Air yards share
Air yards are the distance a pass travels past the line of scrimmage, thrown or caught; air yards share is a receiver's cut of his team's total. Jaxon Smith-Njigba of the Seahawks led 2025 at 50.0%.
Every target carries air yards whether or not the ball is caught, because the throw was still aimed that far downfield. Summing them and dividing by the team total gives air yards share. It measures how much of the downfield passing game runs through one player.
Air Yards Share — 2026 leaders
| # | Player | AY Share | Tgt Share | Tgt | Yds | RACR | YAC OE | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carnell Tate | 48.9% | 25.9% | 37 | 274 | 0.56 | -24.0 | Read |
| 2 | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | 48.4% | 35.1% | 66 | 717 | 1.03 | -3.1 | Read |
| 3 | Chris Olave | 46.1% | 27.7% | 54 | 537 | 0.74 | -59.3 | Read |
| 4 | Denzel Boston | 45.5% | 19.7% | 29 | 330 | 0.69 | 54.8 | Read |
| 5 | Drake London | 43.8% | 28.3% | 36 | 488 | 1.49 | 73.8 | Read |
| 6 | Mike Evans | 43.4% | 24.8% | 34 | 326 | 0.69 | -39.1 | Read |
| 7 | Garrett Wilson | 43.2% | 30.2% | 42 | 374 | 0.92 | -36.2 | Read |
| 8 | Tee Higgins | 42.5% | 23.1% | 43 | 423 | 0.74 | -4.6 | Read |
| 9 | Parker Washington | 41.4% | 25.5% | 35 | 352 | 0.79 | 10.3 | Read |
| 10 | Matthew Golden | 38.1% | 24.3% | 44 | 397 | 0.65 | 16.5 | Read |
Why it matters
Air yards share is the deep-threat counterpart to target share, and it repeats nearly as hard: 0.79 year over year across 745 qualifying pairs. Jaxon Smith-Njigba led at 50.0% with Tetairoa McMillan of the Panthers second at 43.3%. A receiver with a big air yards share and a modest target share is a boom-week profile; the reverse is a possession role. Neither is better — they price differently.
The counter
Air yards accrue on incompletions too, so a high share can describe a player being missed a lot.
More football stats explained
- EPA (expected points added)
- EPA per dropback
- Success rate
- CPOE (completion percentage over expected)
- ANY/A (adjusted net yards per attempt)
- RYOE (rushing yards over expected)
- Target share
- WOPR (weighted opportunity rating)
- aDOT (average depth of target)
- YAC over expected
- Separation
- Pressure rate
- Blitz rate
- Man and zone coverage splits
- PROE (pass rate over expected)
- Stacked box rate
- Half-PPR (and how it differs from full PPR)
- The usage gap (snaps versus production)
- Pythagorean wins
- Stickiness (what repeats and what does not)
- Snap share
- Pass-snap share
- YPRR (yards per route run)
- Availability (the “stayed” rate)
- Handcuff
- Play-action rate
- Pre-snap motion rate
- Drop rate
- Contested catch rate
- Interception-worthy throws
- Quarterback-fault sacks
- Intended air yards (IAY)
- Deep ball rate
- QB Composite Rating
- Screen pass rate
- No-huddle rate
- RPO rate
- Light box rate
- Throwaway rate
- Catchable throw rate
- Out-of-pocket rate
- Time to throw
- Aggressiveness
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