Jones catches another bomb.

That title belongs to former Giants wide receiver Homer Jones.  A star in the late ’60s, 19 of Jones’ 36 career touchdowns went for 50 or more yards. The table below shows all 413 players to record at least 35 receiving touchdowns (including the postseason) from 1940 to 2013.  While Jones leads in average touchdown length, I think it makes more sense to sort the list by median touchdown length, although that doesn’t matter much for Jones.  For each player listed, I’ve included both their average and median touchdown length, the years they played, and a best guess at their primary position.  The table by default shows 50 entries, but you can change that; in addition, the table is fully sortable and searchable.

If you sort the table by career touchdowns, you’ll see that Jerry Rice and Randy Moss have pretty similar averages. Rice caught more short touchdowns, but he holds up pretty well to the man considered one of the all-time great deep threats. In fact, Rice had more career receiving touchdowns of 30+ yards, 40+ yards, 50+ yards, and 60+ yards than any other player in history. Among active players, Mike Wallace, DeSean Jackson, Robert Meachem, Nate Washington, and new Raven Steve Smith have the longest median length of touchdown reception.

What about the players who caught the shortest touchdowns? Wes Welker has caught a lot of short touchdown passes from Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Including the playoffs, 28 of his career 53 touchdown catches were from inside the 7-yard line, the lowest rate of any wide receiver in history. Tampa Bay Mike Williams — you know, the guy who is one of the best Mike Williamses ever — is the only other wide receiver who had at least half of his receiving touchdowns come from inside the 8-yard line.

The positional designations don’t always hold up, especially the farther back in NFL history you go. Colts Hall of Famer Lenny Moore has the longest median length among running backs, but Moore frequently split out wide in Johnny Unitas’ offense. Going the other way, Arizona fullback Larry Centers was an excellent pass catcher, but he wasn’t particularly explosive. Fifteen of his career 29 receiving touchdowns were seven yards or shorter.

The player with the shortest median touchdown length is former Dolphins tight end Bruce Hardy. He was a favorite target of Dan Marino near the goal line, and the numbers back that up: 17 of his 29 career receiving touchdowns came from inside the three-yard line! Hardy never caught a touchdown outside of the red zone in the regular season, but he managed to catch a 50-yarder in the Epic in Miami against the Chargers (you can see video of this inexplicable event here). Two other tight ends actually had average touchdown lengths of less than 7 yards: Chad Lewis, a goal line favorite of Donovan McNabb, and Bubba Franks, a touchdown monster (and little else) during Brett Favre’s prime.