A dropback is any play on which the quarterback drops back to pass: a pass attempt, a sack, or a scramble that started as a pass play. It is the denominator analysts use instead of pass attempts because attempts leave out sacks and scrambles, which are real outcomes of the decision to pass. EPA per dropback, pressure rate and sack rate are all measured per dropback.
Updated Sept. 16, 2026.
A quarterback who takes 40 sacks and one who takes 15 can have identical stats per attempt, because the sacks are not attempts. Per dropback, the first quarterback's numbers fall, as they should: every sack was a play that started as a pass and ended in lost yards. The same logic applies to scrambles, which can be the best outcome of a busted play and never appear in passing stats.
The modern efficiency stats therefore treat the dropback, not the attempt, as the unit of passing. EPA per dropback is the quarterback stat that correlates best with winning; sack rate per dropback is how offensive lines and quarterbacks are graded on protection; pressure rate per dropback is how pass rushes are graded.
The play-by-play marks a dropback wherever the quarterback set up to pass, including designed rollouts and play action. Kneel-downs and spikes are excluded. Designed quarterback runs are not dropbacks.
A quarterback with 550 attempts, 45 sacks and 30 scrambles had 625 dropbacks. Rating him per attempt ignores 75 plays, 12 percent of his passing snaps, and most of them were bad ones.
Dropbacks = pass attempts + sacks + scrambles (+ intentional groundings and other pass-play penalties, depending on the source). In the public play-by-play, the qb_dropback flag marks the play.
Yes. The play began as a pass, so it counts as a dropback and against the quarterback's per-dropback efficiency. That is the point of the denominator: sacks are outcomes of passing, not separate events.
Yes, when the play was designed as a pass and the quarterback ran because nothing was open. A designed quarterback run is not a dropback. The play-by-play makes the distinction, though not perfectly.
Total EPA on all of a quarterback's dropbacks divided by the number of dropbacks. It is the single quarterback stat most closely tied to winning, and the one this site's quarterback rankings lead with.
Category: Stats & Analytics. Part of the StickToTheModel NFL Encyclopedia.