Explaining How I Grade Film

I will sometimes get questions both what my process is when it comes to grading, and how I determine what to grade a specific play (Good, Bad, Poor, Etc.) I'm putting all that info here so public eyes can see and better understand my process.

The Grading Process

I actually have a Tweet covering this with a video, please see below!

How Do I Grade These Plays?

Well, a lot goes into that.

Basic Guidelines:

• Try to be as “fairly” unforgiving as possible, when it comes to review it’s better to be tougher with grading than be forgiving.

• Grade on the decision the QB made, not the decision they did not make. (When providing insight into a play it’s valid to mention missed reads, but it should never go into scoring a throw.)

• All snaps to be graded, including plays that don’t officially count towards stats (penalties/two point conversions.)

• When grading a play all of the following things could be considered: Score. Quarter. Down. Distance. Situation. Accuracy. Anticipation. Poise. Pocket Movement/Awareness. Distance of Throw. Vision. Throwing Window Size. All of these variables can play a factor into grading a throw/play depending on whether or not they are present or relative to the throw.

• In most scenarios the lowest a completed pass can be scored is “Average”, special cases can be made, really up to the tape.

• Clear drops that don't require extraordinary effort from the receiver, all though incompletions, can be graded positively. Grade the throw as a normal catch.

• Generally speaking the closer to the QB a receiver is, the harsher misses get graded. A throw to a RB that hits his fingertips and goes incomplete on a screen pass will be judged more harshly than a throw 30 yards down field that hits a WR’s fingertips and goes incomplete.

• When grading designed runs or scrambles, using the Success Rate metric will go into helping properly grade the play.

• There is an extreme amount of nuance to this, but hopefully this guide paints a clearer picture of my thought process in grading.

Explanation of Scoring:

Turnover/Turnover Worthy: A play that should or does lead to a turnover. In “should” scenarios, take into account the defender's chance to cause a turnover like you would take into account a receiver's chance to make a catch (difficulty of catch, location of the ball, did the player get two hands on it?, etc.) In some cases a turnover can be un-graded, if the turnover is without a doubt not the QB’s fault (receiver slips, ball hits receiver and bounces to defender, standard “Cutler luck” picks.) Fumbles are almost universally graded as Turnover Worthy.

• Example of an exception would be the Commanders fumble that Caleb got tagged with a fumble on. The blame there would be placed on Doug Kramer, or even the coaching staff (for putting Doug Kramer in that position) in my grading.

Poor: An incompletion that is extremely inaccurate, generally when the receiver has no possible chance to make a play on the ball with either normal or extreme effort (inaccuracy over 2-3 yards). Decisions to throw into good coverage/double coverage that lead to turnover worth plays or incompletions. A decision to throw short of the sticks on a 4th down play on a final drive. These throws can scale with difficulty.

• Ex.1: Spiking the ball at the feet of a wide open receiver 5 yards down field would be graded poor as most QB’s should be expected to complete that throw.

• Ex.2: Caleb Williams’ interception against the Jaguars would be an example of a “Poor” throw.

Bad: A very inaccurate throw, a throw that only extreme effort from the receiver will lead to a possible play. Usually 1-2 yards of inaccuracy, or fingertips, diving, etc. All depending on throw distance and location.

• Ex.1: A slant route to an open receiver with under 10 air yards, inaccuracy causes the receiver to dive for the ball, only getting fingertips on it.

• Ex.2: A Go route with 30+ air yards, WR has separation but the ball is overthrown by a few yards with no chance of completion.

Below Average: Most common incompletion, slightly inaccurate that required non-ordinary effort from a receiver. Contested throws that led to PBU’s or incompletions. Intermediate or deep throws that are inaccurate by a yard or less, coverage depending.

• Ex.1: 10 yard out route thrown towards the sideline, ball placement allows the receiver to get hands on the ball but the throw leads him to the boundary and incomplete.

• Ex.2: Ball thrown late on timing routes that lead to incompletions (Ins. Outs. Curls.) late throw allowing the defender to make a play on the throw/receiver.

Average: Baseline play for a QB, whether it be throw or scramble. Plays “expected” of an average NFL QB. Open receivers on short to intermediate routes, screen completions. Plays you see, honestly, a majority of the time on a football field. Checkdowns, screens, wide open slants..

Above Average: Short, tight window throws, intermediate to deep throws that are completed but require additional effort from the receiver to complete (situation/defense depending), diving, sliding, finger tip, or 1 handed catches.

• Ex.1: Jared Goff’s touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta in the Divisional round (throw only, if grading the pressure he takes while making the throw it probably gets bumped to “Good”)

• Ex.2: A slant route for 5 yards that had good coverage.

Good: A good throw will see an accurate completion down the field or into a tight window. Down and distance can also play a factor. Slight anticipatory throws, moderate scrambles for first downs (especially on 3rd down.)

• Ex.1: Caleb to Rome Odunze 7:13 2Q vs. Jaguars

• Ex.2: Intermediate In-route thrown with anticipation (no eye contact with receiver) that hits receiver in stride or requires no backwards adjustment.

Great: High amount of anticipation, ball placement requires very little to no receiver adjustment (breadbasket throws) throws that attack the intermediate to deep (10-20+ yards) part of the field depending on coverage. Difficult throw short to intermediate throws, thrown perfectly.

• Ex.1: Caleb’s preseason scramble for a touchdown.

• Ex.2: Caleb’s back corner fade TD to Keenan Allen against the Jaguars.

Elite: pinpoint accuracy, generally down field that lead to large impact plays or plays that are not the norm on the field. Vast amounts of anticipation, ball placement and accuracy. Usually into tight windows or excellent coverage. A throw that you maybe see once a game.

• Ex.1: Caleb Williams TD to Keenan Allen over the middle vs. Jaguars.

• Ex.2: Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes in Superbowl XLIII.

Throw Away/Ungraded: Generally every throwaway and some plays that don’t count make this list. Balls batted at the LOS are ungraded in most scenarios, since we cannot accurately surmise the quality of throw made. Sacks very clearly not on the QB can also be “Ungraded.” “Garbage time” throws generally get graded this, as the defense is not playing 100%.

Time to Throw:

Every drop back (including penalties and 2 point plays) that is not a designed QB run can be given a time to throw. On scrambles that time is determined by when the QB commits to being a runner, or crosses the line of scrimmage if intent to run is not easily established. This is measured from when the ball first touches the QB’s hands post snap until either:

• the ball leaves his hands.

• He is being contacted for a sack.

• He shows full intent to run or crosses the line of scrimmage.

Add up total time and divide by total number of drop backs that weren’t designed runs to find time to throw average for a game.

Notes:

• As of 7/17/25 I have graded 52 starts from the 2024 season (16 for Jordan Love, 17 for Caleb Williams, and 19 for C.J. Stroud) scoring looks like the following:

  • 1st Half Average: .957

  • 2nd Half Average: 1.159

  • Game Average: 2.116

• What this means is that while individual games have peaks and valleys, over a larger sample base QB play returns to the mean, and “Average” QB play over a season is to be the expected baseline of solid QB play.