Why Peyton Manning's Record Will Be Hard to Beat The Broncos quarterback set the all-time N.F.L. touchdown passing record — and is still going strong. Peyton Manning has broken the record for most touchdown passes in N.F.L. history. With four touchdown passes in the Denver Broncos’ game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night, Manning has 510 for his career, two more than Brett Favre. The chart above compares Manning with his counterparts in league history, spanning more than 250 quarterbacks with at least 30 career touchdown passes since 1930. The whole history of the N.F.L. is right there, and you can quickly see how much the passing game has advanced over the years. Manning has become the tenth quarterback since 1930 to hold the touchdown record. Here are some of the others: Selected all-time N.F.L. touchdown pass leaders since 1930 Sammy Baugh, whom the Times once cited as a “a pivotal figure in transforming the National Football League from a plodding affair into a high-scoring spectacle,” became the leader in 1943 and held the title for 18 years. Y.A. Tittle, a longtime New York Giant perhaps best remembered for a photograph showing him bleeding in the end zone in a game in Pittsburgh in 1964, held the record for four seasons, and Johnny Unitas owned the record for the decade after that. The quarterback with the longest hold on this record was Fran Tarkenton, who took the Vikings to three Super Bowls (and zero Super Bowl wins). He passed Unitas in the 1970s and held the record for nearly 20 years. When Dan Marino surpassed Tarkenton, the modern game had begun in earnest, with quarterbacks like Joe Montana, John Elway, Warren Moon, Dave Krieg, Boomer Esiason, Steve Young and Drew Bledsoe all passing the 200-touchdown mark. In 2007, Brett Favre passed them all, eventually throwing for 508 touchdowns over 20 seasons, a stretch that included 297 consecutive N.F.L. starts, still an N.F.L. record. Which takes us to Manning: How long will his record last? Is the quarterback who will surpass his record playing today? The best way to answer this question is to look at a different version of the same chart, this time by the age of the quarterback rather than the calendar year. Career touchdown passes by age By this measure, Manning stands out even more. Only Marino has ever kept pace with Manning consistently, in his mid-20s. But that lasted only a few seasons. The closest active quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, are close to Manning’s pace but still behind; others, like Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, are nowhere close to Manning’s total and well off pace. So are some of today’s top young quarterbacks, like Andrew Luck, Colin Kaepernick and Matt Ryan. Few sports records last forever, and Manning’s is not likely to. But Manning is not close to done and could well approach 600 touchdowns by the time he retires. There is a very good chance that the next person to hold the record has fewer than 50 career N.F.L. touchdown passes today — and maybe none at all.

• published: 22 Oct 2014
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