Average Length of Passing Touchdown (Updated Through 2017)

by Chase Stuart on August 13, 2018

Yesterday, I looked at a larger percentage of touchdown passes are coming from shorter distances. While longer touchdown throws used to rule the day, about two-thirds of all touchdown passes now come from inside the red zone.

The average touchdown pass was, at one point, north of 30 yards. Now? It’s south of 20 yards:

Three years ago, I wrote about the average length of touchdown pass. Let’s update that post today, using all quarterbacks who either threw 100+ career touchdown passes or threw a touchdown pass in 2017 and have at least 20 career touchdown passes. Ed Brown is your career leader, although if we raise the limit to 125 touchdowns, Norm Van Brocklin would still be your career leader:

Rk	Quarterback	Last Yr	TD Pass	Yds on TD Pass	Avg Length
1	Ed Brown	1965	102	3569	35.0
2	Billy Wade	1964	124	3859	31.1
3	Norm Van Brocklin	1960	173	5348	30.9
4	Otto Graham	1955	174	5313	30.5
5	Dan Pastorini	1981	103	3053	29.6
6	Sid Luckman	1950	139	4069	29.3
7	Jack Kemp	1969	114	3246	28.5
8	Bart Starr	1970	152	4250	28.0
9	Jim Hart	1983	209	5829	27.9
10	Earl Morrall	1976	161	4435	27.5
11	Babe Parilli	1969	178	4826	27.1
12	Eddie LeBaron	1963	104	2813	27.0
13	Tobin Rote	1964	148	4003	27.0
14	John Hadl	1976	244	6572	26.9
15	Len Dawson	1975	239	6433	26.9
16	Y.A. Tittle	1964	244	6507	26.7
17	Charley Johnson	1975	170	4524	26.6
18	Joe Namath	1977	173	4584	26.5
19	Daryle Lamonica	1974	164	4340	26.5
20	Bobby Layne	1962	196	5169	26.4
21	Sammy Baugh	1952	187	4900	26.2
22	Milt Plum	1968	122	3192	26.2
23	Johnny Unitas	1973	290	7547	26.0
24	Jim Zorn	1985	111	2868	25.8
25	Chris Chandler	2004	170	4377	25.7
26	John Brodie	1973	214	5508	25.7
27	Jim McMahon	1994	100	2529	25.3
28	Norm Snead	1975	196	4951	25.3
29	Charlie Conerly	1961	173	4289	24.8
30	Sonny Jurgensen	1974	255	6307	24.7
31	Frank Ryan	1968	149	3685	24.7
32	Steve Grogan	1990	182	4493	24.7
33	Craig Morton	1981	183	4511	24.7
34	George Blanda	1974	235	5784	24.6
35	Roman Gabriel	1976	201	4840	24.1
36	Jim Plunkett	1986	164	3942	24.0
37	Doug Williams	1989	100	2402	24.0
38	Jay Schroeder	1994	114	2735	24.0
39	Ken O'Brien	1993	128	3057	23.9
40	Ken Anderson	1986	197	4690	23.8
41	Trent Dilfer	2007	113	2689	23.8
42	Bernie Kosar	1996	124	2930	23.6
43	Don Meredith	1968	135	3181	23.6
44	Steve Bartkowski	1986	156	3645	23.4
45	Chris Miller	1999	123	2867	23.3
46	Roger Staubach	1979	153	3546	23.2
47	Fran Tarkenton	1978	342	7851	23.0
48	Joe Montana	1994	273	6256	22.9
49	Randall Cunningham	2001	207	4739	22.9
50	Richard Todd	1985	124	2792	22.5
51	Mark Rypien	1996	115	2577	22.4
52	Jim Kelly	1996	237	5297	22.4
53	Jim Harbaugh	2000	129	2878	22.3
54	Blaine Gabbert	2017	44	978	22.2
55	Nick Foles	2017	61	1346	22.1
56	Bill Kenney	1987	105	2310	22.0
57	Kirk Cousins	2017	99	2177	22.0
58	Jeff Garcia	2008	161	3539	22.0
59	Jeff George	2000	154	3366	21.9
60	Bert Jones	1982	124	2708	21.8
61	Ron Jaworski	1989	179	3904	21.8
62	Dan Fouts	1987	254	5532	21.8
63	Tyrod Taylor	2017	51	1106	21.7
64	Lynn Dickey	1985	141	3054	21.7
65	Frankie Albert	1952	115	2461	21.4
66	Archie Manning	1984	125	2673	21.4
67	Jeff Blake	2005	134	2863	21.4
68	Jim Everett	1997	203	4325	21.3
69	Ken Stabler	1984	194	4129	21.3
70	Tony Romo	2016	245	5210	21.3
71	Terry Bradshaw	1983	212	4493	21.2
72	Steve Young	1999	232	4910	21.2
73	Tommy Kramer	1989	159	3365	21.2
74	Joe Ferguson	1989	196	4148	21.2
75	Danny White	1988	155	3266	21.1
76	Daunte Culpepper	2009	149	3133	21.0
77	Alex Smith	2017	183	3839	21.0
78	Neil O'Donnell	2003	120	2515	21.0
79	Kerry Collins	2011	208	4350	20.9
80	Trent Green	2007	162	3381	20.9
81	John Elway	1998	300	6243	20.8
82	Neil Lomax	1988	136	2828	20.8
83	Warren Moon	2000	291	6022	20.7
84	Cam Newton	2017	158	3250	20.6
85	Boomer Esiason	1997	247	5060	20.5
86	Gus Frerotte	2008	114	2332	20.5
87	Brad Johnson	2008	166	3394	20.4
88	Case Keenum	2017	46	938	20.4
89	Jake Delhomme	2011	126	2569	20.4
90	Geno Smith	2017	29	585	20.2
91	Matt Moore	2017	45	903	20.1
92	Eli Manning	2017	339	6802	20.1
93	Billy Kilmer	1978	152	3049	20.1
94	Joe Flacco	2017	200	4010	20.1
95	Phil Simms	1993	199	3972	20.0
96	Steve Beuerlein	2003	147	2933	20.0
97	Brian Sipe	1983	154	3072	19.9
98	Vinny Testaverde	2007	275	5484	19.9
99	Trevor Siemian	2017	30	593	19.8
100	Andrew Luck	2016	132	2597	19.7
101	Joe Theismann	1985	160	3133	19.6
102	Andy Dalton	2017	165	3219	19.5
103	Josh McCown	2017	97	1891	19.5
104	Donovan McNabb	2011	234	4559	19.5
105	Bob Griese	1980	192	3732	19.4
106	Carson Palmer	2017	294	5714	19.4
107	Dan Marino	1999	420	8160	19.4
108	Steve McNair	2007	174	3352	19.3
109	Dave Krieg	1996	261	5019	19.2
110	Dak Prescott	2017	45	865	19.2
111	Michael Vick	2015	133	2553	19.2
112	Aaron Brooks	2006	123	2358	19.2
113	Ben Roethlisberger	2017	326	6188	19.0
114	Derek Carr	2017	103	1954	19.0
115	Troy Aikman	2000	165	3126	18.9
116	Drew Brees	2017	488	9232	18.9
117	Peyton Manning	2015	539	10194	18.9
118	Philip Rivers	2017	342	6468	18.9
119	Aaron Rodgers	2017	313	5918	18.9
120	Steve DeBerg	1998	196	3682	18.8
121	Brian Griese	2008	119	2220	18.7
122	Brett Favre	2010	508	9376	18.5
123	Mark Brunell	2010	184	3394	18.4
124	Russell Wilson	2017	161	2966	18.4
125	Rich Gannon	2004	180	3308	18.4
126	Matt Schaub	2015	133	2444	18.4
127	Marc Bulger	2009	122	2236	18.3
128	Jon Kitna	2011	169	3090	18.3
129	Marcus Mariota	2017	58	1058	18.2
130	Bobby Hebert	1996	135	2461	18.2
131	Carson Wentz	2017	49	891	18.2
132	Matt Cassel	2017	104	1874	18.0
133	Ryan Fitzpatrick	2017	173	3112	18.0
134	Matt Ryan	2017	260	4664	17.9
135	Jake Plummer	2006	161	2879	17.9
136	Jared Goff	2017	33	587	17.8
137	Drew Bledsoe	2006	251	4463	17.8
138	Kurt Warner	2009	208	3680	17.7
139	Chad Pennington	2009	102	1796	17.6
140	Brock Osweiler	2017	31	543	17.5
141	Tom Brady	2017	488	8506	17.4
142	Jameis Winston	2017	69	1201	17.4
143	Kyle Orton	2014	101	1757	17.4
144	Matthew Stafford	2017	214	3658	17.1
145	Ryan Tannehill	2016	106	1808	17.1
146	Jay Cutler	2017	227	3868	17.0
147	Matt Hasselbeck	2015	212	3594	17.0
148	Sam Bradford	2017	101	1670	16.5
149	Blake Bortles	2017	90	1427	15.9
150	Brian Hoyer	2017	48	751	15.6
151	Mike Glennon	2017	34	523	15.4

Some thoughts:

Peyton Manning is the only player to gain over 10,000 yards just on his touchdown passes.

Among the next three leaders in touchdown passes, you might be surprised to see that Drew Brees has the longest average touchdown pass (18.9 yards), followed by Brett Favre (18.5) and then Tom Brady (17.4). Brady has actually raised his average over the last three years, which used to be under 17 yards.

Mike Glennon, Brian Hoyer, and Blake Bortles are the only three quarterbacks with an average touchdown pass that was under 16 yards. Sam Bradford has the lowest average if you raise the minimum to 100 passing touchdowns.

It’s always fun seeing Bart Starr high on these lists. By the time Starr threw his first touchdown pass of less than three yards, he had already won five championships! He threw just one touchdown pass of 1-yard in his entire career, in 1968.

Jim Hart really stands out for his high average length (27.9) and for playing into the ’80s, while throwing 201 touchdowns. Hart threw the most touchdown passes of 40+ yards in the ’70s, with a lot of those going to Mel Gray.

What stands out to you?

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