Blogging The Boys
[Ed. note: Last week we ran two posts here ranking active NFL QBs by their number of good games and bad games. As a key metric we used ESPN’s proprietary Total QBR, which prompted some comments about how the classic passer rating might be a more appropriate and transparent metric to use, also because it explicitly omits a QB’s running game. This post addresses that.]
Dak Prescott’s Wikipedia page contains an entire subsection dedicated to the NFL records he set in his rookie season. Those records include the rookie record for wins (13), the rookie passer rating record (104.3), the rookie completion percentage record (67.8%), and many others – and that’s not even counting the many Cowboys franchise records he broke.
But the one record that stood out to me is the first one listed:
Prescott finished his 2016 rookie regular season with a record 11 games with an over 100 NFL passer rating, breaking the rookie record of 9 games set by Russell Wilson in 2012.
11 games with a 100+ NFL passer rating is a feat that had previously only been surpassed five times in NFL history:
1994: Steve Young (12 games)
2010: Tom Brady (12)
2011: Aaron Rodgers (13)
2011: Tom Brady (12)
2016: Matt Ryan (12)
When the NFL passer rating (not to be confused with ESPN’s QBR) was initially developed in 1973, the objective was to create a single number that would differentiate between outstanding, excellent, average, and poor performances. Below are the metrics that the developers of the formula felt best denoted those performances, and which they combined into the passer rating we know today.
body .sbnu-legacy-content-table td, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table th, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table { border: 1px solid #000 !important; border-collapse: collapse !important; } body .sbnu-legacy-content-table td, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table th { padding: 4px 6px !important; } Completion
PercentageYards per
AttemptTouchdown
PercentageInterception
PercentagePasser
Rating****Outstanding70%11.010%1.5%133.3Excellent60%9.07.5%3.5%100.0Average50%7.05%5.5%66.7Poor30%3.00%9.5%0.0In 1973, a passer rating of 66.7 was considered average, which was slightly above the league average passer rating of 61.7 at the time. 53 years later, the NFL average has improved by a staggering 30 points. In 2025, the NFL average passer rating was 91.4, and a 66.7 passer rating today would be considered a “poor” game by a QB. In 1973, a rating of exactly 100.0 was considered an “excellent” game, and while in today’s pass-happy NFL a passer rating of 100.0 may not be considered “excellent” anymore, it is still a pretty good performance any way you look at it.
Last year, for example, NFL QBs combined for 199 games with a passer rating over 100 in 544 opportunities. Pro-Football-Reference.com shows that there are 77 active QBs in the NFL today who have thrown for a 100+ passer rating at least once in their career. The combined W/L record of those QBs in games with a 100+ rating is 1,377-411-6 for an impressive .768 winning percentage.
Simply put, the higher your passer rating, the more you’re putting your team in a position to succeed. If we slot last year’s...
