ESPN creates the Total Quarterback Rating
A. Isaac 
On Friday, ESPN will unveil the Total Quarterback Rating in an hour long special. The new statistic, developed by ESPN Stats & Information Group, will revolutionize how we view quarterbacks in the NFL today. The group also got input from current NFL analysts and former players and coaches in Ron Jaworski, Jon Gruden, and Trent Dilfer among others.
Here’s what Senior Director Jeff Bennett of the Production Analytics Unit of ESPN had to say.
“The Total Quarterback Rating is designed to be a single comprehensive stat that demonstrates effective quarterback play, and we’re excited to introduce it to fans on ESPN this season,” said Bennett. “The position is played so differently now than when the NFL Passer Rating was adopted in 1973. We created QBR to account for all the important categories as well as the game situations in which plays are made to help tell the entire story about a quarterback’s performance. If you want one stat that measures the totality of a quarterback’s performance, it’s QBR.”
And here’s a brief look into what factors into the rating.
Total QBR is based on all of a quarterback’s plays (rushing, passing, sacks, fumbles, interceptions, penalties, etc.), and it calculates the per-play net impact of the quarterback on the ability to score. Each play is weighted by the situation (i.e., down and distance, field position, time during the game) and its importance to the game’s outcome. For example, a completed five-yard pass on 3rd-and-3 would increase a quarterback’s QBR more than a five-yard completion on 3rd-and-15 because the former continues the drive and thus improves the team’s chance of scoring. Also, plays in closely contested games carry a greater value than plays in less competitive situations.
Division of credit is another important Total QBR principle because it assigns a percentage to how much credit a quarterback should get for a positive play – or blame for a negative play.
I’ve yet to see the exact calcuations but I can tell you with the utmost certainty that any rating that puts the 2010 version of Brett Favre in the “poor” category is probably spot on.
ESPN Introduces The Total Quarterback Rating [ESPN]
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