Aaron Rodgers moved into sole possession of third place on the NFL‘s all-time career touchdown passes list Sunday, passing Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger in multiple record categories during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 5 game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Steelers quarterback threw three touchdown passes in the win, pushing his career totals past two of the most decorated passers in league history.
Rodgers tied Manning’s career mark of 579 touchdown passes, including playoff games, with his 580th scoring throw, then added his 581st touchdown pass later in the game to pull away from the Hall of Fame quarterback. The Aaron Rodgers career TD passes record now sits behind only Tom Brady and Drew Brees in NFL history.
The Main Development
Rodgers’ second touchdown of the day moved him past Manning’s total of 579, and his third scoring pass of the afternoon put him at 581 for his career, according to NBC Sports. He now ranks third all-time in touchdown passes, trailing Brady’s 737 and Brees’ 608.
The touchdowns came on an 80-yard strike to running back Jaylen Warren on the first play of Pittsburgh’s second possession in the first quarter, followed by an 8-yard throw to Pat Freiermuth in the second quarter. The Warren touchdown was his 32nd as a member of the Steelers.
Rodgers also passed Roethlisberger on the career wins list Sunday. His 166th career victory moved him into a tie for fifth all-time alongside Roethlisberger, behind Brady’s 251 wins, Brett Favre and Manning’s 186 apiece, and Brees’ 171.
What It Means
Rodgers’ touchdown total breaks down to 535 in the regular season and 45 in the playoffs. Passing Manning, who threw his touchdowns across 18 seasons with the Colts and Denver Broncos before his 2021 Hall of Fame induction, places Rodgers alongside the game’s most prolific passers at a stage of his career he has already said will be his last.
Rodgers surpassed Roethlisberger on the career passing yards list last season and now ranks fifth all-time with 70,000 yards. Roethlisberger sits seventh on that list. The two quarterbacks’ names now appear next to each other on multiple statistical leaderboards, separated only by the gap Rodgers has built since taking over as Pittsburgh’s starter.
Context And Background
The three-touchdown performance against the Colts also tied Rodgers to Steelers history. He became the second Pittsburgh quarterback, joining Terry Bradshaw, to throw three or more touchdown passes in three consecutive games. Bradshaw did it in 1982, a strike-shortened season with non-consecutive weeks. Rodgers last put together a streak like that during his 2021 MVP season with the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers spent 18 seasons in Green Bay, where he won four AP NFL Most Valuable Player awards, a Super Bowl title, earned 10 Pro Bowl selections and four first-team All-Pro honors. He has stated he plans to retire at the end of this season, making Sunday’s milestones part of the closing stretch of a career that began well before his arrival in Pittsburgh.
What’s Next
Rodgers and the Steelers move forward with the quarterback now fully entrenched in the top five of the NFL’s career touchdown passes and wins lists. His climb up those leaderboards, detailed before the Colts game in a previous record-watch report, continues as Pittsburgh works through the back half of its schedule. The team’s next matchup was previewed in Total Apex Sports’ Week 5 preview of the Colts game.
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