Short Summary: Lists all-time NFL passers through 1994 by the NFL passing efficiency rating. Associated passing statistics from which this rating is computed are included. More Details: The NFL describes how to compute its rating in its 1977 document "National Football League Passer Rating System" (410 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022-4444, (212) 758-1500) through the use of tables. No formula is explicitly stated for rating. But, examining the tables in the "National Football League Passer Rating System" one can infer that NFL passer rating is [5(Completion Percentage-30)/6] + [10(Touchdown Percentage)/3] + [25(19-2(Interception Percentage))/12] + [25(Yards/Attempts-3)/6] where it is understood that the values within each set of square brackets are truncated to be no smaller than zero and no larger than 475/12. This implies a minimal rating of 0 and a maximal rating of 475/3 or about 158.3. If 30% < Completion Percentage < 77.5% 0% < Touchdown Percentage < 11.875% 0% < Interception Percentage < 9.5% 3 < Yards per Attempt < 12.5, which is true of most passers having a reasonable number of passing attempts, then the rating formula simplifies to [25 + 10(Completion Percentage) + 40(Touchdown Percentage) - 50(Interception Percentage) + 50(Yards/Attempt)]/12 (see Johnson (1993, 1994). Note that the weights on interception percentage and yards per attempt are greatest in magnitude, closely followed by touchdown percentage. The weight on completion percentage is a distant fourth in magnitude. The dataset lists statistics for 26 players. The first 25 are the top 25 all-time career best rating leaders recognized by the NFL. The 26th player, Otto Graham, has statistics which include his performance in the All-America Football Conference (1946-1949) which is not recognized by the NFL. The statistics given are current through the 1994 regular season. Only passers with a minimum of 1,500 career passing attempts are included. Submitted by (and contact for questions): Roger W. Johnson Math/CS Department Carleton College Northfield, MN 55057-4001 rjohnson@carleton.edu Distribution of the Dataset: The data from Meserole (1995) listed below may be freely distributed and used for nonprofit educational purposes such as teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, and research under fair use according to the copyright law encoded at 17 U.S.C. Section 107 et seq. (1982). Variables (from left to right) in Dataset: Passing Attempts Passing Completions Passing Yards Touchdowns by Passing Interceptions NFL Rating (usually to the nearest tenth, sometimes to the nearest hundredth to eliminate ties that would result when only given to the nearest tenth) Name of NFL Player References: Barra, A. and Neyer, R. (1995), "When rating quarterbacks, yards per throw matters", _The Wall Street Journal_, Friday, November 24, B5. Johnson, R. (1994), "Rating quarterbacks: An amplification", _The College Mathematics Journal_, vol. 25, no. 4, p. 340. Johnson, R. (1993), "How does the NFL rate the passing ability of quarterbacks?", _The College Mathematics Journal_, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 451-453. Meserole, M., editor, (1995), "The 1996 Information Please Sports Almanac", p. 265. *** BEGIN DATA *** 2429 1546 19869 140 68 96.8 Steve Young 5391 3409 40551 273 139 92.3 Joe Montana 6049 3604 45173 328 185 88.2 Dan Marino 3942 2397 29527 201 143 85.8 Jim Kelly 2958 1685 22700 153 109 83.4 Roger Staubach 4390 2562 32114 231 166 83.0 Dave Krieg 3153 1817 22771 136 90 82.7 Neil Lomax 4262 2433 32224 255 189 82.63 Sonny Jurgensen 3741 2136 28711 239 183 82.56 Len Dawson 1580 983 10412 70 53 82.2 Brett Favre 4475 2654 32838 197 160 81.9 Ken Anderson 3225 1896 22394 120 82 81.82 Bernie Kosar 1505 864 10985 54 38 81.78 Jeff Hostetler 2950 1761 21959 155 132 81.7 Danny White 4291 2440 31874 207 153 81.64 Boomer Esiason 2281 1424 16303 82 78 81.62 Troy Aikman 3149 1808 24718 152 138 80.5 Bart Starr 3602 2110 25094 128 98 80.44 Ken O'Brien 6467 3686 47003 342 266 80.35 Fran Tarkenton 5147 3003 37949 214 185 80.3 Warren Moon 5604 3297 43040 254 242 80.2 Dan Fouts 1564 911 11142 61 51 79.7 Tony Eason 3241 1805 22272 147 100 79.4 Randall Cunningham 2335 1303 16622 105 78 79.3 Mark Rypien 3817 2193 27613 164 141 79.0 Jim Everett 2626 1464 23584 174 135 86.6 Otto Graham