During the 2013 season, I crunched the numbers to determine that Chris Johnson was the career leader in average length of rushing touchdown (since then, his average has dropped to 25.8, allowing Robert Smith to regain the top spot). Last year, I did the same analaysis to show that Homer Jones is the career leader in average length of receiving touchdown . Today, we look at the average length of passing touchdowns for over a hundred quarterbacks.

The table below shows the average and median length of touchdown passes for each quarterback with at least 125 career passing touchdowns. Playoff touchdowns are included in this data set. Norm Van Brocklin is your career leader, although it is Otto Graham who is the leader in median touchdown length; as such, the Van Brocklin/Graham debate must rage on.

As you can see, Tom Brady is last on the list in both average and median touchdown length. Among players with more than 80 touchdown passes, Brady is the only one who has thrown at least half (225 of 445) his touchdown passes from inside of 10 yards. Last year, 18 of Brady’s 33 regular season touchdown passes were 9 yards or shorter, as were 5 of his 9 touchdown throws (all five came from inside the 5-yard line).

If we drop the minimum to 25 touchdown passes, Christian Ponder and Ryan Tannehill would replace Brady; each has an average passing touchdown length of just 13.8 yards. Tannehill does have a slightly more respectable median length of 10 yards, at least relative to Ponder’s 8.5 yards. But Sam Bradford takes the cake, with a median touchdown length of just 7.0 yards!

You may not think of quarterbacks like Bart Starr and Len Dawson as downfield, aggressive throwers, but they certainly fare well here. Of course, the lack of any short touchdown passes helps boost their averages.

Take a minute to bask in the verticalness of Chris Chandler. There are 21 quarterbacks with an average passing touchdown length of at least 25 yards. Only two played in the ’80s: Jim Hart, who retired in 1984, and Chandler, who retired in 2004. If we were to era-adjust things, Chandler would surely stand out as one of the leaders in this metric (as would Hart, who ranks 5th despite playing into the ’80s).

What stands out to you?