Pro Football Reference
Historical Participation Data
Historical Participation Data and Starting Lineups on Pro Football Reference Pro Football Reference now provides full game-level participation data and starting lineups going all the way back to 1920, the inaugural season of the American Professional ...
Pro Bowl Credits
Who Gets Credited for Being a Pro Bowler According to the NFL, a player is officially credited with a Pro Bowl selection if any of the following apply: The player was among the initial selections announced by the league. This is the most ...
1960 NFL AP Awards
Why No AP Awards Are Listed for 1960 The Associated Press did not give out NFL awards in 1960. The reason for this gap isn't entirely clear, but the AP simply didn't issue its usual honors that year. Other organizations that recognized league MVPs in ...
AV (Approximate Value) Explainer
Understanding Approximate Value (AV) on Pro Football Reference Approximate Value (AV) is a metric created by Pro Football Reference founder Doug Drinen that attempts to assign a single number to a player's seasonal value, regardless of position, ...
Passer Rating, QBR, and ANY/A
NFL Passer Rating NFL Passer Rating is the official quarterback metric used by the NFL. It has been the league's standard measure of passing efficiency since 1973. Passer rating is calculated using four components drawn from a quarterback's box score ...
Laterals
How Lateral Plays Are Scored For most of NFL history, touchdowns scored involving a lateral are measured by the yardage gained by the person crossing the end zone, not the entire length of the play. Examples include the end of first half hook and ...
Historical QB Sack Data
Historical QB Sack Data Player sacks have been an official NFL statistic since 1982. However, thanks to research by John Turney and Nick Webster we are able to display "unofficial" sacks statistics back to 1960. For more details, see our blog post ...
Historical Tackle Data
Historical Tackle Data Pro Football Reference only contains complete defensive tackling data back to 1994. Recordkeeping for tackles before 1994 was spotty and inconsistent, which can lead to misleading numbers. For example, some teams only tracked ...
PFR Hall of Fame Monitor
Pro Football Reference Hall of Fame Monitor Pro Football Reference's Hall of Fame Monitor provides a quick measure of how likely a player is to make the Hall of Fame based on previous players who have been inducted. The base formula uses weighted ...
Team Passing Yards
Team vs. Individual Passing Yards In most cases, team passing yards will not equal the sum of that team's individual passing yards. This is because for team totals, sack yardage is subtracted from the total passing yards. In the example below, the ...