Any given Sunday ... every quarterback has a shot to sit atop the Total QBR leaderboard. While QBs are most often judged by wins and losses or touchdowns and interceptions, we like to rank them every week by the stat that measures their per-play contribution to their team's cause.
An explainer of QBR can be found here, but the main idea is to capture more elements of a quarterback's play than traditional methods consider. QBR includes the value (or lack thereof) of quarterback rushing, sacks, fumbles, relevant penalties and -- crucially -- the down and distance of every play. QBR works on a zero-to-100 scale, with 50 being roughly average and 75 about Pro Bowl-caliber.
Each Tuesday in this space, we'll highlight the best and worst QBR performances from the NFL weekend and break down what made each quarterback perform at either extreme.
Which quarterbacks were the best and worst in Week 11?
Top three
1. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints
Total QBR: 97.2
Yes, Brees has some talented players around him. But make no mistake -- it's not like those playmakers are carrying the veteran QB to his monster numbers this season.
Just 40 percent of Brees' targets are open and 17 percent wide open, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, both below-average rates. His completion percentage above average is best in the league. And the pass blocking in front of him is merely average, per ESPN's pass block win rate metric. -- Walder
2. Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts
Total QBR: 96.2
The Colts have thrived with a now-coalesced offensive line in front of Luck. Interestingly, that still hasn't translated to Luck throwing downfield. Entering the season, Luck averaged 8.8 air yards per attempt, but that number has dropped to just 7.2 this year.
Give credit to the Colts' quarterback for making it work. And this week, in the team's blowout win over the Titans, the offensive line was only average (according to pass block win rate), and Luck still managed to dominate with his short passes. -- Walder
3. Jameis Winston, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Total QBR: 89.5
Although he did not enter the game until late in the third quarter, Winston packed a lot of action into a relatively short amount of game time. His 21 action plays just clears the bar for a weekly qualifier, as he nearly rallied the Buccaneers from a 17-point deficit on Sunday.
Winston led the Bucs on four consecutive touchdown-scoring drives but could not get a stop from his defense until time had nearly expired. He had to be aggressive and was largely successful in doing so. Only three of his pass attempts traveled fewer than 5 yards past the line of scrimmage, and of those that did travel at least 5 yards downfield or more, only two were not completed.
He did toss an interception as time was nearly out, but its effect was muted, as the Bucs were at their own 20-yard line with 23 seconds left and no timeouts. -- Gargiulo
Just missed: Mitchell Trubisky, Chicago Bears (85.3); Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams (79.3)
Bottom three
1. Josh Rosen, Arizona Cardinals
Total QBR: 3.8
There are bad games, and then there are bad games against the Raiders. It's an entirely separate category reserved only for the poorest of quarterback showings. And that's exactly what Rosen had on Sunday.
Against the league's second-worst defense, according to FPI, Rosen threw two costly interceptions into tight coverage. Rosen actually wasn't pressured much on Sunday, but when he was, he ran into trouble, completing just one pass on five attempts (one interception and one sack). -- Walder
2. Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles
Total QBR: 9.5
Wentz and the Eagles never got out of first gear against the Saints on Sunday afternoon, leading to the lowest Total QBR of Wentz's career and a Saints rout.
He started slow, completing as many passes to his own team (one) as he did to the opposition in the first quarter. Wentz struggled completing the deep ball, failing to hit on a single pass 15 or more yards downfield. All three of his interceptions came on deep attempts, a career high. -- Gargiulo
3. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Total QBR: 21.7
Stop me if you have heard this one before, but Fitzpatrick was pulled from a start because he threw too many interceptions. He has now thrown seven interceptions in his three starts since being reinserted as QB1 in Week 9, most in the NFL.
On top of his interception issues, Fitzpatrick failed to convert a sneak attempt near the Giants' goal line while down seven points early in the game. That failure cost him more in terms of expected points added than his interception near the end of the first half.
One bright spot? When the Bucs actually let him throw the ball on third down, he completed 3-of-4 passes with two first downs. Unfortunately on second down, he was only 2-of-7 with all three of his interceptions. -- Gargiulo
Just missed: Marcus Mariota, Tennessee Titans (23.6); Deshaun Watson, Houston Texans (23.7)