• Joe Burrow overcame a poor offensive line to shine: His 75.6 PFF passing grade under pressure was the best in the NFL, as were his 17 big-time throws while under duress.
• An MVP case if not for a lost season: Burrow lit up opposing defenses on a weekly basis, putting together a legitimate MVP case despite the Bengals' overall struggles to win games.
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Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
PFF's award winners are selected through a voting process exclusive to 28 senior analysts, contributors and members of the PFF staff, ensuring the decisions reflect the insights and expertise of those deeply involved in the game.
This year’s Best Passer is Joe Burrow, who earned 24 votes to claim the honor. The runner-up was Lamar Jackson with three votes, while Justin Herbert rounded out the top three with one vote.
To view all 2024 award winners, click here.
From a pure passing standpoint, it’s hard to have a better season than what Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow put together in 2024.
Burrow comfortably led the league in a variety of basic statistical categories, including dropbacks (725, next closest was Caleb Williams with 682), passing attempts (652, Aaron Rodgers with 584), completions (460, Baker Mayfield and Geno Smith with 407), passing yards (4,918, Jared Goff with 4,629) and passing touchdowns (43, Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield with 41).
Burrow also accounted for the most first downs (264, 20 more than second-place Mayfield) while recording the league’s third-best passer rating (108.5) and adjusted completion percentage (79.6%, first-place Jalen Hurts was 80.1%). Even more impressive is that these numbers could have been much greater, as Burrow’s receivers dropped 27 of his passes, the third most in the NFL.
From a more analytical perspective, Burrow’s 92.8 PFF passing grade barely beat out Lamar Jackson’s 92.6 for best in the league. Burrow also tied Josh Allen with 37 big-time throws and tied for the sixth-best turnover-worthy play rate (1.9%).
Highest PFF Passing Grades in 2024
Despite suffering a wrist injury that cut his 2023 season short, Burrow produced a clean bill of health in 2024, starting all 17 of the Bengals’ games while showing no signs of any lingering effects from the injury — outside of the occasional shot of him having to do some wrist-stretching exercises between plays. Only three of Burrow's starts featured a PFF passing grade below 70.0, none of which occurred after Week 10 or dipped below 66.4. On the other hand, Burrow had seven games with a PFF passing grade of at least 80.0, three of which soared over 90.0 — including each of his final two games with the Bengals’ playoff hopes hanging in the balance.
After a 4-8 start that almost left the Bengals for dead, Burrow went on a tear, recording a 92.0 PFF passing grade during their five-game winning streak to end the season. Only Jackson’s 93.0 PFF passing grade was better during that stretch, but Burrow’s came on more than double the dropbacks.
Burrow managed to accomplish all of this while dealing with inconsistencies from his supporting cast. Aside from Ja'Marr Chase‘s historic campaign, Burrow lacked other playmakers for much of the season. Despite being very productive when healthy, Tee Higgins missed five games due to injury at various points throughout the season and, after Tyler Boyd walked in free agency, none of the other wide receivers stepped into that No. 3 receiver role, as no other Bengals receiver to play meaningful snaps recorded a PFF receiving grade above 60.0.
His offensive line was inconsistent, as well, as only Geno Smith was pressured on more dropbacks. The Bengals had seven offensive linemen record at least 100 pass-blocking snaps, and Ted Karras was the only one to record at least a 70.0 PFF pass-blocking grade. Bengals guards were particularly vulnerable: Alex Cappa and Cordell Volson both allowed at least 35 pressures while earning sub-50.0 PFF pass-blocking grades.
That didn’t matter for Burrow, though, as his 75.6 PFF passing grade was the best in the NFL, as were his 17 big-time throws while under duress. Burrow’s 58.5% completion percentage under pressure ranked third, and his 1,438 yards and 15 touchdowns led the league. He threw just three interceptions when pressured.
According to PFF’s wins above replacement metric, Joe Burrow was far and away the most valuable player in the league, worth 5.22 wins in 2024. The next closest player was Lamar Jackson at 3.86. In fact, Joe Burrow’s WAR number is the highest the league has seen since Tom Brady was worth 6.15 WAR in 2017. Patrick Mahomes in 2018 was the only other quarterback to be worth at least five wins during that stretch.
Had the Bengals not finished 9-8 and missed out on the playoffs, it would have been hard to argue against Burrow being NFL MVP rather than just PFF’s Best Passer.
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