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Though defenses have gotten more sophisticated, it's more a generational thing than a mark of sophistication. If you're not familiar, there are two basic kinds of pass defense: In man-to-man each defender is assigned a receiver to cover, while in zone the defenders are assigned zones of the field and will cover whichever defender enters that zone. Man requires players who are athletic enough to stay with the men they're assigned, and it fails when their unable to do that. Zone's weakness is that there aren't enough defenders available to cover every zone on the field, and a skilled quarterback will be able to read the defense ahead of the play and change the play at the line to direct receivers into holes in the coverage. Good receivers in turn will be able to adjust their routes based on what they see. When passing began to pick up in the 21st century, it was largely because guys like Brady, Brees, and Manning could pick apart zone defenses like nobody's business. So defenses adapted by playing more man. Now it was up to the receivers to beat the coverage, and guys like Darelle Revis made careers out of being unbeatable.
One feature of a typical man defense is a on-high safety look. Say the offense is lined up with one running back, one tight-end, and three wide receivers. A typical defense will respond with a nickel package, with four linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs. Four defensive linemen will rush the quarterback. Three of the defensive backs will cover the receivers, one (usually a strong safety) will cover the tight end, and one of the linebackers will cover the running back. The free safety will play a large deep zone. He will watch the quarterback to see where the ball is going and help that defender in coverage or to prevent a big play; he's the last line of defense. The other linebacker can be used for a variety of purposes. He may assist the linemen with the QB rush. One variation that the Patriots used a lot during this era is called "robber" coverage, where the second linebacker takes a zone below the free safety to guard against crossing routes. To beat man coverage, offenses relied on fast receivers like Tyreek Hill. Strategy shifted from finding holes in the coverage to managing matchups and figuring out where the extra help was coming from. The thing that really threw things into overdrive, though, was running quarterbacks.
Running QBs have existed to some degree for a while, but they were either guys like Steve Young who were good at scrambling, or novelties like Michael Vick. In the 2010s, coaches were increasingly willing to use running QBs like Cam Newton, Robert Griffin, and Colin Kaepernick, and towards the end of the decade, quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen took the running game to an entirely new level. But it wasn't these outliers that changed things. By 2020, guys like Manning and Brees, who were statues in the pocket, no longer existed. All quarterbacks had at least some scrambling ability, and were liable to take off if everything was covered. Remember the second linebacker? One of the things he could do was spy the quarterback as if he were a running back. But doing this takes him out of the coverage, and more is open downfield. In the early 2020s, defenses were routinely getting foiled by fast receivers, and if there weren't any fast receivers, there were receivers who could shake defenders underneath. And there wasn't any help from the linebacker, since the quarterback might run with the ball. How did defenses deal with this? They went back to zone.
More specifically, the dropped another safety to cover the deep part of the field. This turns a Cover 1, which I described earlier, into a Cover 2. Instead on one safety covering the entire deep field, there were two safeties. And since an offense in a 3 receiver set is usually only sending 2 deep, both of them are effectively double covered. Since the cornerbacks aren't chasing the receivers deep, the flat is covered in case the quarterback runs. Your extra linebacker can drop back into coverage, and you have three zones across the middle of the field. To make things even better, if the qb does go deep the ball is in the air long enough for the second safety to leave his zone and help out the other one. This isn't much different than the way things were when Brady and Manning were working their magic in the 2000s. But none of those guys are in the league anymore.
Since defenses switched to running mostly 2-high a few years ago, offenses have struggled to adapt. Speed isn't as much of an asset for a receiver if a safety is waiting for you downfield, which is why the Chiefs let Tyreek Hill walk; his skill set was no longer needed. Speaking of the Chiefs, the reason they've been continually successful despite the lack of receiver talent is because Mahomes is one of the few quarterbacks to adjust to the new defenses without batting an eye. It's why Travis Kelce was able to go from being a typical good passing tight end to one of the most prolific receivers in the league; both he and Kelce knew where the soft spot in the zone was. People often wondered why Kelce couldn't just be doubled or something. The reason is that any decent defensive back could neutralize him in single coverage, the problem being that that would only work by switching to man coverage, which would have let Mahomes run wild, hitting receivers deep and scrambling for yardage when they weren't open. The best bet was to hope that Kelce wouldn't find the sweet spot.
This obviously oversimplifies things, but it offers a general explanation of why passing is down from its highs in the late 2010s and early 2020s. It's still not off much from the late 2000s and early 2010s, which is still high by historical standards. These things come in cycles, and I wouldn't worry about it too much.
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