Windy City Gridiron
An introduction to the Quarterback grading system I will be using for the 2025 season.
I’ve been obsessed with the X’s and O’s of football for as long as I can remember. I started playing organized football at the Pop Warner level (and I use “organized” lightly, since most of it was just chasing whoever had the ball). Unfortunately, my team had the misfortune of using the Green Bay Packers’ colors, so some of my earliest football memories involve wearing that cursed combination of green and gold.
But I digress.
When I wasn’t on the field, I was in my room drawing up plays with plastic army men, pretending I was the next great Chicago Bears quarterback. That love for the game only grew stronger. By junior high, I was idolizing Denver Broncos wide receiver Ed McCaffrey during his All-Pro 1998 season.
I was convinced I was going to be an NFL wide receiver. I even wore number 87 throughout junior high and high school in Ed’s honor. I played WR for seven years, earning a spot on the JV squad as a sophomore. The NFL dream didn’t pan out (I like to blame knee injuries), but I came away with a deep understanding of the relationship between a quarterback and his receiver, and a strong grasp of the game overall.
All of this is a long way of saying one thing: the love never died. I’ve been a student of the game for a long time, and that passion has led me to reviewing game film, focusing on the quarterback position, and building my own system to score and evaluate performances.
Think PFF, but with more transparency.
Every play where the quarterback is the focal point, whether as a passer or primary runner, is reviewed and assigned a grade. This includes plays that are negated by penalties and two-point conversion attempts. The grading scale ranges from +1.00 to -1.75. Negative plays are treated fairly harshly and can be compounded. For example, a poor throw that results in a turnover would receive the lowest grade of -1.75.
How I determine those grades is a long explanation, especially since I use ten different designations when scoring.
The short version is that I combine my years of experience in football, both as a player and as a fan, to inform how I apply each grade.
The long version is available if you’re interested in a full breakdown of the process and how everything is evaluated. Just click here.
Am I an expert? No, definitely not. At the end of the day, I am just a fan of the sport who wants to share his passion with others. Still, some of the data I collected independently from the 2024 season happens to align quite well with PFF’s metrics from that same year.
For example:
