• Joe Burrow overcame a bad offensive line to shine: His 75.6 passing grade under pressure was the best in the NFL, as were his 17 big catches under pressure.
• MVP case, if not for the lost season: Burrow covered opposing defenses on a weekly basis, building a legitimate MVP case despite the Bengals’ overall struggle to win games.
• The 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Experience the best in class from PFF Draft mock simulator and learn about Main prospects for 2025 while trading and drafting for his favorite NFL team.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
PFF Award winners are selected through a voting process involving 28 senior PFF analysts, contributors and staff members, ensuring decisions reflect the ideas and experiences of those deeply involved in the game.
This year’s best passer – Joe Burrowwho received 24 votes to claim the honor. Took second place Lamar Jackson three voices, while Justin Herbert closes the top three with one vote.
To view all 2024 award winners, Click here.
From a passing standpoint, it would be hard to have a better season than the one Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had in 2024.
Burrow comfortably led the league in a variety of major statistical categories, including strikeouts (725, next closest was Caleb Williams from 682), passing attempts (652, Aaron Rodgers from 584), completions (460, Baker Mayfield And Geno Smith with 407), passing yards (4918, Jared Goff with 4,629) and passing touchdowns (43, Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield with 41).
Burrow also accounts for the most first downs (264, 20 more than second-place Mayfield) while having the third-best passer rating in the league (108.5) and adjusted completion percentage (79.6%, first place). Jalen Hurts amounted to 80.1%). What’s even more impressive is that these numbers could have been much higher, as Burrow’s receivers missed 27 of his passes, the third-most in the NFL.
From a more analytical perspective, Burrow’s PFF passing grade of 92.8 barely beat out Lamar Jackson’s 92.6 for the best mark in the league. Burrow is tied too Josh Allen with 37 big shots and ranked sixth in game efficiency (1.9%).
PFF’s Highest Passing Grades in 2024
Despite a wrist injury that cut short his 2023 season, Burrow was clean in 2024, starting all 17 of the Bengals’ games while showing no signs of any lingering effects from the injury – other than the occasional snap when he was between games do wrist stretching exercises. Only three of Burrow’s starts produced a PFF passing grade below 70.0, none of which came after Week 10 or dropped below 66.4. On the other hand, Burrow had seven games with a PFF passing grade of at least 80.0, three of which were above 90.0, including each of the last two games when the Bengals’ playoff hopes hung in the balance.
After a 4-8 start that nearly left the Bengals dead, Burrow went on a tear, posting a 92.0 PFF passing grade during his five-game winning streak to end the season. Only Jackson’s PFF passing grade of 93.0 was better during that stretch, but Burrow’s grade was more than double that.
Burrow was able to achieve all this while dealing with the contradictions from his cast. Besides Ja’Marr ChaseDuring Burrow’s historic campaign, he was short of other playmakers for much of the season. Despite being healthy, he is very productive. Tee Higgins missed five games due to injuries at various points in the season, and after Tyler Boyd entered free agency, no other receiver was in contention for the No. 3 receiver role, as no other Bengals receiver who played significant snaps had a PFF receiving grade above 60.0.
His offensive line was also inconsistent, with only Geno Smith requiring more dropbacks. The Bengals have seven offensive linemen with at least 100 pass blocks, and Ted Karras was the only one to post a pass-blocking grade of at least 70.0 PFF. Bengals guards were especially vulnerable: Alex Cappa And Cordell Volson both allowed at least 35 pressures while earning pass-blocking grades below 50.0.
It didn’t matter to Burrow, however, as his 75.6 PFF passing grade was best in the NFL, as were his 17 catches under duress. Burrow’s completion percentage under pressure of 58.5% ranked third, and his 1,438 yards and 15 touchdowns led the league. Under pressure, he made just three interceptions.
According to PFF Wins Above Replacement Rate, Joe Burrow was far and away the league’s MVP with a 5.22 win rate in 2024. The next closest player was Lamar Jackson at 3.86. In fact, Joe Burrow’s WAR is the highest in the league since then. Tom Brady was worth 6.15 WAR in 2017. Patrick Mahomes in 2018, was the only quarterback with at least five wins during that span.
If Bengals After finishing 9-8 and missing the playoffs, it would be hard to argue against Burrow being the NFL’s MVP rather than just PFF’s top passer.
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