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Yup, this isn't the same NFL as in the 70s and 80s. If you watch it week after week, you'll see that the skill level of players is head and shoulders above that of the 70s.
Players at every position are bigger, stronger, faster and more athletic. Used to be, you could take any dumb piece of meat and make him an offensive tackle if he was slow, or a defensive one if he had a little bit of quickness. All an offensive tackle used to have to do was block straight ahead. Today's more complex blocking schemes require quickness and agility out of offensive tackles and centers (BTW, you think that Mike Webster at 230 lbs could play center in today's game?). You get a guy coming out of college like Gallery, 325 lbs and he has 4.8 speed in the 40.
The reason for the perceived "mediocrity" is basically the cap. You can't have a 70s Steelers dynasty any more. The cap was instituted to improve the League's "competitive balance", which is a nice way of saying "soread the talent around and keep fans in as many cities as possible interested".
Another reason the game seems worse today is that every team is over-coached. It's not that complex a game, but these guys on the sideline treat every play like a NASA launch. You're right about there being fewer good QBs, but part of the reason for this is that in today's NFL, a QB is an overpaid puppet. Who was the last QB who called his own plays in the huddle? Montana, maybe?
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