Passer rating

Passer rating is a measure of the performance of quarterbacks or any other passers in American football. There are at least two formulae currently in use: one officially used by the National Football League and the Canadian Football League, and one used in college football. Travis Hill of Escalon High School is considered to have the highest passer rating in America. He is the most valuable Quaterback of the TVL and he has many college football teams scouting him as a junior.

The Passer Rating is calculated using each quarterback's completion percentage, passing yardage, touchdowns and interceptions . The NFL's current "passer rating" or "quarterback rating" system (the former term being the official one) was conceived by Pro Football Hall of Fame's Don Smith in 1973; it was then applied retroactively to all previous seasons. The system is of a sliding-scale design, where outstanding performances meet diminishing returns faster than sub-par ones. The best passer rating that a quarterback can obtain under it is 158.3 (technically 158.333→), while the worst is zero. Conceptually, the average rating would be 79.2 (technically 79.166→), since this is equidistant between zero and 158.3, but the architects of the rating had 66.66→ in mind as the "average" score (100 * [1.00*4]/6). The cumulative league-wide average passer rating for the years 2000 through 2003, all inclusive, was 78.9 (the figure is typically rounded to the nearest 1/10 of a point); however in 2004 the league average was 82.8, the highest ever recorded. This may be due, at least in part, to stricter rules regarding pass interference.

The passer rating (known formally in college football as passing efficiency or pass efficiency) is based on player performances between 1965 and 1979.

Calculation

NFL and CFL

The passer rating is determined by four statistical components, each of which is computed as a number between zero and 2.375. The benchmarks for these statistics are based on historical averages. If any of the components are less than zero, they are reckoned as zero; if any are over 2.375, they are reckoned as 2.375.

The component for completion percentage, C, is calculated as: ${{COMP \over ATT}\times 100-30 \over 20}$

The component for yards per attempt, Y, is calculated as: $\left({YDS \over ATT}-3\right)\times {1 \over 4}$

The component for touchdowns per attempt, T, is calculated as: ${TD \over ATT}\times 20$

The component for interceptions per attempt, I, is calculated as: $2.375-\left({INT \over ATT}\times 25\right)$

The four components are then added, divided by 6, and multiplied by 100. Thus, the formula for passer rating can be given as:

${(C+Y+T+I) \over 6}\times 100$ .

The CFL appears to use the same formula as the NFL.

Perfect rating

Since each component of the passer rating can be at most 2.375, the maximum passer rating is

${4\times 2.375 \over 6}\times 100=158.3$ .

A perfect passer rating therefore comprises:

a completion percentage of at least 77.5%: $2.375\times 20+30=77.5$

at least 12.5 yards per attempt: $2.375\times 4+3=12.5$

at least .11875 touchdowns per attempt, or at most 8.42 attempts per touchdown: ${2.375 \over 20}=.11875$ and

zero interceptions: ${ATT\times (2.375-2.375) \over 25}=0$

Simplified Formula

A simplified way to calculate rating is: (83.33 * Comp %) + (4.16667 * Yds per att) + (333.333 * TD pct) - (416.667 * INT pct) + 25/12.

NOTE: the simplified formula works only if the completion percentage is in the normal range (0.3 to 0.775), as well as yds per att (3.0 to 12.5), TD pct (0.0 to 0.11875), and INT pct (0.0 to 0.095). Most of the time, numbers are within these ranges.

Criticisms

The Passer Rating System has many critics, who have objected to it on several different grounds.

The most frequently-voiced objection is that plays on which the quarterback is sacked do not count toward compiling the rating, thereby giving a quarterback, who is about to be sacked, an incentive to deliberately take the sack rather than throw the ball away and have an incomplete pass lower his completion percentage, touchdown passes-per-attempt ratio and his yards-per-attempt ratio. However, many defenders have pointed out that no professional quarterback would intentionally take a sack to the detriment of his team in order to preserve a passer rating.

Another criticism is the fact that rushing yards gained by a quarterback do not result in his getting a higher rating — a particularly important contemporary issue due to the recent emergence of many excellent running quarterbacks in the NFL, most notably Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Donovan McNabb, John Elway, Michael Vick, and Vince Young, and players like Damon Allen and Kerry Joseph in the CFL. On the other hand, Vick holds the NCAA freshman record for passing efficiency and Steve Young is the former NFL record holder for passer rating in a season. However, "It is important to remember that the system is used to rate passers, not quarterbacks. Statistics do not reflect leadership, play-calling, and other intangible factors that go into making a successful professional quarterback." [1]

Some observers have proposed replacing yards per attempt with yards per play as one of the rating's components, counting both sacks and rushing attempts (in addition to passes actually thrown) as plays, thereby resolving both of the above issues.

A third complaint concerns the placing of artificial limits (both upper and lower) on the points that can be earned in the various categories. Critics claim, for example, that it is unfair not to give a quarterback a higher rating for completing 90% of his passes than for completing 77.5%, or for averaging, say, 15 yards per attempt as opposed to only 12.5, although this is likely to affect only the rating for a single game and not for an entire season. As well as encountering problems when approaching the arbitrary limits for performance, the system is biased inasmuch as some of the "benchmarks" are more achievable than others: A 2.00-worthy performance in Completion % is far easier to obtain than a 2.00 in the Touchdown % category. In fact, until recent years, the league norms in each non-Completion % category were below the formula's expected "average" figures.

Yet another criticism is that the formula overemphasizes Completion Percentage. While Completion % in and of itself makes up 25% of the rating's calculation, the use of Yards per Attempt rather than Yards per Completion adds to the weight of Completion %, since incomplete passes are penalized under yds/attempt. Thus, many critics feel that the Passer Rating formula automatically is skewed in favor of quarterbacks who play in a West Coast scheme that favors many high-percentage (but low-yardage) pass plays, e.g. Steve Young, who held the single-season record until 2004.

The simplest complaint may be that the weighting of each category is, on the whole, arbitrary. There is no evidence to suggest that Completion %, Yards/Attempt, Touchdown %, and Interception % are of equal value (25% each) in terms of an offense's efficiency (or if those stats, in that combination, have any correlation to scoring, or winning, at all). The system also does not account for changing offensive conditions in the NFL over time; for example, when the formula was devised, a score of 66.6 was supposed to represent an average quarterback. And in 1970, the average passer scored a 65.6, a figure almost perfectly in line with the rating-creators' vision. But in 1980, the average was 73.7; in 1992, the average quarterback had a rating of 75.3; and in 2004, a record-setting year for passers, the league's mean passer rating was 82.8. Thus, scores must be interpreted with care when doing cross-era analysis.

Leaders

Steve Young currently holds the NFL record for the highest career passer rating with a mark of 96.8. The highest passer rating for a complete season is 121.1 set by Peyton Manning in 2004. Also in 2004, rookie Ben Roethlisberger posted a mark of 98.1, setting a new record for first-year passers.

In CFL football Dave Dickenson of the BC Lions has produced some of the highest professional passing efficiency numbers. Although limited by injuries in 2005, he set two regular season records with a 74 percent completion percentage and an efficiency rating of 118.8. His numbers for the year were: 253/342, 3338 yards, 74% completion rate, 21 TDs, 5 INTs. He opened the 2006 CFL season by setting a CFL single-game passing efficiency rating record of 150.61. He capped 3 of the 4 criteria for passing efficiency and was 28/34, 362 yards, 5 TDs, 0 INTs.

NCAA Passer Rating Formula

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) rating system is simple in that there is no upper limit, whereas the maximum NFL rating is a 158.3. The college formula is as follows: (100 * Completion %) + (8.4 * Yds per att) + (330 * Td %) - (200 * Int %).

In NCAA Division I-A, the career record for passing efficiency is held by Ryan Dinwiddie of Boise State, who had a career mark of 168.9 between 2000 and 2003. The single-season record belongs to Colt Brennan of Hawaii, who amassed a passer rating of 186.0 over the 2006 season, while the freshman record belongs to Michael Vick of Virginia Tech, whose rating during the 1999 season was 180.4.[2]. Current NCAA Division I-A passing efficiency ratings can be found here.

External links and references

NFL.com QB Rating Page
Online passer rating calculator for NFL/CFL, NCAA and AFL formulas
QB Rating Story/ GQ Magazine Article Explaining how it works and why
All-Time Top NFL Passer Ratings List
New York Times - The N.F.L.'s Passer Rating, Arcane and Misunderstood - January 14, 2004