Four numbers about a quarterback — how often he completes a pass, how far it goes, how often it scores and how often it is intercepted — averaged into one. Put a line into the calculator and watch each component run into the 2.375 cap that gives the statistic its strange ceiling of 158.3.
Enter a line, or start from one of the three examples. The table below shows each component before and after its cap.
| Component | Per attempt | Formula wanted | Counted | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Completion rate | 67.5% | 1.873 | 1.873 | reaches 2.375 at 77.5% of attempts completed |
| Yards per attempt | 6.76 yds | 0.940 | 0.940 | reaches 2.375 at 12.5 yards an attempt |
| Touchdown rate | 4.5% | 0.895 | 0.895 | reaches 2.375 at a touchdown on 11.875% of attempts |
| Interception rate | 1.9% | 1.902 | 1.902 | reaches 2.375 at no interceptions |
| Total | 5.610 | ÷ 6 × 100 = 93.5 | ||
The ceiling is not a chosen number. It is what the caps produce.
Each of the four components is clamped to a maximum of 2.375. Four components at 2.375 add to 9.50; divide by six and multiply by a hundred and you get 158.3. Everything odd about passer rating follows from that clamp — and because each component caps at a particular rate, the formula also tells you exactly what a perfect line requires:
Clear all four and the rating is 158.3 whether the line is 40 attempts or one. That is the statistic’s real weakness rather than a trivia point: a quarterback who completes one pass for a 20-yard touchdown and throws nothing else has a mathematically perfect day. (Make it a five-yard touchdown instead and the same 1-for-1 line is 127.1, because yards per attempt no longer reaches its cap.) That is why the NFL requires a minimum number of attempts before anyone can hold the passer rating title — and why this page ranks nobody. We store a rate for every quarterback but not the attempts behind it, so any leaderboard we built would be qualified on games instead, and through week 6 of 2026 that puts a two-game backup top of the league.
The same answers are in this page’s structured data.
158.3. It is not a number anyone chose — passer rating is four component scores, each capped at 2.375, so the maximum is (2.375 × 4 ÷ 6) × 100 = 158.3. A quarterback reaches it by completing at least 77.5% of his passes, averaging at least 12.5 yards an attempt, throwing a touchdown on at least 11.875% of attempts, and throwing no interceptions.
Four components, each clamped between 0 and 2.375: (completions ÷ attempts − 0.3) × 5, (yards ÷ attempts − 3) × 0.25, (touchdowns ÷ attempts) × 20, and 2.375 − (interceptions ÷ attempts × 25). Add the four, divide by 6, multiply by 100.
Among the quarterbacks on this site, the median full season since 2015 is 93 and the bottom quarter sits below 87, so the mid-80s is below par and the low 90s is ordinary for a starter. A season of 105 or better is roughly the top eighth — two or three of them a year — rather than an automatic award case. The scale has drifted upward: the median full season by a quarterback in our catalogue was 84 in the 1980s against 93 in the 2020s, and since that catalogue is weighted towards the quarterbacks worth covering, the real league-wide drift is larger. A 95 in the 1980s was a far better season than a 95 today.
Each of the four components stops rising at 2.375. That is why a sixth touchdown on forty attempts adds nothing to the rating, and why a quarterback who goes 1-for-1 for 20 yards and a touchdown has a perfect 158.3 — the caps make small samples meaningless, which is why the NFL requires a minimum number of attempts before anyone can hold the passer rating title.
0.0. All four components have a floor as well as a ceiling, so a bad enough line simply bottoms out rather than going negative.
lib/passerRating.js — the same module our season backfill calls, so every rating this site works out for itself comes from the function behind this calculator. Ratings imported from ESPN with a player’s older seasons are ESPN’s own figures rather than ours. This module reproduces ESPN’s published 93.5 for Patrick Mahomes’s 2024 season exactly, which is the check that it is the real formula rather than a plausible-looking one. Passer rating measures passing only: it knows nothing about sacks, rushing, fumbles, drops or who the receivers were. For the definition alongside every other term we use, see the stats glossary. Related: snap share, defense rankings and NFL stat leaders.