Jameis Winston is on pace for the most yards ever by a quarterback in his first two seasons, with a second-consecutive 4,000-yard year on the horizon as the regular season wraps up. So far this season, Winston has thrown for 3,364 yards. What's even more impressive, though, is how Winston has been earning his passing yards.
Total passing yards can sometimes be a misleading stat. A screen, for example, is a one-yard pass that could be taken 20 yards after the catch, and those 20 passing yards would be added onto the quarterback's total. That has not been the case for Winston.
Winston has earned a whopping 66.1 percent of his passing yards strictly through the air, as pointed out by SportingCharts.com. No other starting quarterback in the league has earned more of his passing yards through the air. In terms of total passing yards through the air, Winston has 2,216, the second-most in the league behind Washington's Kirk Cousins, who has 2,418. Of Cousins' 4,045 yards, 59.1 percent of them have come through the air.
Winston has earned a significant portion of his passing yards by connecting with his top target, Mike Evans. And, as one would expect, the majority of his receiving yards have come through the air as opposed to after the catch. Entering Week 15, Evans leads all NFL wide receivers in yards at the time of the catch. Evans has earned 957 of his 1,100 receiving yards through the air.
For Winston's and Evans' full stats from this season thus far, click HERE.
