams who had a more efficient passing offense in the ’60s than they do today! That, unsurprisingly, includes the Eagles, Giants, and Jets.

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments. You probably aren’t too surprised to see the Bears on the list, but the Steelers one (albeit with Bobby Layne) is a surprising entry.