Who has thrown the most touchdowns in NFL history?
There are still a few things Tom Brady can accomplish before his illustrious NFL career is over.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterback, the oldest player in the NFL at 43 years old, is at the top of a lot of lists. Tom Brady has won more Super Bowl rings and Super Bowl MVP awards than any other player in NFL history. He has more regular season wins and more playoff wins than any other quarterback. He's thrown for more yards in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl than anyone else. He's engineered more game-winning drives than any other quarterback.
Some of those records Tom Brady will own for a long time. Some may be his for the foreseeable future.
One category in which Brady ranks No. 1, but his lead is shaky, is in career touchdown passes. To date, Tom Brady has thrown the most touchdown passes in NFL history. But his 569 regular-season TD tosses are only four ahead of Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints QB who is still active and, at 41 years old, may have more time left to play than Brady.
In fact, if Brees hadn't been out of the Saints' lineup for the last three weeks with fractured ribs, he might be ahead of Brady on the NFL's all-time touchdown passes list.
Tom Brady has thrown 569 touchdowns in 297 games. Drew Brees has 565 touchdowns in 284 games.
In addition to chasing more Super Bowl rings in what could be the last two years of his career with the Buccaneers, another thing Brady can accomplish is putting enough distance between himself and Brees to secure the record for most career touchdown passes for a while.
Because after Brees, there's a lot of space between Brady and the next-closest competitors.
Peyton Manning ranks No. 3 with 539 career touchdown passes. Brett Favre is fourth with 508 touchdowns. Dan Marino is fifth with 420 touchdowns. All three of those legendary QB's are already retired.
The next batch of QB's on the list are still active, but nearing the end of their respective NFL careers.
Sixth-place Philip Rivers (415) is 38 years old. Seventh-place Aaron Rodgers (400) just turned 37, and eighth-place Ben Roethlisberger (388) is 38.
Recently retired Eli Manning (366) and long-ago retired Fran Tarkenton (342) round out the top 10.
While Tom Brady hasn't been as sharp this season as he's been in his prime, he has thrown at least one TD pass in all but one of the Buccaneers' games. He threw five touchdowns in their Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers and four scores in a Week 7 win over the Raiders.
At his current pace, Brady should hit the 600-touchdown mark some time next season, which might be his final NFL season.