[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

How does checking down inflate numbers? Completion percentage, perhaps, but if it's actually inflating TDs and yards while lowering INTs, that's called "offense."

Completion percentage without yards or TDs is meaningless, for sure, but if the defense is actually sitting on check downs, it's hella hard to complete those short passes.

I'd actually argue that McNabb has layed out more backs and receivers on ill-advised dumpoffs this year than Campbell ever did. That's the issue with checking down (when it gets your receivers killed), not when you get 7 yards on 2nd and 12.

I'd like to call on a witness that can better explain how completion percentage inflates a QB's passer rating.

NFL Passer Ratings and Completion Percentages: What Do They Really Mean? | Bleacher Report (Yes I know it's bleacher report).

Fatal Flaw- Completion Percentage

In addition to being now coined a QUARTERBACK rating without evaluating all the ways a quarterback can affect the game even from a tangible standpoint, let alone intangible, the biggest flaw perhaps of the passer rating system is how heavily it is attached to Completion Percentage.

Which is kind of amusing when someone points to a quarterback who doesn't have a great passer rating and cites completion percentage as corroborative evidence of the lack of effectiveness of that particular QB, when those two statistics could not be any more correlated.

There is a reason why a guy like Chad Pennington who ranks so high on the all-time list of completion percentage is also high on the list of passer rating. It's many of the same names at the top of both lists. Same for a Daunte Culpepper. Completion percentage is a misleading statistic that does not take into account routine spectacular catches/routine drops, dump off passes/throw aways, or first down scrambles. It also can be heavily skewed when the total number of pass attempts per game is not high. One to two incomplete passes a game could make all the difference between what's considered respectable and poor.

Completion Percentage In Passer Rating Formula

Completion percentage plays perhaps the biggest factor in the entire passer rating formula to the point where someone who has a not so great touchdown to interception ratio can rank near the all-time greats while someone such as McNabb who has the second best TD/INT ratio of all-time is not even in the top 15 in that category that only uses those four statistics. This is again why on the all-time passer rating list has those names that clearly don't belong above current/future HOFers.