Top 25 passing seasons

Here's a quick look in the chart below at the top 25 passing seasons of all time, as ranked by passer rating.

 

A few things jump out:

 

You already knew that 2004 was the single greatest season for passers in NFL history, with a record league-wide passer rating of 82.8. Further evidence is found in this list. Peyton Manning set the single-season passer rating record, of course, with a mark of 121.1 in 2004. But that single season included not one, not two, not three but four of the top 25 passing seasons in history, with Daunte Culpepper, Drew Brees and Donovan McNabb all joining Manning on the list. Clearly, the league's mandate before the 2004 season to "re-emphasize" pass interference penalties against defenders had a historic impact on the game.

 

Moss, in case you hadn't heard, just set an NFL record last year with 23 TD receptions. But he might be better than even his biggest rump swabs give him credit for. You already know he played for the two highest-scoring offenses of the Super Bowl Era (2007 Patriots, 1998 Vikings). And you'll know after looking at this list that he was on the receiving end of three of the 12 greatest passing seasons in history ... with three different quarterbacks!

 

New England's Tom Brady pieced together the second greatest passing season in history in 2007 (117.2), Minnesota's Culpepper chimes in at No. 5 with his 2004 campaign (110.9) and his predecessor in Minnesota, Randall Cunningham, finds himself at No. 12 on the list (106.0 in 1998). All three counted Moss as their greatest weapon. Now the only thing missing from Moss's resume is that pesky little Super Bowl ring thing.

 

Joe Montana and Steve Young account for 20 percent of the greatest passing seasons of all time, with five appearances here in the top 25. This cluster of appearances by two players with the same team at the same point in history certainly lends credence to the argument that Montana and Young were beneficiaries of the system.

 

We discussed the Cleveland quarterback's amazing 1960 season in our recent look at the greatest Old School performances. Plum led the league in every major passing category that year, and set a single-season passer rating record that stood for 29 years. Yet he literally never came close to matching the magic of 1960, and bounced around with three other teams at the end of his career.

 

You have to wonder what went wrong with the entire 1960 Browns team, too. Plum produced what was the greatest passing season in history. His back-up was a future Hall of Famer named Len Dawson. When Plum didn't pass the ball he handed it to the game's greatest running back, Jim Brown, who ripped off 1,257 yards that season - the third most in history, behind only his own 1958 (1,527) and 1959 (1,329) performances. And if all those options failed, the Browns boasted legendary all-purpose man and future Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell, who caught 45 passes for 612 yards and ran the ball 111 times for 506 yards, while scoring 11 TDs. The 1960 Browns even had one of the top defenses in the league, surrendering 18.1 PPG (4th). Yet they went just 8-3-1, finished second in the East to Chuck Bednarik's Eagles, and didn't even get a taste of postseason play.

 

	Player	Year	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	YPA	TD	INT	Rating
1	Peyton Manning, Indy	2004	336	497	67.6	4557	9.20	49	10	121.1
2	Tom Brady, NE	2007	398	578	68.9	4806	8.30	50	8	117.2
3	Steve Young, San Fran	1994	324	461	70.3	3969	8.61	35	10	112.8
4	Joe Montana, San Fran	1989	271	386	70.2	3521	9.12	26	8	112.4
5	Daunte Culpepper, Minn	2004	379	548	69.2	4717	8.60	39	11	110.9
6	Milt Plum, Cleveland	1960	151	250	60.4	2297	9.19	21	5	110.4
7	Sammy Baugh, Wash	1945	128	182	70.3	1669	9.17	11	4	109.9
8	Kurt Warner, St. Louis	1999	325	499	65.1	4353	8.72	41	13	109.2
9	Dan Marino, Miami	1984	362	564	64.2	5084	9.01	48	17	108.9
10	Sid Luckman, Chicago	1943	110	202	54.5	2194	10.86	28	12	107.5
11	Steve Young, San Fran	1992	268	402	66.7	3465	8.62	25	7	107.0
12	Randall Cunningham, Minn	1998	259	425	60.9	3704	8.72	34	10	106.0
13	Bart Starr, Green Bay	1966	156	251	62.2	2257	8.99	14	3	105.0
14	Drew Brees, San Diego	2004	262	400	65.5	3159	7.90	27	7	104.8
15	Roger Staubach, Dallas	1971	126	211	59.7	1882	8.92	15	4	104.8
16	Y.A. Tittle, Giants	1963	221	367	60.2	3145	8.57	36	14	104.8
17	Donovan McNabb, Philly	2004	300	469	64.0	3875	8.30	31	8	104.7
18	Steve Young, San Fran	1997	241	356	67.7	3029	8.51	19	6	104.7
19	Bart Starr, Green Bay	1968	109	171	63.7	1617	9.46	15	8	104.3
20	Chad Pennnington, Jets	2002	275	399	68.9	3120	7.82	22	6	104.2
21	Peyton Manning, Indy	2005	305	453	67.3	3747	8.27	28	10	104.1
22	Ben Roethlisberger, Pitt	2007	264	404	65.3	3154	7.80	32	11	104.1
23	Ken Stabler, Oakland	1976	194	291	66.7	2737	9.41	27	17	103.4
24	Brian Griese, Denver	2000	216	336	64.3	2688	8.00	19	4	102.9
25	Joe Montana, San Fran	1984	279	432	64.6	3630	8.40	28	10	102.9

 

By Kerry Byrne