Mathessaysportsstats

Gage Wachter
MATH 1030
November 16th, 2015
Passer Rating In The NFL

In the world of sports, athletes and their contributions to their teams, both in
specific games, and in the entirety of a season, are gauged by statistics. There are
many different statistics in sports that use averages, percentages, and formulas to help
interpret who is performing the best at any given time, most often across an entire
season, as awards are given to those that have the most impressive statistics. For
example, a player in the National Basketball Association who has recorded the most
blocks per game, and steals per game, both defensive oriented stats, has a better
chance of winning the Defensive Player of the Year award over his colleagues.
Because there are so many though, well only be focusing on just one of these
statistics for now. The one I would like to talk about is a statistic that judges how well a
quarterback in professional american football throws and completes his passes. This is
called passer rating, and it uses a fairly complicated formula that takes into account
several other statistics before compiling them all to get the end result.
The first thing we need to concern ourselves about when it comes to passer
rating are those variables that are used in the formula. The first variable, which we will
call a is amount of passes completed divided by the amount of passes attempted
(note that a minimum of at least 20 passes is needed to be officially counted)
subtracted by .3 and then multiplied by 5. Written out, it should look something like this:
That is just the first variable of several, but luckily they arent too complicated on
their own. All you need is access and knowledge of much simpler statistics that can be
plugged into their corresponding spot in the formula. For variable b well be taking the
total amount of passing yards achieved divided by total pass attempts, then we subtract
by 3 and multiply the result by .25, as seen below.
Comparing these first two variables, you can see that they do follow a similar
structure with division followed by subtraction, and then multiplication. The next two
variables are a little different however, but are in no way more complicated than the
previous two.
With variable c we take touchdown passes achieved (although a quarterback
can achieve a rushing touchdown, it doesnt count towards passer rating due to the fact
that it did not involve passing) and divide that by the amount of passing attempts, this is
not followed by any subtraction though, and we instead simply multiply the results by
20.
Now we have arrived at the final variable before we are able to use the formula
to determine passer rating. For d we subtract from the number 2.375 the total amount
of interceptions divided by pass attempts and multiplied by 25.
Once all these variables have been accounted for, we can use the passer rating
formula to get our final answer, which should be number rounded to the nearest
hundredth. The passer rating formula is the sum of variables a, b, c, and d
divided by 6 and then multiplied by 100.
The final result should be a number ranging from 0.0 (lowest or worse) to 158.3
(highest or best.) and 66.7 is considered average. 158.3 or perfect passer rating is a
cap off of the formula, and a result of the league at the time when this stat was first
created in 1973, believing this it was extremely rare to see, and too difficult to pull off. A
perfect passer rating is hard to achieve, but not an impossible feat. Several dozen
quarterbacks have recorded a perfect passer rating in a single game, and a few have
done it several times. To achieve a perfect passer rating of 158.3, a quarterback must
have a pass completion percentage (passes completed divided by total amount of
passes attempted multiplied by 100%) of at least 77.5%, over 12.5 passing yards per
attempt (total amount of yards divided by total amount of passes attempted) a
touchdown rate of at least 11.875% (total passing touchdowns divided by total pass
attempts multiplied by 100%) and no interceptions at all.
These perfect passer ratings are becoming more frequent however, as passer
rating in the NFL has become inflated. Where 66.7 was considered average, the
average between all quarterbacks in the year 2008 was 82.3, considerably farther up
than the perceived average. It is interesting to note that 82.3 is closer to half of 158.3
than the perceived average of 66.7. Why would the numbers be inflated exactly? This
is the result of the league changing, where more physical play involving running the
ball was more heavily valued in the days of old, it is quite the opposite nowadays,
where passing and finesse are what the gameplan is centered around. As a result,
running backs have become somewhat devalued, where quarterbacks have become
the focus and driving point of the offense.
Passer rating is compiled game to game, and eventually season to season to
determine total career passer rating. The quarterback with the highest passer rating
with a minimum of 1500 passes attempted to this day (December 8th, 2015) is Aaron
Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers with a career passer rating of 105.1, the worst
career passer rating belongs to Frank Tripucka, who played for several teams back in
the 1950s and 1960s with a passer rating of 52.2.

Passer rating is a great way to determine which quarterbacks are truly skilled
and capable, but it is in no way perfect. There are several alternative stats to passer
rating, the most prominent being quarterback rating or QBR that take into account
even more variables that include whether or not the quarterback was under pressure
when he threw the ball, and the velocity at which he threw it. While QBR claims to be
more accurate, we do not have access to the entire formula that is being held by ESPN,
so we cannot compare the two as of this time.
For now however, we have passer rating, which has done more than enough for
sports analysts and enthusiasts alike to learn more about the game they love and their
favorite players that participate in it.
Citations
"NFL Quarterback Rating Formula." Nfl.com. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
"NFL Career Passer Rating Leaders | Pro-Football-Reference.com." Pro-FootballReference.com. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

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Gage Wachter

Passer Rating In The NFL

the 1950s and 1960s with a passer rating of 52.2.

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