Ranking the most and least accurate quarterback seasons in PFF history

• Joe Burrow thrived during an injury-shortened 2025: Burrow paced the league in both overall accuracy and catchable inaccurate marks, putting his precision on display yet again.

• Zach Wilson‘s 2021 is an infamous season: The former second overall selection yielded the worst single-season accuracy clip and the second-highest catchable inaccurate rate.

Estimated Reading Time:12 minutes

As the sport of football has evolved, the responsibilities of quarterbacks have continued to progress. Not only are quarterbacks expected to identify pre-snap coverage advantages and potential defensive tells, but gunslingers also shoulder a responsibility to make plays under pressure and avoid negatives.

Although the position itself has gained nuances, what hasn’t changed is fundamental accuracy. At the end of the day, the league’s best quarterbacks are traditionally the ones who can make passes anywhere across the field — from any depth, angle and with little regard to pressure — at a consistent level.

There are several long-acquainted stats correlated with accuracy, from completion percentage to passer rating to adjusted completion percentage. But what helps paint a broader and more extensive stroke regarding a quarterback’s command are PFF’s charted accuracy metrics. These attempts are broken down into four categories:

• Accurate: When a passer puts the ball on the receiver's frame so that he doesn't need to adjust or slow down to make the play and continue after the catch.
• Plus Accuracy: When a passer puts the ball in the exact location to optimize yards after the catch or puts the ball away from tight coverage.
• Catchable Inaccurate: A catchable pass where the receiver has to make a notable adjustment to reel it in, either by slowing his route or extending himself in any direction. This can include a quarterback throwing the ball too high or low or slightly behind or in front of the receiver.
• Uncatchable Inaccurate: Even despite a Herculean effort from the receiver, there is almost no shot of the pass being completed. This includes overthrows and underthrows, as well as passes thrown too far in front or behind.

Which quarterbacks have assembled the best and worst seasonal figures in each category since 2015 — when PFF began charting accuracy — as well as last year? Let’s break everything down in an attempt to identify the most and least accurate passers in a league year.

Note: All single-season rankings are based on quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts in that season.

Overall Accuracy

Highest: Tom Brady, 2016 (70.9%)

While assembling the greatest career in NFL history, Brady was touted for his anticipation, arm strength and clutch play. His immense accuracy shouldn’t be forgotten, either.

Although Brady’s 2016 season began with a four-game suspension stemming from Deflategate, it was arguably his best year ever from an analytical perspective, which is saying a lot. During that campaign, Brady netted a career-best 94.2 PFF passing grade with a staggering 41 big-time throws compared to only eight turnover-worthy plays. The driving force behind that success was accuracy, as Brady’s precision helped New England win the Super Bowl.

Brady may have secured the top spot in this category, but it would be remiss not to mention Drew Brees. The 2026 Hall of Fame inductee led the league in overall accuracy during multiple campaigns, including in 2020 with a ludicrous 70.4% clip.

Brady's 2016 Passing Map

Lowest: Zach Wilson, 2021 (44.2%)

Wilson’s tenure with the Jets was one of the worst for a first-round pick in the modern era, and his rookie season was especially pitiful in terms of location-based passing. The BYU product earned only a 54.8 PFF passing grade — actually the second-highest of his career — but finished with a 69.9% adjusted completion percentage. A staggering 55.8% of Wilson’s first-year attempts were deemed uncatchable in either category, although it didn’t help playing with the 29th-ranked receiving corps.

2025 Leader: Joe Burrow, CincinnatiBengals (68%)

Burrow was limited to only eight games last year while battling a turf toe injury, but he was masterful when on the field. The former No. 1 overall pick delivered a 91.3 PFF passing grade with only two turnover-worthy plays across 288 dropbacks. Burrow’s propensity to make accurate strikes while not putting the ball in harm’s way is reflected by his career 77.6% adjusted completion percentage.

Plus Accuracy

Highest: Tom Brady, 2016 (27.9%)

On top of Brady being surgical at an overall rate in 2016, he also provided the flashy throws fans became accustomed to seeing. His 27.9% plus accuracy rate catalyzed a gaudy 6.7% big-time throw figure, the second-best of his unrivaled career. In part because of Brady’s passes maximizing yards after the catch, New England’s receiving unit paced the league in that stat during the 2016 season.

No. 2 on the list is, lo and behold, also Brady — who delivered a 26.9% clip the year before. Other shoutouts include Derek Carr’s 25.4% in 2016 and Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 25.3% in 2018.

Lowest: Blake Bortles, 2015 (4.1%)

Bortles struggled during his second pro season, compiling a 62.8 PFF passing grade with a league-high 38 turnover-worthy plays. Part of those woes may be attributed to the lowest single-season plus accuracy rate in PFF’s database. Impressively, Bortles still accrued 27 big-time throws in 2015 despite recording very few high-level passes, largely due to his strong 67.2% accuracy mark.

That same season, Russell Wilson and Brock Osweiler also failed to generate many plus accurate throws with 5.6% and 7.1% rates, respectively. A similarly poor percentage came in 2022 from Justin Fields, who saw only 9.1% of his passes be charted in the highest category during his penultimate season with the Bears.

2025 Leader: Mac Jones, San Francisco49ers (23%)

Jones started eight games early in San Francisco’s campaign after Brock Purdy went down, and he looked the best since his first pro campaign. En route to earning a 75.4 PFF passing grade, Jones was a sharpshooter, even surpassing MVP finalists Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye in plus accuracy figure. Unsurprisingly, Jones' 79.6% adjusted completion percentage trailed only Jared Goff among qualifiers.

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Catchable Inaccurate

Highest: Cam Newton, 2015 (31.7%)

Newton’s MVP campaign in 2015 was one filled with countless highlights, dabbing his way to an 84.4 PFF passing grade. But interestingly enough, Newton was not the most precise, as his completions did not position his star-studded weaponry in optimal spots.

More specifically, Newton’s 46.6% accuracy rate was 37th among 37 qualifiers that year, and his 21.6% uncatchable inaccurate mark was the 15th-highest. The former No. 1 overall selection did have a flair for big plays, though, as evidenced by his 15.2% plus accuracy clip.

Coming in second by a hair was Zach Wilson, whose 2021 campaign is distinguished in the worst ways when it comes to accuracy. That year, he recorded a 31.2% catchable inaccurate rate.

Lowest: Blake Bortles, 2015 (12.4%)

The 2015 NFL campaign is still providing fodder even 11 years later, and Bortles’ season is an anomaly in many ways. While the Jaguars gunslinger hardly located any elite passes, he also wasn’t off the mark much, either. Talk about living right in the middle of the distribution.

The runner-up in this department was Drake Maye, although perhaps not the season one would expect. Indeed, Maye paced all qualified quarterbacks with a 12.5% catchable inaccurate mark during his first year in 2024. The Patriots stud extrapolated that pinhole placement into a top-notch sophomore year, where he assembled a 77.0% adjusted completion percentage to rank sixth among his peers.

2025 Leader: Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals (15.0%)

It’s only fitting that the top quarterback in overall accuracy is also the foremost player in catchable inaccurate rate. Burrow hit the likes of Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki in stride more than any other qualified passer. It’s worth mentioning Sam Darnold, whose 15.5% rate wasn’t far off from Burrow — and he did so on over 300 more attempts.

Uncatchable Inaccurate

Highest: Anthony Richardson, 2024 (33.6%)

The 2024 season was a very trying one for Richardson, who tallied a 59.8 PFF passing grade while being benched. The linchpin of Richardson’s problems was his accuracy, as he was well off the mark more than any other quarterback since 2015. It may not be a shock to learn that Richardson’s 60.2% adjusted completion percentage is the worst among quarterbacks with at least 200 dropbacks since Tim Tebow in 2011.

A raw but tantalizing prospect coming out of Florida, Richardson remains a flawed passer but has yet to earn a sufficient number of reps — garnering only 399 dropbacks across his three career seasons. With Daniel Jones back in the saddle in Indianapolis, the former fourth overall pick doesn’t have a clear runway to better his accuracy in 2026 and may need to depart the Colts for a fresh opportunity.

Lowest: Tom Brady, 2016 (11.1%)

Brady’s 2016 season has a legitimate argument as one of the best in NFL history. Not only was Brady extremely accurate on a down-to-down basis, but he a) consistently threw passes into microscopic windows and b) was seldom very inaccurate.

To lead the league in three major accuracy categories is wildly impressive in and of itself. To compile the best ever mark in all three is what makes Brady the greatest of all time. After all, Brady’s 2016 PFF passing grade ties for the second-highest in grading history, trailing just Aaron Rodgers in 2020 at a 94.7.

Speaking of that vaunted Rodgers campaign, his uncatchable inaccurate mark sat at a similarly minimal 13.3% — and Brees matched him that same year. Likewise, Carr dazzled with a 12.9% mark or lower in the category across both 2018 and 2019.

2025 Leader: Jared Goff, Detroit Lions (15.4%)

Goff has earned a reputation as one of the NFL’s most accurate quarterbacks year over year, finishing with at least a 77.0% adjusted completion percentage in six straight seasons. That proliferated in 2025, as the Lions star missed at a less egregious rate than any other qualifier. Former MVP Josh Allen came in at second with a 16.1% mark.