Which quarterbacks throw for the most yards on third down?
Dak Prescott leads all NFL quarterbacks with 1,190 passing yards on third down, on 97 completions and 6 passing touchdowns across 17 games.
NFL Quarterback Passing Yards on Third Down
Ranked by YDS · 2025 regular season| # | Player | YDS | ATT | CMP | CMP% | TD | GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dak Prescott Dallas Cowboys · #4 | 1,190 | 154 | 97 | 63.0% | 6 | 17 |
| 2 | Bo Nix Denver Broncos · #10 | 1,182 | 176 | 108 | 61.4% | 8 | 17 |
| 3 | Drake Maye New England Patriots · #10 | 1,153 | 128 | 80 | 62.5% | 8 | 17 |
| 4 | Trevor Lawrence Jacksonville Jaguars · #16 | 1,111 | 132 | 75 | 56.8% | 6 | 17 |
| 5 | Jordan Love Green Bay Packers · #10 | 1,084 | 117 | 70 | 59.8% | 7 | 15 |
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Open this in the Stat Explorer →Why this matters
Passing downs strip away the disguise. Both sides know a throw is likely, so the yardage produced here comes against a defense already built to stop it, whether the call is a quick, safe target just past the marker or something deeper against a defense willing to gamble on a rush. It is a purer measure of production against expectation than yardage gained on any other down.
A large total can say as much about a struggling offense as it does about a thriving offense. A team that consistently fails to move the chains earlier in a series will see more of these snaps over a season than a team that stays ahead of the count, which hands its quarterback more opportunities to pad the number than a passer whose offense rarely needs to lean on the play at all.
Look at how often a team actually faces this down before crediting the yardage entirely to the passer. The number rewards very different quarterbacks equally: a passer bailing out an offense that stalls constantly, and a passer padding an already efficient attack with long, low-value gains after the game is already decided.