Anyone care to explain QB rating?

[GrogansArmy]

I just don't understand it. Brady had a perfect QB rating today, yet he had incompletions. How does that make it perfect? He was also sacked, but I could see how sacks wouldn't count in QB rating. He had no interceptions, is that what makes it perfect? Hm but then there would be lots of perfect QB ratings every week.

 

[Thirdbasekid24]

Passer rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

quite the formula

 

[Ring 6]

I just don't understand it. Brady had a perfect QB rating today, yet he had incompletions. How does that make it perfect? He was also sacked, but I could see how sacks wouldn't count in QB rating. He had no interceptions, is that what makes it perfect? Hm but then there would be lots of perfect QB ratings every week.

Qb rating is made up of comp %, ypa, Int % and TD %.
Essentially, the 'perfect' rating is 158.3 and that represents meeting or exceeding the number in each of those categories that was the best achieved for a season in NFL history up to the date the formula was devised.
QB rating amounts to a scale to those maximums.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I just don't understand it. Brady had a perfect QB rating today, yet he had incompletions. How does that make it perfect? He was also sacked, but I could see how sacks wouldn't count in QB rating. He had no interceptions, is that what makes it perfect? Hm but then there would be lots of perfect QB ratings every week.

(A) Remember the technical name is passer rating, not "QB rating." It only counts pass attempts.

(B) The NFL version of the formula is designed in such a way that "perfection" corresponds to four criteria:
* >77.5% completion rate (Brady had 21/27, or 77.777%)
* >12.5 yards/attempt (Brady had 12.63)
* >0.11875 TDs/attempt (Brady had 0.148)
* 0 INTs

 

[GrogansArmy]

Passer rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

quite the formula

Thanks for the link. I have a headache now.

"This makes the maximum possible quarterback rating for the NFL 158.3. A perfect rating requires at least a 77.5% completion rate, at least 12.5 yards per attempt, a touchdown on at least 11.875% of attempts, and no interceptions."

This seems convoluted and unnecessarily complicated. According to the above, wouldn't that mean that if a back up came in, threw one pass for a TD (for over 12.5 yards) and left the game, he'd have a perfect passer rating? Doesn't really make sense, least to me.

 

[Ring 6]

Thanks for the link. I have a headache now.

"This makes the maximum possible quarterback rating for the NFL 158.3. A perfect rating requires at least a 77.5% completion rate, at least 12.5 yards per attempt, a touchdown on at least 11.875% of attempts, and no interceptions."

This seems convoluted and unnecessarily complicated. According to the above, wouldn't that mean that if a back up came in, threw one pass for a TD (for over 12.5 yards) and left the game, he'd have a perfect passer rating? Doesn't really make sense, least to me.

Yes it does,.
It scales every QB perfomrance PER ATTEMPT vs the best single season reocrd (separately) in each category.
It is BY FAR the most flwaed stat in any sport that is given validity.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Thanks for the link. I have a headache now.

"This makes the maximum possible quarterback rating for the NFL 158.3. A perfect rating requires at least a 77.5% completion rate, at least 12.5 yards per attempt, a touchdown on at least 11.875% of attempts, and no interceptions."

This seems convoluted and unnecessarily complicated. According to the above, wouldn't that mean that if a back up came in, threw one pass for a TD (for over 12.5 yards) and left the game, he'd have a perfect passer rating? Doesn't really make sense, least to me.

Yes, but the NFL doesn't recognize it as a perfect performance unless a player throws (IIRC) 10+ passes.

 

[neuronet]

Glad to see this thread. It got me thinking, what if we had a subforum or permanent thread for people to ask "stupid" football questions. For instance, the difference between a 3-4 and 4-3 defense? A lot of people on this board are crazy knowledgable about football, basically a PhD, whereas I am in nursery school.

 

[RayClay]

Glad to see this thread. It got me thinking, what if we had a subforum or permanent thread for people to ask "stupid" football questions. For instance, the difference between a 3-4 and 4-3 defense? A lot of people on this board are crazy knowledgable about football, basically a PhD, whereas I am in nursery school.

People that want to ask serious football questions, no matter how basic, should be honored here. It's the trollish exclamation point crowd harping about the same stuff that gets annoying.

There are plenty of fans here who aren't X and O guys that still enjoy learning from those who are more expert.

I think your idea for a subforum is good, but consider how many hysterical threads you could bump down one, by starting a thread asking a simple question, as you propose.

Realizing I'll never know half what many here have forgotten, I tend to read a lot more than I post, especially about technical issues. Certain posters explain things very well, others I find hard to decipher.

I say, have a question, start a thread. I was going to name the posters I think explain things best, but it could be different for you, so just go for it.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Passer rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

quite the formula

I'll admit that I'm tired, that it's been a long day taking care of guests and that I had a bit of wine at Thanksgiving Dinner, but, with all respect to the Wikipediasts, in Step "a" of the formula you multiply by .05, not by 5, in step "c" you multiply by .20 not by 20 and in step "d" you multiply by .25 not by 25. I just tried Brady's numbers today using those calculations and, sure enough, I get the "perfect" 158.33.

 

[ewg_gestalt]

I'll admit that I'm tired, that it's been a long day taking care of guests and that I had a bit of wine at Thanksgiving Dinner, but, with all respect to the Wikipediasts, in Step "a" of the formula you multiply by .05, not by 5, in step "c" you multiply by .20 not by 20 and in step "d" you multiply by .25 not by 25. I just tried Brady's numbers today using those calculations and, sure enough, I get the "perfect" 158.33.

The formula in Wikipedia is fine; if you notice at the end, everything gets multiplied by 100, so it's all good.

 

[DarrylS]

People that want to ask serious football questions, no matter how basic, should be honored here. It's the trollish exclamation point crowd harping about the same stuff that gets annoying.

There are plenty of fans here who aren't X and O guys that still enjoy learning from those who are more expert.

I think your idea for a subforum is good, but consider how many hysterical threads you could bump down one, by starting a thread asking a simple question, as you propose.

Realizing I'll never know half what many here have forgotten, I tend to read a lot more than I post, especially about technical issues. Certain posters explain things very well, others I find hard to decipher.

I say, have a question, start a thread. I was going to name the posters I think explain things best, but it could be different for you, so just go for it.

I have probably learned more about football on this board, than I have from anywhere else.. there are some very knowledgeable posters who I always read and seek out their threads, others less so.

Have always thought that if someone asks a good question they are respected and given good answers.. and even if you are not, who cares it is an anonymous message board.

 

[RodThePat]

Yes it does,.
It scales every QB perfomrance PER ATTEMPT vs the best single season reocrd (separately) in each category.
It is BY FAR the most flwaed stat in any sport that is given validity.

It's flawed, but very useful. While using it to evaluate a single game performance won't necessarily give you the exact measure of how the QB played in that game, it is a really nice indicator of a quarterback's career. It measures completion percentage, yards per attempt, TD percentage and int percentage. All of those are extremely important for a QB's success.

 

[Patjew]

I have probably learned more about football on this board, than I have from anywhere else.. there are some very knowledgeable posters who I always read and seek out their threads, others less so.

Have always thought that if someone asks a good question they are respected and given good answers.. and even if you are not, who cares it is an anonymous message board.

Completely agree. I've learned a ton here and now I know how much I don't understand. I'd really like to get to the point where I can technically analyze games and plays as they're happening, like I can with basketball.

 

[cupofjoe1962]

I think the QB rating is a flawed stat.

Look at Brady 2007 vs Manning 2004

Completion percentage
Brady - 68.9%
Manning 67.6%

Passing Yards
Brady - 4,806
Manning - 4,557

Passing Touchdowns
Brady - 50
Manning - 49

Interceptions (lower is better).
Brady - 8
Manning - 10

QB Rat
Brady - 117.2
Manning - 121.1

How did Manning have a better QB rating, when Brady won every
important stat?

Because ..... Manning won the Y/A

Y/A (Yards per attempt).
Manning - 9.2
Brady - 8.3

Wouldn't the Y/A have a little something to do with the receivers YAC?

I believe having more touchdowns and fewer interceptions and
more yards passing is more inportant than Y/A.

 

[ewg_gestalt]

I think the QB rating is a flawed stat.

Look at Brady 2007 vs Manning 2004

... (snipped) ...

QB Rat
Brady - 117.2
Manning - 121.1

How did Manning have a better QB rating, when Brady won every
important stat?

Because ..... Manning won the Y/A

Y/A (Yards per attempt).
Manning - 9.2
Brady - 8.3

Wouldn't the Y/A have a little something to do with the receivers YAC?

I believe having more touchdowns and fewer interceptions and
more yards passing is more inportant than Y/A.

Yes, yards after carry can skew the numbers. However, I think the issue is trying to use a statistic that doesn't have fine-grained significance to make a broad statement.

For instance, while Brady's numbers for 2007 are marginally better than Manning's in 2004, they're not that much better. Consequently, the QB ratings should be close. However, since they're based on total yards, as well as number of attempts, they indicate that Manning was slightly more efficient (hence "passer efficiency rating") at getting his team down the field than Brady was in 2007. However, again, the difference is slight—about 3.5%.

I would further argue that QB rating isn't a good metric on that scale. If the difference were 10-20 points, we'd be arguing that everything is bunk. But for such a small difference between similar sets of statistics, that is probably a better indicator that they both had outstanding seasons, and that how you look at it depends on what statistic you view as more important—TDs, total yards, or yards per attempt.

 

[Uncle Rico]

There are some pretty good calculators online, so you can get a QB's passer rating in a hurry if you want. Here's one:

QB Rating Calculator

I like that it "shows the math." And you can see how different stats might affect the rating - -"wonder what it would be if he threw one INT."

 

[neuronet]

People that want to ask serious football questions, no matter how basic, should be honored here. It's the trollish exclamation point crowd harping about the same stuff that gets annoying.

There are plenty of fans here who aren't X and O guys that still enjoy learning from those who are more expert.

I think your idea for a subforum is good, but consider how many hysterical threads you could bump down one, by starting a thread asking a simple question, as you propose.

Realizing I'll never know half what many here have forgotten, I tend to read a lot more than I post, especially about technical issues. Certain posters explain things very well, others I find hard to decipher.

I say, have a question, start a thread. I was going to name the posters I think explain things best, but it could be different for you, so just go for it.

Ok, I'll do it! Thanks for the reply.