Yeah, but if you're the only one with the space-aged passing game, it'd be a massive advantage.
Yep.
When Tiller started going five wide in the B1G and opposing teams were trying to cover guys like Vinny Sutherland with a linebacker or a safety, and brought in the bubble screen, he had an advantage over almost every defense in the league.
When we were in the infancy of the spread option with Urban Meyer (I'm talking pre-Florida, like the Utah stuff), nobody was running it and nobody could defend it. The running ability of the QB reversed the numbers game in the spread offense and with a passing option still available defenses had to respect everyone on the field.
When teams like WVU were pioneering spread-to-run styles with veer and read option and nobody else was doing it, they were killing teams. Instead of reading some ultra-athletic DE (who could recover), teams started reading interior linemen and blocking the DE, and got the advantage.
When teams like Oregon combined a lot of those concepts with their HUNH and didn't give DC's time to substitute or adjust, they put teams on their heels and crushed it.
When we saw all of that integrated into RPOs reads of the linebackers or safeties to ensure numbers, they got a leg up on the defense and had an advantage.
But as with anything, each of those advantages was time-limited.
So yeah, I think if someone entered the 1970's NFL with a modern offense, they'd start crushing teams left and right--for a while. Eventually two things would happen:
- The NFL, being a copycat league, would start doing the same things. You can't stop film study...
- The defenses would learn their keys, adjust their strategies and personnel, and work to neutralize it.
It would take a few years. But they'd catch up, because they'd have to.