Week 1 brought a clear reminder that the NFL’s shotgun-heavy era is not absolute. Under-center usage proliferated across the league, and that alone made Tnf Score a useful marker of how quickly offensive trends can swing when coaches decide the old look still has value.
The broader point is not that the league has abandoned the shotgun. It is that more teams in Week 1 were willing to line quarterbacks up under center again, a shift that matters because it changes how offenses run the ball, marry play-action to their passing game and present defenders with a different picture at the snap.
Why under-center football faded after 2017
The drop-off after 2017 had become notable, especially as modern offenses leaned harder into the shotgun. That alignment suited quarterbacks who wanted space, clarity and quicker access to passing concepts, while also helping coaches simplify timing and protection in a league that increasingly valued speed at the line.
Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Mike McDaniel, Kyle Shanahan, Jimmy Garoppolo and Lamar Jackson all sit within that wider modern conversation. Different teams and different quarterbacks found ways to win from the shotgun, and that helped delay the return to under-center football even further.
The result was a league that increasingly treated the shotgun as the default rather than the alternative. For a while, that made under-center looks feel more like a specialist tool than a weekly foundation.
Jimmy Garoppolo showed the split clearly
The 2019 numbers on Jimmy Garoppolo are a neat illustration of why some quarterbacks stayed in the shotgun. He ranked top-seven in shotgun passer rating, completion percentage and on-target throws, but bottom-12 under center. That is the kind of split that tells coaches exactly where a quarterback is most comfortable and where the offense can be most efficient.
That does not mean under center is outdated. It means the league spent years rewarding systems that kept quarterbacks in the shotgun because it reduced friction and maximized what many passers did best. When an offense can protect rhythm and timing, it is easier to stay with the setup that already works.
What Week 1 really tells us
The Week 1 surge does not mean every team will suddenly rebuild around under-center football. But it does suggest a wider willingness to vary structure, especially when coaches believe it can help the run game, create better play-action looks or simply keep defenses guessing.
That is why the current trend matters. If under-center usage is returning more often, then the next question is whether it becomes a short early-season adjustment or a more sustained shift in how the NFL wants to attack. Tnf Score captures the moment well: a league that once seemed fully committed to the shotgun is again showing it still has room for something older, and in some cases, more balanced.
