158.3 Is a Perfect Passer Rating
Published on December 27th, 2021 1:46 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
In the NFL, passer rating (or quarterback rating, or QB Rating, or Passing Efficiency) is used to measure the efficiency of a quarterback. The lowest possible passer rating is 0, while the highest possible rating is 158.3.
All negative passer ratings are rounded up to 0.
The current passer rating calculation has been in use by the NFL since 1973.
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In order to calculate passer rating for a game, we first need five pieces of information. They are:
Passing Attempts
Passing Completions
Passing Yards
Touchdown Passes
Interceptions
Now, in order to arrive with the four variables needed to calculate our final passer rating, we need to perform these four separate calculations:
1. a = (Completions/Attempts - .3) * 5
2. b = (Yards/Attempts - 3) * 0.25
3. c = (TDs / Attempts) * 20
4. d = 2.375 - (Interceptions/Attempts * 25)
Now we have four variables - a, b, c and d. If any of these variables come out to higher than 2.375, they are rounded down to 2.375, as that is the maximum allowable for any of these four variables.
We are left with one final equation to get the passer rating:
Passer Rating = ((a + b + c + d) / 6) * 100
This will leave us with a final passer rating number - remember, any negative number is rounded up to 0, and the maximum passer rating is 158.3.
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Let's run some real numbers to arrive at a real QBR.
On December 26th, 2021, the Cincinnati Bengals played the Baltimore Ravens, with the Bengals winning by a score of 41-21.
Joe Burrow had a very, very good performance on that day, going 37 for 46 with 525 passing yards, four passing touchdowns and zero interceptions.
We have the data, so let's get the four variables.
a = 2.375
b = 2.10326087
c = 1.73913043
d = 2.375
Now, we add up these numbers and divide by 6 to get 1.43206. Finally, we multiply by 100 to arrive at our final QB rating of 143.2.
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Any QBR above 100 is considered to be excellent.
There are four quarterbacks who have career QBRs of over 100 over a minimum required number of games. They are:
Patrick Mahomes
Deshaun Watson
Aaron Rodgers
Russell Wilson
