400 Yard Passing Games And the WR/TE/RB Breakdown

by Chase Stuart on September 19, 2017

in Checkdowns, Statgeekery

I like trivia, and Chris Brown asked me a good question on twitter yesterday:

Tom Brady threw for 449 yards vs NO, with only 183 to WRs. When is the last time a QB threw for 400+ with less than 50% to WRs? @fbgchase

— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 18, 2017

The game Brown was referencing was the Patriots performance against the Saints in week 2 of the 2017 season. Here was the receiving breakdown on the New England side:


Player	Tm	Pass Yd	Rec Yd
Rob Gronkowski	NWE	0	116
James White	NWE	0	85
Chris Hogan	NWE	0	78
Phillip Dorsett	NWE	0	68
Rex Burkhead	NWE	0	41
Brandin Cooks	NWE	0	37
Dion Lewis	NWE	0	11
James Develin	NWE	0	6
Jacob Hollister	NWE	0	5
Tom Brady	NWE	447	0

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table

Brady threw for 183 yards to his wide receivers (Hogan, Dorsett, and Cooks), 143 yards to running backs (White, Burkhead, Lewis, Develin) and 121 yards to his tight ends (Gronkowski and Hollister). So that means Brady threw for 400+ passing yards with just 40% of his passing yards coming from his wide receivers.

Based on my research ^[1]And I admit there may be some bugs in here when it comes to position designation: records are not always perfect as to what position a player played. And while this post looks at games where an … Continue reading, there have been two 400-yard passers who threw for less than 100 yards to his wide receiver.

The most recent was this game by Matt Schaub against the Raiders in 2011, when he threw for just 99 yards to his wide receivers. In that game, RB Arian Foster and TE Joel Dreesen both went over 100 yards, and TE Owen Daniels had 89 yards. The other was also against the Raiders, by Dan Fouts in 1985. RB Lionel James had 168 yards, RB Gary Anderson had 84 yards, and TEs Kellen Winslow and Pete Holhan had 35 and 23 yards, respectively.

The table below shows all 400-yard individual passing games from 1960 to 2016, along with the WR/TE/RB breakdown. The year column provides a clickable link to the game’s boxscore.

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Player	Team	Opp	Year/Box	Pass Yd	WR Yd	TE Yd	RB Yd	WR %	TE %	RB %
Drew Brees	nor	rai	2016	423	373	6	44	88%	1%	10%
Matt Ryan	atl	car	2016	503	419	45	39	83%	9%	8%
Eli Manning	nyg	rav	2016	403	302	49	52	75%	12%	13%
Jameis Winston	tam	ram	2016	405	275	53	77	68%	13%	19%
Derek Carr	rai	tam	2016	513	350	68	95	68%	13%	19%
Tom Brady	nwe	atl	2016	466	292	62	112	63%	13%	24%
Tom Brady	nwe	rav	2016	406	243	70	93	60%	17%	23%
Drew Brees	nor	car	2016	465	328	97	40	71%	21%	9%
Ben Roethlisberger	pit	dal	2016	408	235	96	77	58%	24%	19%
Kirk Cousins	was	dal	2016	449	264	163	22	59%	36%	5%
Kirk Cousins	was	cin	2016	458	239	192	27	52%	42%	6%
Tom Brady	nwe	cle	2016	406	167	176	63	41%	43%	16%
Matthew Stafford	det	chi	2015	405	317	17	71	78%	4%	18%
Carson Palmer	crd	pit	2015	421	339	22	60	81%	5%	14%
Drew Brees	nor	jax	2015	412	243	34	135	59%	8%	33%
Ben Roethlisberger	pit	sea	2015	456	321	59	110	66%	12%	22%
Philip Rivers	sdg	det	2015	403	277	74	52	69%	18%	13%
Eli Manning	nyg	sfo	2015	441	251	83	107	57%	19%	24%
Kellen Moore	dal	was	2015	435	297	86	52	68%	20%	12%
Philip Rivers	sdg	gnb	2015	503	270	130	103	54%	26%	20%

Showing 1 to 20 of 321 entries

Enjoy!

References[+]

References
↑1	And I admit there may be some bugs in here when it comes to position designation: records are not always perfect as to what position a player played. And while this post looks at games where an individual quarterback threw for 400+ yards, there are some games where multiple passers played. As a result, the team receiving yards could (and do, in some cases) exceed the total passing yards by the individual quarterback.

Tagged as: Tom Brady

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