Quarterback Intended Air Yards Leaders
Quarterback Intended Air Yards — 2023 NFL leaders, updated Sep 29, 2026. Josh Allen (BUF) threw for the most intended air yards in the league at 5,022 across 35 qualifying players. Based on verified 2023 play-by-play data (nflverse); Half-PPR scoring. Through the 2023 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 | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Allen | 5,022 | 8.67 | 579 | 385 | 4,306 | 0.86 | |
| 2 | Jordan Love | 4,897 | 8.46 | 579 | 372 | 4,159 | 0.85 | |
| 3 | Baker Mayfield | 4,844 | 8.56 | 566 | 364 | 4,044 | 0.83 | |
| 4 | Jalen Hurts | 4,638 | 8.62 | 538 | 352 | 3,858 | 0.83 | |
| 5 | Trevor Lawrence | 4,613 | 8.18 | 564 | 370 | 4,016 | 0.87 | |
| 6 | Sam Howell | 4,588 | 7.50 | 612 | 388 | 3,946 | 0.86 | |
| 7 | Dak Prescott | 4,579 | 7.76 | 590 | 410 | 4,516 | 0.99 | |
| 8 | C.J. Stroud | 4,481 | 8.98 | 499 | 319 | 4,108 | 0.92 | |
| 9 | Tua Tagovailoa | 4,283 | 7.65 | 560 | 388 | 4,624 | 1.08 | |
| 10 | Derek Carr | 4,280 | 7.81 | 548 | 375 | 3,878 | 0.91 | |
| 11 | Jared Goff | 4,064 | 6.72 | 605 | 407 | 4,575 | 1.13 | |
| 12 | Matthew Stafford | 4,033 | 7.74 | 521 | 326 | 3,965 | 0.98 | |
| 13 | Bryce Young | 4,009 | 7.61 | 527 | 315 | 2,877 | 0.72 | |
| 14 | Patrick Mahomes | 3,873 | 6.49 | 597 | 401 | 4,183 | 1.08 | |
| 15 | Lamar Jackson | 3,840 | 8.40 | 457 | 307 | 3,678 | 0.96 | |
| 16 | Brock Purdy | 3,636 | 8.19 | 444 | 308 | 4,280 | 1.18 | |
| 17 | Gardner Minshew | 3,579 | 7.30 | 490 | 305 | 3,305 | 0.92 | |
| 18 | Geno Smith | 3,500 | 7.01 | 499 | 323 | 3,624 | 1.03 | |
| 19 | Justin Herbert | 3,490 | 7.65 | 456 | 297 | 3,134 | 0.90 | |
| 20 | Joshua Dobbs | 3,320 | 7.96 | 417 | 262 | 2,464 | 0.74 | |
| 21 | Russell Wilson | 3,189 | 7.13 | 447 | 297 | 3,070 | 0.96 | |
| 22 | Desmond Ridder | 3,184 | 8.21 | 388 | 249 | 2,836 | 0.89 | |
| 23 | Justin Fields | 2,961 | 8.00 | 370 | 227 | 2,562 | 0.86 | |
| 24 | Will Levis | 2,688 | 10.54 | 255 | 149 | 1,808 | 0.67 | |
| 25 | Zach Wilson | 2,672 | 7.26 | 368 | 221 | 2,271 | 0.85 | |
| 26 | Aidan O'Connell | 2,561 | 7.47 | 343 | 213 | 2,218 | 0.87 | |
| 27 | Mac Jones | 2,410 | 6.99 | 345 | 224 | 2,120 | 0.88 | |
| 28 | Joe Burrow | 2,347 | 6.43 | 365 | 244 | 2,309 | 0.98 | |
| 29 | Kenny Pickett | 2,288 | 7.06 | 324 | 201 | 2,070 | 0.91 | |
| 30 | Kirk Cousins | 2,252 | 7.24 | 311 | 216 | 2,331 | 1.03 | |
| 31 | Kyler Murray | 1,935 | 7.22 | 268 | 176 | 1,799 | 0.93 | |
| 32 | Joe Flacco | 1,910 | 9.36 | 204 | 123 | 1,616 | 0.85 | |
| 33 | Ryan Tannehill | 1,816 | 7.90 | 230 | 149 | 1,616 | 0.89 | |
| 34 | Bailey Zappe | 1,686 | 7.95 | 212 | 127 | 1,272 | 0.75 | |
| 35 | Jake Browning | 1,554 | 6.40 | 243 | 171 | 1,936 | 1.25 |
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
- QB Composite Rating
- 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
Follow the football you care about. Players, teams, stat boards — press Follow on any of them, and that is what your weekly email is made of. Nothing you didn't ask for.
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.