With Gronk's help, Brady eyes another Manning record

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Tom Brady has already surpassed Peyton Manning in nearly every meaningful passing metric, but there's one still looming which will require some help.

In Thursday's season opener between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys, Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski became just the second duo in NFL history to connect on 100 passing touchdowns between the regular and postseasons, dating back to Gronk's rookie year with the New England Patriots in 2010.

While undoubtedly more successful in terms of producing championships than nearly any other tandem, it's not quite the most prolific in sheer volume just yet.

The Brady-Gronk connection still trails the Manning-Marvin Harrison connection, a lethal combination together with the Indianapolis Colts from Manning's rookie year in 1998 to Harrison's retirement in 2008 that led to one championship, Super Bowl XLI.

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Brady and Gronkowski reached the century mark in their 150th game together; Manning and Harrison played in 175 games together to get to 114. It also warrants mentioning that Gronkowski has caught 14 touchdown passes from Brady in the postseason, while Harrison caught just two from Manning.

Brady is 44 and Gronkowski is 32, having already retired once. As always seems to be the case with Brady, however, never rule any milestone out of reach.

As for Gronkowski, he's now up to 102 total touchdown receptions for his career: 100 from Brady, one from Jimmy Garoppolo during Brady's four-game suspension in 2016, and one from Blaine Gabbert during mop-up duty with the Buccaneers in 2020.

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