Most Rushing Yards in a Season by a QB

Lamar Jackson ran for 1,206 yards in 2019, the most rushing yards in a single NFL season by a quarterback. He did it in his unanimous MVP year as the engine of Baltimore’s offense, and the number has stood as the benchmark ever since. No quarterback had ever run for that many in a season, and none has topped it since.

Behind him, the list is a snapshot of how the position changed. Justin Fields’ 1,143 in 2022 is second, and Michael Vick’s 1,039 in 2006, the first 1,000-yard rushing season by any quarterback, is third. This is a single-season record for one position, so keep it separate from the career quarterback mark and from the running-back record. Here is the full table and what drives it.

Most rushing yards in a season by a quarterback

The table ranks the top single-season rushing totals by a quarterback, with the year.

Rank	Quarterback	Season	Rushing yards
1	Lamar Jackson	2019	1,206
2	Justin Fields	2022	1,143
3	Michael Vick	2006	1,039
4	Lamar Jackson	2020	1,005
5	Bobby Douglass	1972	968
6	Randall Cunningham	1990	942

The list captures two eras. Bobby Douglass held the record for decades from 1972, a rugged relic of a time when a running quarterback was an oddity. Then the modern dual-threat wave arrived, and Vick, Jackson and Fields pushed the ceiling past 1,000, with Jackson the only man there twice.

Jackson’s 2019 season and why it holds up

Jackson’s record came in a 15-game season in which Baltimore built its entire attack around his legs and arm. He averaged over 80 rushing yards a game, a running-back workload from the quarterback position, and defenses never solved it. The 1,206 was not a fluke total padded by scrambles; it was a design, week after week.

What makes it durable is that beating it requires both health and volume. Fields came within 63 yards in 2022 but missed time, and Jackson himself has not reached it again. Running that much, that effectively, across a full season without getting hurt is the hard part.

Vick’s milestone and the position’s shift

Michael Vick’s 1,039 in 2006 deserves its own line, because it was the first time any quarterback broke 1,000 rushing yards in a season. For a generation that was the ceiling, proof that a quarterback could be a defense’s biggest rushing worry. It stood as the record for 13 years until Jackson passed it.

Vick’s season now sits third, which says more about how the game evolved than about any decline in his feat. What was once revolutionary became a template, and the quarterbacks who followed were built and coached to run.

How it fits the other rushing records

Two comparisons keep this record in perspective. Over a career, Jackson has also climbed to the top of the quarterback list, overtaking Vick, which our page on the most rushing yards by a quarterback tracks. That is the same player, a different timescale.

And against running backs, even Jackson’s record looks modest. Eric Dickerson’s 2,105 in 1984 leads the single-season list for the position built to run, covered on our page for the most rushing yards in a season. A record-setting rushing quarterback still trails the best backs by nearly 900 yards.

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The short version: Lamar Jackson’s 1,206 rushing yards in 2019 is the NFL single-season quarterback record, ahead of Justin Fields and the trailblazing Michael Vick, and it sits in its own category, apart from the career and running-back marks.