Patrick Mahomes has the most NFL passing yards since 2020, throwing for 26,527 yards across the 2020 through 2025 regular seasons. Jared Goff ranks second with 25,403, Josh Allen is third with 24,939 and Justin Herbert is fourth with 24,820.
This leaderboard freezes the window at six completed seasons. Postseason statistics and all 2026 results are excluded. Five quarterbacks surpassed 23,000 passing yards, while every quarterback in the top 10 cleared 19,000.
Total passing yards determine the order. This is not a ranking of the NFL’s best quarterbacks because efficiency, rushing production, playoff results and awards do not affect placement. For the complete career list, see the NFL’s all-time passing yards leaders.
Table of Contents
Methodology and Scope
The ranking measures total NFL regular-season passing yards accumulated from the start of the 2020 season through the end of the 2025 season. Each quarterback’s yards from those six seasons are combined, even if he changed teams, missed time or entered the league after 2020.
Players are ordered strictly by passing yards. Passing touchdowns, completion percentage, passer rating, rushing statistics and postseason production provide context but cannot change the rank. The top-50 dataset contains 50 distinct totals, so no shared ranks are required at the cutoff.
The fixed endpoint matters. The 2026 season is outside the dataset, which keeps every total and comparison tied to the same completed six-season window. Availability remains a major part of any cumulative leaderboard: Josh Allen played 100 games during the span, while Joe Burrow reached seventh place in only 77.
Top 10 NFL Passing Yard Leaders Since 2020
10. Aaron Rodgers: 19,328 Passing Yards
Aaron Rodgers holds the final top-10 spot with 19,328 passing yards. His back-to-back MVP seasons supplied much of the total: he threw for 4,299 yards in 2020 and 4,115 in 2021 with the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers still reached the top 10 despite recording zero passing yards in 2023 after tearing his Achilles on the New York Jets’ opening possession. Missing almost an entire season makes his 10th-place finish more notable, although the gap to Dak Prescott in ninth is 883 yards.
9. Dak Prescott: 20,211 Passing Yards
Dak Prescott accumulated 20,211 yards in 75 games, the fewest appearances among the five quarterbacks ranked sixth through 10th. He played only five games in 2020 and eight in 2024, but still produced three seasons with at least 4,400 passing yards.
His 4,552 yards in 2025 moved him above Rodgers and pushed his six-season total past 20,000. Prescott also averaged 269.5 passing yards per game across the window, fourth among all 50 quarterbacks in the complete table.
8. Kirk Cousins: 20,593 Passing Yards
Kirk Cousins ranks eighth with 20,593 passing yards. He cleared 4,200 yards in each season from 2020 through 2022 with Minnesota, building enough early volume to remain in the top 10 after an Achilles injury ended his 2023 season after eight games.
Cousins later added to the total in Atlanta. His final margin over Prescott is 382 yards, one of several close gaps in the middle of the top 10.
7. Joe Burrow: 20,810 Passing Yards
Joe Burrow reached 20,810 yards in only 77 games, giving him the most passing yards per game among the quarterbacks ranked sixth through 10th. His 270.3-yard average trails only Tom Brady, Mahomes and Prescott across the full top 50.
Injuries shortened Burrow’s 2020, 2023 and 2025 seasons, but his healthy stretches generated enough volume to keep him seventh. His career-high 4,918 yards led the NFL in 2024. For the league’s biggest individual passing seasons, see the single-season passing yard leaders.
6. Baker Mayfield: 20,973 Passing Yards
Baker Mayfield ranks sixth with 20,973 yards, only 163 more than Burrow. He accumulated the total through several different situations, beginning the window in Cleveland, splitting 2022 between Carolina and Los Angeles, then rebuilding his career with Tampa Bay.
Mayfield’s Buccaneers run supplied his biggest back-to-back stretch, including 4,044 yards in 2023 and 4,500 in 2024. His 93 games helped create the volume, but his late-window production is what separated him from Burrow, Cousins, Prescott and Rodgers.
5. Matthew Stafford: 23,491 Passing Yards
Matthew Stafford opens the top five with 23,491 yards. He spent 2020 with Detroit before joining the Los Angeles Rams, then continued producing high-volume seasons into his late 30s.
Stafford led the NFL with 4,707 passing yards in 2025. That season created a 2,518-yard advantage over Mayfield, the largest gap between consecutive quarterbacks anywhere in the top 10.
4. Justin Herbert: 24,820 Passing Yards
Justin Herbert’s entire NFL career through 2025 fits inside this leaderboard because he entered the league in 2020. He immediately handled one of the NFL’s largest passing workloads and topped 5,000 yards in his second season.
Herbert finished the six-year window with 24,820 yards in 95 games. Only 119 yards separate him from Allen, the smallest gap between consecutive players in the top 10.
3. Josh Allen: 24,939 Passing Yards
Josh Allen ranks third with 24,939 yards and leads the entire top 50 with 100 games played during the window. The 2020 season marked his breakout as a high-volume passer, and Buffalo continued placing a large share of the offense in his hands throughout the next five years.
This table excludes Allen’s rushing production, which is a major part of his overall value. Even on passing yards alone, he finished just 464 yards behind Goff while holding the narrow 119-yard edge over Herbert.
2. Jared Goff: 25,403 Passing Yards
Jared Goff ranks second with 25,403 yards in 97 games. He opened the period with the Los Angeles Rams before the 2021 trade to Detroit, where consistent availability and a high-volume offense moved him into the decade’s top tier.
Goff ended the window 1,124 yards behind Mahomes. That is a meaningful lead for Mahomes, but still close enough that Goff’s six-year consistency deserves more attention than a simple second-place label suggests.
1. Patrick Mahomes: 26,527 Passing Yards
Patrick Mahomes leads all NFL quarterbacks with 26,527 regular-season passing yards from 2020 through 2025. His best season came in 2022, when he threw for 5,250 yards and led the league.
Mahomes did not need the most games to take first place. He played 95, five fewer than Allen and two fewer than Goff, while averaging 279.2 yards per game. Only Brady averaged more among the full top 50. That combination of durability and rate production explains the 1,124-yard lead.
Mahomes has also moved quickly through his franchise’s record book. See his position among the Kansas City Chiefs’ career passing leaders.
What the Full Passing Yards Leaderboard Shows
Mahomes Combined Volume With a Top-Two Passing Rate
Availability drives cumulative totals, but Mahomes did more than stay on the field. His 279.2 passing yards per game rank second in this 50-player dataset behind Brady’s 292.9. Mahomes leading the total without leading in games played shows that his place at No. 1 is supported by both workload and production rate.
A Clear Five-Quarterback Group Formed at the Top
Mahomes, Goff, Allen, Herbert and Stafford all cleared 23,000 yards. The next quarterback, Mayfield, finished 2,518 yards behind Stafford. No other adjacent gap in the top 50 comes close to that separation, making the top five the clearest statistical tier in the leaderboard.
The Middle of the Table Contains Several Near-Ties
Daniel Jones finished 13 yards ahead of Brady for 19th. Ryan Tannehill beat Brock Purdy by 20 yards for 23rd, while Andy Dalton led Deshaun Watson by 11 for 34th. The smallest gap belongs to Taylor Heinicke and Zach Wilson, separated by only eight yards at Nos. 43 and 44.
Shorter Career Windows Can Still Produce a Top-50 Total
Several young quarterbacks reached the table despite not becoming full-time starters until well after 2020. Brock Purdy ranks 24th, Jordan Love is 26th, C.J. Stroud is 27th and Bo Nix is 37th. At the other end of the age curve, Philip Rivers returned for three games in 2025 and finished 49th after combining those yards with his 2020 season.
For a list that is not restricted to this six-season period, compare the active NFL career passing leaders. To see how the volume leaders compare on a rate basis, visit the career passing yards per game leaderboard.
Top 50 NFL Passing Yards Leaders Since 2020
The complete table includes regular-season passing yards from 2020 through 2025. The 50 quarterbacks have distinct totals, so each row receives a unique rank.
| Rank | Quarterback | Passing Yards |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Mahomes | 26,527 |
| 2 | Jared Goff | 25,403 |
| 3 | Josh Allen | 24,939 |
| 4 | Justin Herbert | 24,820 |
| 5 | Matthew Stafford | 23,491 |
| 6 | Baker Mayfield | 20,973 |
| 7 | Joe Burrow | 20,810 |
| 8 | Kirk Cousins | 20,593 |
| 9 | Dak Prescott | 20,211 |
| 10 | Aaron Rodgers | 19,328 |
| 11 | Derek Carr | 18,452 |
| 12 | Lamar Jackson | 18,280 |
| 13 | Tua Tagovailoa | 18,166 |
| 14 | Jalen Hurts | 17,891 |
| 15 | Trevor Lawrence | 17,822 |
| 16 | Russell Wilson | 17,232 |
| 17 | Kyler Murray | 16,738 |
| 18 | Geno Smith | 15,986 |
| 19 | Daniel Jones | 14,656 |
| 20 | Tom Brady | 14,643 |
| 21 | Sam Darnold | 14,542 |
| 22 | Mac Jones | 12,741 |
| 23 | Ryan Tannehill | 11,705 |
| 24 | Brock Purdy | 11,685 |
| 25 | Matt Ryan | 11,606 |
| 26 | Jordan Love | 11,535 |
| 27 | C.J. Stroud | 10,876 |
| 28 | Carson Wentz | 9,435 |
| 29 | Justin Fields | 9,039 |
| 30 | Jimmy Garoppolo | 8,882 |
| 31 | Gardner Minshew II | 8,716 |
| 32 | Jacoby Brissett | 8,324 |
| 33 | Bryce Young | 8,291 |
| 34 | Andy Dalton | 8,199 |
| 35 | Deshaun Watson | 8,188 |
| 36 | Joe Flacco | 8,109 |
| 37 | Bo Nix | 7,706 |
| 38 | Ben Roethlisberger | 7,543 |
| 39 | Teddy Bridgewater | 7,530 |
| 40 | Caleb Williams | 7,483 |
| 41 | Davis Mills | 7,081 |
| 42 | Drake Maye | 6,670 |
| 43 | Taylor Heinicke | 6,333 |
| 44 | Zach Wilson | 6,325 |
| 45 | Drew Lock | 5,349 |
| 46 | Jameis Winston | 5,055 |
| 47 | Kenny Pickett | 4,953 |
| 48 | Jayden Daniels | 4,830 |
| 49 | Philip Rivers | 4,713 |
| 50 | Marcus Mariota | 4,672 |
Related NFL Passing Rankings
- Most Passing Yards in NFL History
- Active NFL Career Passing Yard Leaders
- Most Passing Yards in a Single NFL Season
- Most Passing Yards Per Game in NFL History
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