QBR is ESPN's Total Quarterback Rating, a 0-to-100 score for a quarterback's contribution to winning. It starts from expected points added on every play the quarterback is involved in, including runs, sacks and penalties, divides credit with teammates (a screen pass taken 60 yards gives most of the yards to the receiver), weights plays by how much they mattered to the game, and scales the result so 50 is average. It is not the same as passer rating, which is 0 to 158.3 and counts only passes.
Updated Sept. 16, 2026.
Passer rating was built in 1973 from four box-score inputs and cannot see sacks, scrambles, drops, or whether a game was close. QBR was ESPN's 2011 answer. It reads every play from the play-by-play, assigns the quarterback a share of the EPA on each one, and adjusts for the clutch weight of the situation and, since 2016, for opponent strength.
The credit split is the part people argue about. A quarterback who throws a 3-yard pass that becomes a 70-yard touchdown gets some of the EPA but not most of it; a quarterback who is sacked because he held the ball gets more of the blame than one whose tackle was beaten cleanly. Those splits are ESPN's judgment calls and the formula is not public.
Because it is built on EPA, QBR tracks the public efficiency stats closely: the leaders in EPA per dropback and CPOE are almost always the leaders in QBR. This site uses the public versions because they can be rebuilt and audited; QBR is a useful cross-check and the number television quotes.
A quarterback can post a 110 passer rating and a 45 QBR in the same game: three touchdown passes and no interceptions, but two of the scores came in garbage time, he took five sacks, and the team lost. Passer rating saw the box score; QBR saw the game.
QBR = a 0-100 scaling of a quarterback's clutch-weighted, opponent-adjusted share of EPA per play, across passes, runs, sacks and penalties. The exact division of credit is proprietary to ESPN. Passer rating, by contrast, is a fixed formula on completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions per attempt.
50 is average by construction. A season above 65 is top-five territory; above 75 is an MVP-level year. Single games swing from near 0 to near 100, so the season number is the one worth quoting.
QBR is the better measure of a quarterback's contribution because it sees sacks, runs, drops and game situation. Passer rating is the better-known and fully transparent one. For a quick audit, EPA per dropback and CPOE, both public, land in the same place as QBR.
Because the credit-splitting and clutch-weighting are not published, so a surprising number cannot be checked. It has also changed formula several times. The rankings it produces are sensible; the trust problem is that nobody outside ESPN can reproduce them.
Category: Stats & Analytics. Part of the StickToTheModel NFL Encyclopedia.