Josh Allen lives a life many men envy. The superstar quarterback signed a $330 million contract in March and married actress/singer Hailee Steinfeld in May. Back in February, he won his first MVP award. It seems the only thing he didn’t do in the past calendar year was beat Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. Regardless, he’s doing pretty well for himself.
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Allen’s biggest aspiration for the 2025 campaign is to get the “Playoff Mahomes” monkey off his back. Before he gets the chance to do that, though, he’ll have to navigate another 17-game regular season. The 29-year-old signal-caller is poised to crack 30,000 career passing yards this year. In the process, he can make a big jump up the NFL’s all-time passing yardage leaderboard.
With 3,731 passing yards a season ago, Allen reached 75th place in the league’s passing yards record book (26,434). He sits 5,003 yards behind Dak Prescott for the 10th-most yards among active quarterbacks. Barring another lost year for Prescott in Dallas, Allen won’t be catching him in 2025. However, he’s in line to leap six Hall of Famers, including four-time Super Bowl champion Terry Bradshaw.
- Len Dawson (28,711 – 63rd); Terry Bradshaw (27,989 – 67th)
- Ken Stabler (27,938 – 68th); Joe Namath (27,663 – 70th)
- George Blanda (26,920 – 72nd); Bobby Layne (26,768 – 74th)
Allen’s 2024 passing total was the second lowest of his career since becoming Buffalo’s full-time starter in 2019. From 2020-23, he averaged 4,385 passing yards per season. If he replicates that mark in 2025, he’ll finish the year with 30,819 career passing yards. That’d be good enough for 55th all-time on the passing yardage list and 485 yards behind Steve McNair (31,304 – 54th).
Is Josh Allen the Bills’ all-time passing leader?
Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson both entered the NFL in 2018. They’ve both accomplished incredible things, particularly when you consider neither of them have turned 30 years old. Allen has more passing yards than Jackson (20,059), who ranks second in the category for the Baltimore Ravens. Despite outpacing Jackson by over 6,000 yards, Allen slots at third all-time for the Bills.
- Jim Kelly (35,467); Joe Ferguson (27,590); Josh Allen (26,434)
Kelly, like Allen, experienced a painful postseason roadblock throughout his career. He led Buffalo to four consecutive Super Bowls (1990-93) but failed to win one. Allen hasn’t played for a Lombardi Trophy yet, but has topped Kelly’s playoff touchdown pass mark (21). He did so versus the Denver Broncos in last year’s Wild-Card battle with his incredible fourth-down toss to Ty Johnson.
JOSH ALLEN. TY JOHNSON. WOW
: #DENvsBUF on CBS/Paramount+
: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/mG8n29QALD
— NFL (@NFL) January 12, 2025
No amount of touchdown passes or passing yards will satisfy Allen when his career is done. Not until he’s celebrating the Bills’ first Super Bowl triumph, at least. His run to Super Bowl LX begins at home on Sunday Night Football against Jackson and the Ravens on Sept. 7.
