I’ve expanded my NFL coverage beyond team ratings to include two player-rating systems: Quarterback Efficiency Rating (QER) and Scrimmage Performance Rating (SPR). QER has also received an important update. It now balances passing efficiency with season-long production and treats rushing as a bonus rather than a requirement.

Both ratings use season-relative percentiles. A player’s score reflects how he performed against the other qualified players at his position during the same season. That puts statistics with different scales onto one common rating while accounting for changes in the way NFL offense is played over time.

Quarterback Efficiency Rating

The original QER focused on passing percentages and rates. That worked well for evaluating accuracy, efficiency, first downs, and ball security, but it could give too much credit to an efficient quarterback with a relatively small workload. A quarterback sustaining similar efficiency over a full season should receive credit for producing substantially more yards, touchdowns, and first downs.

A quarterback who creates first downs, yards, and touchdowns on the ground is also adding real offensive value. However, a quarterback should not lose points simply because he does not run. The updated formula therefore makes passing the complete base score and adds rushing value as a bonus worth up to five points.

The new formula is:

Pass Score = 75% Passing Efficiency + 25% Production
Rush Bonus = Rush Score × 5%
QER = min(100, Pass Score + Rush Bonus)

Passing Efficiency

The efficiency portion retains the five categories used in the original rating:

  • Success percentage (30%) measures how often pass plays are successful given the down and distance.
  • Yards per attempt (25%) rewards efficient passing production, including the ability to generate yards beyond short completions.
  • Interception avoidance (20%) rewards quarterbacks who protect possessions.
  • Passing first-down percentage (15%) measures how often attempts move the chains.
  • Completion percentage (10%) accounts for accuracy and consistency.

These percentages are the weights within Passing Efficiency.

Production

Production adds season-long passing volume to the Pass Score:

  • Passing yards (50% of Production) rewards total yardage produced over the season.
  • Passing touchdowns (30%) rewards total scoring production.
  • Passing first downs (20%) rewards the total number of drive-extending passes.

Passing Efficiency supplies 75% of the Pass Score, while Production supplies the remaining 25%. This preserves efficiency as the primary consideration while separating quarterbacks who post similar rates across very different workloads.

Rushing Score

Rush Score uses four measures of quarterback rushing value plus ball security:

  • Successful rushes per quarterback play (30%) estimates how frequently rushing attempts produce successful plays.
  • Rushing first downs per quarterback play (25%) rewards runs that extend drives.
  • Rushing yards per quarterback play (25%) measures ground production relative to the quarterback’s total workload.
  • Rushing touchdowns per quarterback play (10%) accounts for scoring on the ground.
  • Fumble avoidance per quarterback play (10%) rewards protecting the football across the quarterback’s total workload.

For this calculation, a quarterback play is a pass attempt, a sack, or a rushing attempt:

QB plays = pass attempts + sacks + rushing attempts

Using total quarterback plays as the denominator keeps a small number of carries from creating an exaggerated rating. The Rush Score is converted to a bonus worth 5% of its value, so it can add no more than five points to QER. It can never lower a quarterback’s Pass Score, and the final QER is capped at 100.

The value of this approach is especially clear in the 2013 Quarterback Efficiency Ratings. Peyton Manning’s historic 5,477-yard, 55-touchdown season ranks first with a 96.8 QER, while Josh McCown’s highly efficient eight-game performance ranks fifth at 78.1. Manning’s 7.8 Rush Score adds 0.4 points instead of dragging down his elite Pass Score; McCown still receives credit for his efficiency, but not as though his smaller body of work matched Manning’s full-season production.

Quarterbacks must meet the standard of 14 pass attempts per scheduled team game to qualify. That means 238 attempts in a 17-game season and 224 attempts in a 16-game season.

Scrimmage Performance Rating

The other addition is Scrimmage Performance Rating, or SPR, for running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. This rating is designed to balance total production with efficiency, scoring, drive value, and ball security.

SPR is calculated separately for each position. A running back is compared with other qualified running backs, a wide receiver with other wide receivers, and a tight end with other tight ends. That matters because the workload and statistical expectations are very different at each position.

The revised formula makes total and per-game production the foundation of the rating:

  • Yards from scrimmage (35%) rewards total rushing and receiving production.
  • Total touchdowns (15%) rewards total scoring production.
  • Total first downs (10%) rewards total drive-extending production.
  • Yards from scrimmage per game (15%) rewards accumulating production in fewer games.
  • Touchdowns per game (5%) rewards scoring production per appearance.
  • First downs per game (5%) rewards drive-extending production per appearance.
  • Yards per touch (10%) measures scrimmage efficiency.
  • Fumble avoidance (5%) rewards players who protect the football, using fumbles per 100 touches.

Total and per-game production are scaled from 0 to 100 relative to the qualified position leader. This preserves the size of production gaps: a player far ahead in yards receives substantially more credit than the player ranked second. Yards per touch and fumble avoidance remain position-relative percentiles.

The minimum workloads scale with the length of the season:

  • Running backs: six touches per scheduled game
  • Wide receivers: three touches per scheduled game
  • Tight ends: two touches per scheduled game

Those thresholds remove tiny samples while respecting the different ways the three positions are used and keeping the qualification standard consistent across seasons of different lengths.

The 2025 Scrimmage Performance Ratings illustrate what the system values. Christian McCaffrey led the running backs with an 88.5 SPR, Puka Nacua led the wide receivers at 89.1, and Trey McBride led the tight ends at 92.8. Their rankings reflect both the scale of their total production and how much they produced per game.

How to read the ratings

QER and SPR are composite ratings, not replacements for the underlying statistics. The report tables include the raw production and efficiency numbers alongside each score so readers can see why a player ranks where he does.

Because the components are season-relative percentiles, the ratings are especially useful for answering two questions:

  1. How complete and efficient was this player’s production?
  2. How did that performance compare with other qualified players at the same position that season?

The player reports are available within each season on the NFL ratings hub. I plan to keep expanding this section with additional player ratings in the future.