It’s a good thing we have Kirk Cousins, the 2019 NFL said. The Vikings quarterback leads the league with four touchdown passes of 50+ yards, with three of them going to Stefon Diggs. Daniel Jones, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Dak Prescott are the only other passers with three such touchdowns.

The graph below shows the amount of 50+ yard passing touchdowns in each season since 1950, graphed on a per-16 team game basis.

As Adam noted in the comments a week ago, there have been fewer big pass plays this season. That isn’t quite reflected in this chart (which only looks at touchdowns), but there is still a small dropoff.

And, of course, a huge dropoff from the late ’60s. In 1968; there were a whopping 96 touchdown passes in only 364 team games. The charge was led by AFL stars John Hadl (10, with three apiece to Lance Alworth, Gary Garrison, and Jacque MacKinnon), Len Dawson (6, with half to Frank Pitts), and Joe Namath (5, all to Don Maynard). The next year, however, the total dropped by 30 to just 66 in the same 364 games. Hadl and Dawson threw just two long touchdowns that season.  The big jump year was ’98, which was fueled by Antonio Freeman (6) and Randy Moss (5).

What else stands out to you?