What is Total QBR and how does it differ from passer rating?

Total QBR is ESPN's 0 to 100 metric built on expected points added per play, including rushing, sacks, and game situation. The legacy passer rating only uses completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions, so it ignores a quarterback's legs and the cost of taking sacks.

Is this the exact ESPN QBR number?

No. ESPN's formula is proprietary and adds opponent strength, down and distance, and clutch weighting that a box score cannot reconstruct. This is a transparent estimator that approximates the scale, useful for comparing performances rather than matching the official figure.

How does the estimator turn stats into a QBR?

It assigns expected-points weights to each event, roughly plus 0.8 per touchdown, minus 2 per interception, minus 1.2 per sack, and small per-yard values, then divides by total plays and maps that EPA per play onto a 0 to 100 scale centered at 50 for league average.

What QBR counts as a good game?

On the 0 to 100 scale, 50 is roughly league average, the mid 60s is very good, and 75 or higher reflects elite, MVP-level play. Anything below 40 signals a poor outing where the quarterback cost the team expected points.

Why are sacks and rushing included?

Sacks are negative plays the quarterback often controls, so they lower the value. Designed and scramble runs add real expected points. Including both is exactly why QBR is considered more complete than passer rating.

NFL QBR (Total QBR) Estimator

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Total QBR was built to fix the blind spots of the old passer rating, which ignores sacks, rushing, and game context. This estimator reproduces the spirit of QBR by converting a box-score line into expected points and mapping it onto the familiar 0 to 100 scale.

How it works

Each event in the line is assigned an expected-points-added weight, summed into a total, then averaged over every play the quarterback was involved in:

total EPA   = yards*0.05 + passTD*0.8 - INT*2.0 - sacks*1.2
              + rushYds*0.06 + rushTD*0.8
EPA / play  = total EPA / (attempts + sacks + carries)
QBR         = clamp( 50 + (EPA/play) * 130 , 0 , 100 )

League-average production lands near 50, while strongly positive EPA per play climbs toward the 70s and 80s and negative play falls below 40.

Notes and limits

This is an estimate, not the official metric. ESPN’s published Total QBR layers in opponent adjustment, down-and-distance leverage, and clutch weighting that no single box score can recover, so the exact number will differ. What the estimator does well is rank performances consistently: a clean 300-yard, three-touchdown, no-interception game will score far higher than a 200-yard, two-interception, four-sack game. Use it to compare quarterbacks and weeks, and treat the result as a QBR-style approximation rather than the figure on the broadcast.