A Perfect NFL Passer Rating Is Not 100. It Is 158.3.
The NFL passer rating tops out at 158.3 because four stats each carry a cap. Beating the caps adds nothing.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame calls 158.3 the highest rating a passer can achieve. The scale does not stop at 100 because of how the formula adds up its four parts.
The four stats
The rating uses completion percentage, average yards per attempt, touchdown percentage and interception percentage. Each stat earns points, and the maximum in any category is 2.375. A passer reaches that maximum with 77.5 percent completions, 12.5 yards per attempt, about 11.9 percent touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Where 158.3 comes from
Four maxed categories add up to 9.5 points. The formula divides that total by 6 and multiplies by 100, which gives about 158.3. A passer who beats a cap gets no extra points for it.
Who built it
A committee of Don Smith of the Hall of Fame, Seymour Siwoff of Elias Sports Bureau and Don Weiss of the NFL built the system, and the league adopted it in 1973. Before that, the NFL changed how it picked passing leaders several times, using total yards in some years and completion percentage or inverse rankings in others.
Quick answers
- What is a perfect NFL passer rating?
- 158.3. The Hall of Fame calls it the highest rating a passer can achieve.
- Why is a perfect passer rating not 100?
- Four stats can each earn up to 2.375 points. The total of 9.5 is divided by 6 and multiplied by 100, which gives about 158.3.
- When did the NFL adopt the passer rating?
- 1973.
Sources
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