Joe Burrow set to become NFL’s all-time career leader in completion percentage

Cincinnati Bengals v New England Patriots
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Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will put his name in the NFL record book on Monday night.

Burrow is about to become the NFL’s career leader in completion percentage, just as soon as he has enough career pass attempts to qualify.

To qualify for the career completion percentage record in the NFL Record & Fact Book, a player needs to have thrown 1,500 passes in his career. Currently, the NFL’s all-time leader in completion percentage is Drew Brees, with 67.69 percent.

But Burrow, whose career completion percentage is 68.48 percent, has thrown 1,488 passes in his NFL career. As soon as Burrow throws his 12th pass in Monday night’s game against the Bills, he’ll surpass Brees as the NFL’s all-time leader. Even if Burrow’s first 12 passes on Monday night are incomplete, his career completion percentage would still be 67.93 percent, so he’ll stay comfortably ahead of Brees’ record.

All of the career leaders in completion percentage are recent quarterbacks. After Burrow and Brees, the other quarterbacks who have completed at least 66 percent of their passes in their careers are Jimmy Garoppolo, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins, Teddy Bridgewater, Patrick Mahomes and Chad Pennington.

But while plenty of quarterbacks today have completion percentages that would have been record-breaking in yesteryear, Burrow is one of a kind. Once he breaks the career completion percentage record on Monday night, he’s likely to own it for years to come.

25 responses to “Joe Burrow set to become NFL’s all-time career leader in completion percentage

  1. Impressive, but kind of a meaningless comparison unless it’s established that the number doesn’t change after 1500 attempts.

    It would be better to compare in buckets of total pass attempts – kind of like boxing with weight categories.

  2. After Burrow and Brees, the other quarterbacks who have completed at least 66 percent of their passes in their careers are Jimmy Garoppolo, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, Kyler Murray, Kirk Cousins, Teddy Bridgewater, Patrick Mahomes and Chad Pennington.

    And the only QB’s in this group to win a SB are Brees and Mahomes. Does anybody believe that Garoppolo, Bridgewater, Cousins, Murray or Pennington ever put the fear of God into opposing defenses ? Might be an over-rated stat. I’ll take a winner like Brady, Montana, Aikman, Elway, Manning bros any time over an accurate short game passer.

  3. Great accomplishment, but 1/2 a perecentage point should not really put him into ” one of a kind” territory.

  4. It’s a cool stat to talk about, but meaningless until the career is over. Drew Brees holding onto that until retirement is awesome. I’m a Burrow fan and hope he has it when he retires, but the fact that Chad Pennington had the crown at one time tells you it’s not very meaningful

  5. mrjoseph says:
    December 29, 2022 at 9:15 am

    Great accomplishment, but 1/2 a perecentage point should not really put him into ” one of a kind” territory.

    How does “#1” grab you?

  6. While Joe Burrow has a long way to go to be named among the best of his generation (by his own admission), he is certainly one of the best currently playing. Aside from his statistics, he has the intangibles that everyone wants…the “it” factor, if you will. He has the city of Cincinnati more excited than they’ve been in decades. He has his teammates believing that they are never out of it when he is their Quarterback. And just as a side note, he seems to be humble and gracious in both victory and defeat.

  7. This says a lot about how good Burrows is. Especially since his first year was on a horrible team and was stopped early.

  8. ***

    dirtdawg53 says:
    December 29, 2022 at 7:45 am

    One of those guys has a SB ring. And most on that list likely never will. Just saying.

    ***

    that is technically correct because Jimmy G has 2 rings. Plural.

  9. Meaningless stat. Completion % these days is more indicative of the type of offense your team runs. It’s not about how many passes out of 100 you complete – it’s the quality of outcome.

  10. packerbacker1987 says:
    December 29, 2022 at 10:20 am

    Meaningless stat. Completion % these days is more indicative of the type of offense your team runs. It’s not about how many passes out of 100 you complete – it’s the quality of outcome.
    ———————————————————————————————-
    Lol, It is far from a meaningless stat. It doesn`t mean as much if a QB is always throwing short underneath routes but Burrow doesn`t do that. His average per attempt is top 10 overall and top 5 among those QB`s. There is also a difference between accuracy and ball placement. Burrow has both. And the other thing you have to consider is he has been the most sacked QB since he entered the league so he is doing it despite constant pressure and a lot of throw away`s so like him or not it is impressive.

  11. Burrow has given the Bengals a seismic shift in terms of identity. Bungles no longer despite just playing in his second full season in Cincinnati.
    Despite playing in the Super Bowl, too many ‘experts’ had them backsliding this season and Burrow is biggest reason why that didn’t happen as he’s become much more consistent even when he’s had injuries at WR and RB and a shaky offensive line.
    Only Josh Allen has had a comparably sudden impact on his team. (Chiefs were already a decent team before Mahomes replaced Alex Smith).

  12. We’re in an uncommon era but it’s been created for NFL quarterbacks and television. Still in my opinion the greatest NFL QB of all time remains a guy most folks have never even heard of, who did stuff week after week, year after year, that nobody could touch until the rulebooks all got rewritten to favor the passing game – Sammie Baugh.

  13. gruntsinthetrenches says:
    December 29, 2022 at 8:29 am

    And the only QB’s in this group to win a SB are Brees and Mahomes. Does anybody believe that Garoppolo, Bridgewater, Cousins, Murray or Pennington ever put the fear of God into opposing defenses ? Might be an over-rated stat. I’ll take a winner like Brady, Montana, Aikman, Elway, Manning bros any time over an accurate short game passer.
    ——————————————-
    Do you think Mathrew Stafford put the fear of God into opposing defenses? He’s not even mentioned for completion percentage, but still has a ring. Want me to bring up Trent Dilfer? Yup, he has a ring too. What about Brad Johnson? Yup, a ring as well. I’m sure defenses were terrified of seeing Brad Johnson. Right? Just using your thinking against you.

  14. Completion % stat, much like reception yards, is not meaningful across generations. Hof games like Elway and others had low completion % due the fact the receivers could actually get mugged by DBs

  15. “Only one/two of them have a SB ring. Blah, blah blah.” Why are people that say this so sanctimonious?

    Football is the ultimate TEAM sport. One player doesn’t make as much difference as it does in sports like the NBA or MLB. Brees, Mahomes, Brady, and any other SB-winning QBs only played QB. They didn’t catch the throws, they didn’t block for the rushers, they didn’t play on the defensive side of the football, and we know they didn’t play special teams, either. Those QBs didn’t win the SB by themselves, their team beat the other team. Period, end of story. They were put in the best possible position to be on the winning team. They may have helped their teams win, but they didn’t win it all by themselves.

  16. A bit premature to start this talk. Maybe after a few more years but to even say this because his stats pop over he mark for a bit in year 3 is a little ridiculous. And he missed most of a year, so their is still way to small a number set to make career type statements.

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