Quarterback Intended Air Yards Leaders
Quarterback Intended Air Yards — 2021 NFL leaders, updated Aug 13, 2026. Tom Brady (TB) threw for the most intended air yards in the league at 5,804 across 33 qualifying players. Based on verified 2021 play-by-play data (nflverse); Half-PPR scoring. Through the 2021 season.
Intended air yards add up the distance each pass travelled past the line of scrimmage, whether it was caught, dropped or thrown away. Because the receiver is left out of it entirely, the total is a record of what a quarterback and his coordinator tried to do rather than what came of it: two passers can finish within a hundred yards of each other and be a thousand apart here, and the gap is the offense's appetite for throwing downfield. Read the per-attempt figure next to the total — the total rewards volume, the rate does not.
| # | Player | IAY | IAY/Att | Att | Cmp | Yds | PACR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Brady | 5,804 | 8.07 | 719 | 485 | 5,316 | 0.92 |
| 2 | Josh Allen | 5,295 | 8.20 | 646 | 409 | 4,407 | 0.83 |
| 3 | Matthew Stafford | 5,094 | 8.48 | 601 | 404 | 4,886 | 0.96 |
| 4 | Derek Carr | 5,084 | 8.12 | 626 | 428 | 4,804 | 0.94 |
| 5 | Justin Herbert | 5,058 | 7.53 | 672 | 443 | 5,014 | 0.99 |
| 6 | Patrick Mahomes | 4,829 | 7.34 | 658 | 436 | 4,839 | 1.00 |
| 7 | Trevor Lawrence | 4,738 | 7.87 | 602 | 359 | 3,641 | 0.77 |
| 8 | Dak Prescott | 4,629 | 7.77 | 596 | 410 | 4,449 | 0.96 |
| 9 | Kirk Cousins | 4,573 | 8.15 | 561 | 372 | 4,221 | 0.92 |
| 10 | Joe Burrow | 4,227 | 8.13 | 520 | 366 | 4,611 | 1.09 |
| 11 | Mac Jones | 4,158 | 7.98 | 521 | 352 | 3,801 | 0.91 |
| 12 | Aaron Rodgers | 4,084 | 7.69 | 531 | 366 | 4,115 | 1.01 |
| 13 | Ben Roethlisberger | 4,069 | 6.73 | 605 | 390 | 3,740 | 0.92 |
| 14 | Matt Ryan | 4,002 | 7.15 | 560 | 375 | 3,968 | 0.99 |
| 15 | Russell Wilson | 3,955 | 9.89 | 400 | 259 | 3,113 | 0.79 |
| 16 | Ryan Tannehill | 3,954 | 7.45 | 531 | 357 | 3,734 | 0.94 |
| 17 | Carson Wentz | 3,937 | 7.63 | 516 | 322 | 3,563 | 0.91 |
| 18 | Jalen Hurts | 3,882 | 8.99 | 432 | 265 | 3,144 | 0.81 |
| 19 | Kyler Murray | 3,823 | 7.95 | 481 | 333 | 3,787 | 0.99 |
| 20 | Taylor Heinicke | 3,779 | 7.65 | 494 | 321 | 3,419 | 0.91 |
| 21 | Baker Mayfield | 3,659 | 8.75 | 418 | 253 | 3,010 | 0.82 |
| 22 | Lamar Jackson | 3,534 | 9.25 | 382 | 246 | 2,882 | 0.82 |
| 23 | Teddy Bridgewater | 3,424 | 8.04 | 426 | 285 | 3,052 | 0.89 |
| 24 | Jimmy Garoppolo | 3,306 | 7.50 | 441 | 301 | 3,810 | 1.15 |
| 25 | Jared Goff | 3,148 | 6.37 | 494 | 332 | 3,245 | 1.03 |
| 26 | Sam Darnold | 2,932 | 7.22 | 406 | 243 | 2,527 | 0.86 |
| 27 | Zach Wilson | 2,885 | 7.53 | 383 | 213 | 2,334 | 0.81 |
| 28 | Davis Mills | 2,869 | 7.28 | 394 | 263 | 2,664 | 0.93 |
| 29 | Tua Tagovailoa | 2,735 | 7.05 | 388 | 263 | 2,653 | 0.97 |
| 30 | Justin Fields | 2,645 | 9.80 | 270 | 159 | 1,870 | 0.71 |
| 31 | Daniel Jones | 2,640 | 7.31 | 361 | 232 | 2,428 | 0.92 |
| 32 | Jacoby Brissett | 1,703 | 7.57 | 225 | 141 | 1,283 | 0.75 |
| 33 | Andy Dalton | 1,643 | 6.96 | 236 | 149 | 1,515 | 0.92 |
Other seasons
Choosing between two of these players?
Both men's 2025 production side by side, and which of them rests on inputs that historically repeat.
More leaderboards
- Rushing Yards Over Expected
- Target Share
- Running Back Receiving Efficiency
- Completion Percentage Over Expected
- Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt
- Quarterback Pressure Rate
- Defensive Blitz Rate
- Quarterbacks vs Man and Zone Coverage
- Pass Rate Over Expected
- Clean-Core Rating
- Usage vs Production
- Team Expected Points Added
- Quarterback EPA per Dropback
- Air Yards Share
- Stacked Box Rate
- Regression Flags
- Weighted Opportunity Rating
- Snap Share
- Pass-Snap Share
- Receiving Yards per Pass Snap
- Availability
- Tight End Receiving Efficiency
- Tight End Average Depth of Target
- Stat Stickiness
- Play-Action Rate
- Pre-Snap Motion Rate
- Drop Rate
- Contested Catch Rate
- Interception-Worthy Throw Rate
- Quarterback-Fault Sack Rate
- Team Air Yards and Passing Volume
- Receiver Separation and Cushion
- Wide Receiver Receiving Efficiency
- Team Success Rate and Explosive Play Rate
- Goal-Line Usage
- Quarterback Deep Ball
- Team Pace
The weekly insights email. One story a week about what actually happened in the NFL — every number verified.
Get the story behind the numbers
The same AI that built these tables reads every play of every game and tells you what actually happened — as pages you can read and shows you can listen to, from this same verified data.
Drafting this month? Follow the guys you end up with, and your first weekly email lands Week 1 — the real plays and the real numbers behind everyone on your list.
Follow your guys — free →Ask this data a question
Every figure on this page comes out of Muffed's verified panel — and you can query the whole thing in plain English. No account, no key. Ask the data →
Use Muffed in your AI
Ask Claude or ChatGPT football questions and get these verified figures back, with sources. Add https://muffed.ai/api/mcp — free, no account, no API key.