Brock Purdy—First in Passer Rating, or Will Be Soon

 By John Turney

Back in the day, if you wanted to know who the “all-time leading passer” was, you reached for paperback record books like the ones above. The answer changed with the book—and with the system.

Before 1973, the NFL crowned its passing leaders with a moving target: yards one era, completion percentage the next, then various point and inverse-ranking schemes that compared a passer only to the men who threw that same season. When the league adopted the Pro Football Hall of Fame formula in 1973—the four-category scale Don Smith (Hall of Fame), Seymour Siwoff, and Don Weiss (NFL) built against a 1960–70 performance standard—the names at the top shifted because the method itself had changed.

That formula has its well-known limits. It rates the pass, not the quarterback. It ignores sacks, rushing, and era. But it has been the same formula since 1973. The intent was stability: a fixed standard instead of a yearly pile of category rankings that reshuffled every time the rest of the league improved.

The formula had many critics (rewards dink-and-dunk passers), and some semi-fans. Steve Young once said, "It's hard to do well in those categories. It's hard to throw touchdowns and to not throw interceptions." Both views have merit..

Be that as it may, we will likely have a new leader in about a month.. Current leader, Lamar, at the oment sits at the top with a 102.2 rating. Aaron Rodgers is slightly behind him. But when Brock Purdy reaches 1,500 pass attempts (he is 91 short), he will be number one with a rating around 104, barring injury and him throwing a mess of interceptions.

So at 26, he will be number one. 

Chart by PFR, with Purdy added by us

Is 1,500 pass attempts to sit atop a list like this given how many passes are thrown these days? Perhaps not, but that is what we have. And after all, Ken Anderson was just 27 when he surpassed Len Dawson to become the official all-time NFL passing leader. We say official because the NFL did not allow AAFC numbers in their NFL lists, but the Pro Football Hall of Fame did. After the 1983 season joe Montana made that problem moot since he ended that season with a 90.0 rating, about 3.5 "rating points" ahead of Otto Graham who'd been the Hall's number once since the system started. And Montana was 27, same as Ken Anderson.

Purdy, because of real time, will get the record, as we mentioned at 26, but he will be 27 when the season ends, and when next year's Official NFL Record & Fact Book is published, that will be his age. He will be the third 49ers quarterback (Montana and Young) to be first on the list as well.

This matters less and less, but in the 1970s at a young age`, it was fun getting those paperbacks and  seeing in print the new leader is passing. Stuff of great memories.