Turf Show Times
There are officially 50 days until the start of the season, so will the 50-passing-touchdown mark finally get surpassed in 2026? Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford threw the most touchdown passes in the 17-game era last season and still fell short, showing how difficult reaching the 50-touchdown plateau is.
Earlier this month, I noted that it’s surprising how the passing touchdown mark hasn’t been seriously challenged in the 17-game era. Peyton Manning currently holds the record with 55, a mark that has stood for 12 seasons and counting. Patrick Mahomes is the only other quarterback within the last decade to challenge Manning’s record, and he fell five short during his 2018 MVP campaign.
Two other quarterbacks have thrown 50 touchdowns in a season — Tom Brady (2007) and Mahomes (2018) —showing how difficult an achievement it is. Despite the NFL throwing in an extra game beginning with the 2021 campaign, only six quarterbacks have thrown over 40 touchdown passes.
Theoretically, the extra game was supposed to make it more attainable for QBs to throw for 50 touchdowns. Instead, the opposite has happened.
Stafford is the only player to have thrown 40+ touchdowns twice in that span. It was reasonable to believe that with the addition of the 17th game, Manning’s passing touchdown mark would be approached sooner rather than later, yet that hasn’t been the case. These are the most touchdowns thrown by a quarterback in the 17-game era:
As efficient as Stafford was last season, he still fell a few touchdowns shy of the 50-touchdown plateau. More games haven’t translated into higher passing numbers, as expected when the extra game was announced. For example, Dak Prescott led the league with 36 touchdown passes in 2023. It was certainly a rough year for quarterback play that season.
Even the number of passing attempts to reach those previously mentioned numbers in the 17-game era hasn’t been as high as you would expect, according to Pro Football Reference.
Amazingly, the extra game hasn’t led to a greater volume of passing attempts. Most of the highest touchdown totals of the 17-game era have come without historic passing volume, with Stafford’s under 600 attempts paving the way for his 46-touchdown season a year ago.
Seems to be less is more, given that Brady only needed 578 attempts to reach 50 touchdown passes during his historic 2007 season with the Patriots, while Mahomes needed 580 attempts to reach his 50. However,...
