Are modern CFB offenses getting better or are the defenses worse?

Offensive strategies have been getting better, and rule changes have hurt defenses by limiting head hunting and creating ticky-tack PIs.

A little bit of both

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The spread offense has been around for a long time and still few teams have an answer for it. Are the offenses that far ahead of the curve or are modern defenses just soft?

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I would say the offensive execution is better. When the spread came, HS QBs and WRs threw on a LOT of practice reps and downs in the game that they would have ran the ball on before, reps that would have been wasted in terms of QB development. A team wins or outperforms their talent level, so other teams start running spread and air raid.

Then when enough teams run spread, they figure out that the best QBs are dual threat, and now the old fashioned pocket passer is a dinosaur. It’s like the difference between a king and a queen in chess.

Offensive schemes are light years ahead of where they were 20 years ago. Virginia Tech and the Falcons were running I formation stuff with Michael Vick, for example. He should have been taking 90% of his snaps from the shotgun.

The other thing I've noticed is modern quarterbacks are incredibly accurate throwing downfield in comparison to their predecessors.

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I would say the offensive execution is better. When the spread came, HS QBs and WRs threw on a LOT of practice reps and downs in the game that they would have ran the ball on before, reps that would have been wasted in terms of QB development. A team wins or outperforms their talent level, so other teams start running spread and air raid.

Then when enough teams run spread, they figure out that the best QBs are dual threat, and now the old fashioned pocket passer is a dinosaur. It’s like the difference between a king and a queen in chess.

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Being a DT QB and running the spread literally having nothing to do with each other. You could have the slowest QB, but if he knows where to go with the ball he is going to be successful in the spread. Old school brees for one.

College seems to be mirroring NFL
You used to be able to mug WR's at college level and in the pros
Bama got away with it and LSU did as well back in the day and a lot of teams did

I think kids are able to practice the craft of being a receiver and qb way earlier than before

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College seems to be mirroring NFL

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It’s the other way around

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Imagine being able to protect the middle like this now.

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When I played in the 80s I was terrified to run slants. Also, I've seen much worse than in that video.

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But offenses have gotten smarter, and the rules favor the offense more and more. I don't think defenses are necessarily worse.

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Offenses have realized that unstacking the box by replacing the fullback with another receiver makes the matchups much tougher for the defense. Defenses don't have enough quality cornerbacks to matchup with the depth offenses have at WR.