Matt Ryan's blistering hot season may be one for the record books, but he has more than just himself and his teammates to thank. Ryan and all recent quarterbacks have been riding on a wave of inflation in passing statistics. Although Ryan's 2016 rivals Kurt Warner's 2000 "Greatest Show on Turf" season, the two seasons aren't easily compared -- Warner's passing yards were much harder to come by 16 years ago than they would be today.
It's no secret that the passing numbers in the NFL keep climbing. Analysts have been calling the NFL a passing league for the past few years, but the truth is it has been so for two generations, and there's no end in sight for passing's ascendancy.