A total of 85 players completed a pass in the 2025 NFL regular season, but only a handful of them made our jaws drop. There were some throws that impressed FOX Sports lead NFL analyst Tom Brady, too.
In a video uploaded to his YouTube page on Wednesday, Brady shared his favorite throws of the 2025 NFL season. The seven-time Super Bowl winner shared some honorable mentions for what he thought deserved consideration for the best passes of the year before ranking his top three passes thrown this season.
So, let’s take a look at the passes that caught Brady’s eye in 2025.
The play: Stroud threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Hutchinson by finding him for a completion 15 yards down the field before the receiver ran into the end zone to give the Texans a 23-7 lead in their Week 8 win over the 49ers.
Brady’s commentary: “What I like is C.J. puts his left foot where his foot is a little bit off, but just as he’s delivering the ball, he replants his left foot perfectly out in front of the receiver, adjusts his arm angle around the defensive tackle and throws the ball with a pace that’s needed in order for the DB not to undercut the ball. All those things are very difficult to do: A, the drop, and B, replanting his lead foot. You can’t release the ball until your front foot hits the ground. As soon as C.J.’s front foot hits the ground, it’s about 0.2 seconds before the ball comes out of his hand because he’s a very fast-twitched player. That ball pops out of his hand.
“He drives it into that defense so perfectly in stride and he leaves the 49ers player in the dust.”
The play: Mayfield stood in the pocket for a beat before recognizing that Johnson split the 49ers’ secondary, unleashing a deep ball that the rookie wide receiver dove for to make a touchdown grab that gave the Buccaneers a 27-19 lead in their Week 6 win.
Brady’s commentary: “What Baker has always had, and always done a great job of, he’s very sneaky athletic in the pocket. He’s got a ton of explosive power in his lower body. Very few QBs can look all the way to the right side of the field, then come back to the left side of the field, and then he throws a post route, which is really interesting because the ball never exits the screen on the film. That tells me the throw is a little flatter. The flatter the throw, sometimes the harder it is to catch.
“If you throw a flat deep ball, it needs to be perfectly thrown. So, what I like about this throw is that Baker doesn’t want the ball in the air very long, so he flattens the throw out. It doesn’t leave the screen. Then, Tez Johnson stretches out and catches the backhalf of the ball before he ends up falling into the end zone. A ridiculous throw and an even better catch.”
Honorable mention: Patriots QB Drake Maye’s 72-yard touchdown pass to WR Kyle Williams vs. Buccaneers
The play: On a play-action pass, Maye stepped up in the pocket and floated a ball to the right side for Williams. The rookie wide receiver made the catch and took off for a 72-yard score in the Patriots‘ Week 10 win over the Buccaneers.
Brady’s commentary: “Drake steps up in the pocket, but because he gets pressure off the right side, he’s not really allowed to step into this throw because he would run his body into the defensive end. Instead, he throws it slightly off balance and sticks his front foot basically to the left of his target, adjusts his arm angle as he’s throwing, gets hit as he’s throwing and again, with enough pace and velocity that the defensive back from the Bucs tries to undercut it. The worst thing a DB can do is try to undercut a pass and miss it, because once the receiver catches it, he’s already got the defender stacked and it’s a clear path for Williams to the house.
“So, great throw by Drake, perfectly on time, under pressure and it was one of the best throws of the season.”
Honorable mention: Patriots QB Drake Maye’s 32-yard completion to WR Stefon Diggs vs. Bills
The play: On another play-action pass from Maye, the Patriots quarterback rolled to his right and threw the ball downfield before reaching the sideline. He found Diggs, who ran toward the same sideline as Maye and made a big 32-yard grab to help set the Patriots up for a touchdown in their Week 5 win over the Bills.
Brady’s commentary: “This is what’s called a second route. You run your initial route. Then, once you see the quarterback scrambling, then you adjust your route. He basically has an outcut. When he breaks on the outcut, he realizes, ‘Oh, the ball’s not in the air,’ he whirlybirds around Tre’Davious White and runs for green grass. Then, Drake and Stefon were on the same page, knowing where that green grass is. Drake throws it to green grass, Stefon runs there and then Stefon makes a great catch on the sideline.
“You don’t practice these [plays] much. That’s the hard part about these scrambles. In practice, usually the plays don’t break down because the scout team isn’t quite as athletic as the starting offense. So, they don’t get the type of pass rush. When these happen in the game, they’re very unscripted and they turn out a little bit different. It takes a lot of great decisions from the quarterback outside the pocket because things are moving really fast and because things are unstructured, you really only get one look at it.”
Honorable mention: Rams QB Matthew Stafford’s 1-yard touchdown pass to WR Puka Nacua vs. Seahawks
The play: Stafford took a couple of steps in a dropback, looking toward the flats on his right side as he threw a slant pass to Nacua for a touchdown in the Rams‘ Week 16 loss to the Seahawks.
Brady’s commentary: “Matt takes the snap, and he’s looking all the way to the outside. But in his mind, he knows if he can look the coverage outside, then he can throw the ball inside. I said, ‘Matt, how do you start developing these no-look throws?’ He said, ‘Tommy, when I played with Calvin Johnson, everybody in the world knew that’s where I was trying to throw the ball. So, I had to learn how to do different things that could disguise my intentions. So, one thing I learned how to do was to look right to throw left or look left to throw right, in order not to draw any extra coverage to Calvin.’
“But the fact that you see it come up in the game and you see him execute it consistently over time — and the ballsiest throw I ever saw him make was in the Super Bowl to Cooper Kupp on third down against the Bengals on a touchdown scoring drive in the fourth quarter was one of the greatest throws in the history of the NFL.”
No. 3: Bills QB Josh Allen’s 11-yard touchdown pass to WR Khalil Shakir vs. Bengals
The play: With the Bills facing a fourth-and-4, Allen scrambled to his right before throwing a line drive pass to Shakir in the end zone for a touchdown grab in the second quarter of their Week 15 win over the Bengals.
Brady’s commentary: “Josh gets the ball, gets flushed to his right and he’s looking downfield. You always want guys to uncover and they worked hard to uncover because all these receivers now that Josh is going to hold onto the ball, especially on third or fourth down because he’s a playmaker. The guys are working to break free. Josh stuttersteps the D-linemen, steps to the sideline and then shuffles back while he’s got guys bearing down on him. He drops his elbows down and throws an absolute piss missle to Shakir into double coverage in the snow.
“I can’t imagine how difficult this is with people tracking you down and Josh has such a unique ability outside the pocket because of his athleticism, arm angle, the strength of his arm, the timing and sequencing of his mechanics to drive the ball regardless of these off-platform throws. They’re absolutely backbreaking for Cincy on this drive.”
No. 2: Chargers QB Justin Herbert’s 20-yard touchdown pass to WR Keenan Allen vs. Broncos
The play: Herbert evaded a strong Broncos pass rush up the middle, shaking off one sack before throwing on the move while getting hit. He found Allen down the field for a 20-yard touchdown to help tie the game in the fourth quarter of the Chargers‘ eventual win over the Broncos in Week 3.
Brady’s commentary: “The hardest thing for an NFL quarterback to do is roll to the left, drop your arm angle with someone on you and throw with enough velocity on the ball to get through the defense and enough accuracy to make the throw right in stride. An unbelievable play by Herbert shedding the tackle, tucking the ball, untucking the ball, getting hit while he throws it and then throwing a ball at probably 55 to 58 mph while running to his left for a 30-yard throw.
“It was one of the most ridiculous plays I saw the entire season.”
No. 1: Bears QB Caleb Williams’ 46-yard touchdown pass to WR DJ Moore vs. Packers
The play: On a play-action pass, Williams took a deep dropback before unloading a deep ball for Moore. The Bears‘ veteran wide receiver made a tough catch in stride, helping them beat the Packers in overtime.
Brady’s commentary: “This was one of the games of the year. The Packers’ defense was awesome this day. They played their ass off. They shut down the Bears’ offense for most of the game. The Bears continued to be the team they were. They were so persistent in their approach.
“You call these plus-50 shots. Whenever you get to around this area, you still have enough field where you can really stretch the defense. If they don’t cover deep, you’ve got a great opportunity to end the game on one throw. So, they run a play-action bootleg with the quarterback waggling, but he pulls up because it’s not a bootleg. They’re actually throwing the boot with the post coming back towards the field. Caleb sees it and launches the ball from his own 45-yard line. Keep in mind, it was about 15 degrees out and there was a 20 mph wind. The longer the ball’s in the air, the harder it is to throw it accurately, and the harder it is to catch it. DJ Moore gets a step on the corner, Keisean Nixon, and Caleb throws it back across the field, 60 yards in the air. It was an absolutely perfect throw. An A-plus throw. A moonball for a walkoff win in Chicago.”
