Jason La Canfora: Too many bad teams and awful QB play are why NFL ratings are declining

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Any camera angle that panned across the upper deck in any number of stadiums Sundays confirmed that fact. The issues with ratings are well-documented. It's become convenient to blame that phenomenon, at least in part, on the ongoing issues of player demonstrations but now, nearly a season-and-a-half since Colin Kaepernick first took a knee, I'm not buying it. There's some protesting going on, without a doubt, but it's fans protesting the product being put on the football field, I believe, moreso than any pronounced reaction to a handful of players displaying their Constitutional rights before kick-off.

This downturn in the number of eyeballs watching closely every Sunday and Monday and Thursday is much more directly related, in my opinion, to the fact that the number of quarterbacks you would pay big bucks to see in a game with no rooting interest seems to be shrinking by the week. It's a by-product of the number of teams who fail to play anything close to attractive football, and who haven't found or developed a skill player who would garner a second look. It's a factor of yet another weekend when injuries ravaged the already-depleted QB position, and America was treated to the likes of guys like Matt Moore, Drew Stanton, and Cody Kessler playing in games that count in the standings, to go with the likes of Brett Hundley and Case Keenum and Mitchell Trubisky and C.J. Beathard who have already been thrust into action due to injury or the ineffectiveness of others.

The NFL has altered the rules and tilted the field for the offense over the past few decades with rule changes and points of emphasis. There's nothing more they can do to subsidize scoring. Problem is, the way some of these have been constructed and coached, it really doesn't matter. Far too many teams and far too many quarterbacks are simply too hard to watch – or at least watch regularly – and it says here that has more to do with the sustained ratings dip than people boycotting because of anthem demonstrations or anything else.

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