Passer Rating is a better metric than some made up ESPN garbage that you can't even calculate, examine, or critique for yourself.
One thing that I've always felt is a problem with the passer rating statistic is that I think it places too much weight on completion percentage. I think that yards per pass attempt, touchdown rate, and interception rate, are all more important when you try to determine whether or not a team has an effective passing game. With that said, I've also seen intelligent football people argue that a completed pass, even for three yards, still has value. The reasoning being that you force the defense to try to shed blocks and rally to the football. In other words, you tire the defense more with a completed pass, even if it's a crap pass, than when the ball hits the turf.
Ultimately, what really matters for team success in the passing game is touchdown rate and interception rate. You can look at any specific statistic for a team's passing game, but NOTHING has a higher correlation for regular season wins than the touchdown-interception rate differential. That is, touchdown % minus interception %. If you isolate that from the passer rating, it's more valuable than yards per attempt, completion percentage, or any of that other stuff. It means that you can get the ball in the end zone when you throw it, and that you aren't turning it over too much.
Right now, Ryan Tannehill's differential is a VERY good 3.9%. He's got an abnormally high touchdown percentage of 7.8% (that will go down) and a higher than usual interception rate of 3.9%. In two games, with Miami leading the league in rushing percentage, you can obviously say that's due to small sample size. But it's a good start. If our passing offense continues throwing touchdowns at a high clip, and avoids interceptions, the Dolphins will absolutely make the playoffs.
