In 1988, the passer rating for the entire NFL was 72.9. In 2019, every single team had a passer rating higher than that mark! Last season, the Carolina Panthers finished with a 74.7 passer rating, which was both the lowest in the 2019 NFL season and also the highest mark in history by a team that ranked last in that statistic.

This is part of two general trends: passer ratings are going up, but also, the variance in passer ratings is declining.

A lot of this is compression is driven by the overall decline in interception rates: 26 teams had an interception rate below 3.0% last year, and 31 teams were below 4.0%. But that’s not responsible for all of it: in general, the worst passing teams are improving at a much better rate than the best passing teams. Which, as you know, decreases the value of the best passing offenses.