How does Tom Brady's amazing 2007 passing performance stack up relative to the league-wide passer rating?

 

He posted a 117.2 rating durng a season in which the league-wide rating was 80.9. In other words, he exceeded the league-wide mark by 44.9 percent. Only twice in the Live Ball Era (1978-present) has a passer exceeded the league-wide rating by a larger percentage. And the performers are the usual suspects:

We realize comparing passer ratings (which has a finite end) against league averages is an imperfect way to measure relative passing performances, especially across different eras. But it at least offers some sort of context as we try to measure individual passing performances in the context of their times.

 

Plus, the numbers tend to confirm what we all suspected: Montana '89, Manning '04 and Brady '07 were probably the most spectacular passing seasons any of us have seen over the past 30 or more years.

 

The complete list is below, updated through 2007, preceded by our original introduction to the data.

 

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Here's a look at the league-wide passer ratings for every year since 1940, along with each season's individual passer-rating leader. (The 1940 season is a good starting point, because it's really the first season in which we started to see the first modern-style quarterback and because passing data before then was so limited.)

 

As far as we know, the Cold, Hard Football Facts is the only outlet to publish this very telling collection of information. And for that, we must thank awesome NFL researcher Coach T.J. Troup, a friend of the Facts from Tustin, California. Troup has provided research for numerous NFL Teams, NFL Films and even Hollywood, as the technical advisor to the upcoming George Clooney flick "Leatherheads" (Troup was cool enough to invite us onto the set of the film back in the spring of 2007).

 

We also analyzed this data pretty intently when we first published it a while back.

 

The most telling aspect, basically, is that this data shows how much easier it's become to pass the ball in the modern game and the dramatic rise in passing efficiency of NFL quarterbacks. For example, here are the league-wide passer ratings by decade:

But look at the list and take it all in yourself.