Saints quarterback Drew Brees is No. 5 on the NFL’s all-time career passing yards list.
Brees, who entered tonight’s game with 49,288 career passing yards, has now surpassed Hall of Famer Warren Moon (49,325) for fifth place in NFL history.
The 34-year-old Brees is already the NFL’s all-time single-season record holder for pass completions (468 in 2011), completion percentage (71.23 percent in 2011) and passing yards (5,476 in 2011). He also owns the record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass, with 54 in a row from 2009 to 2012.
Now Brees is moving up the ranks in the career totals as well. In addition to being fifth all-time in passing yards, he’s also fourth in completions (4,312 heading into tonight’s game) and fourth in touchdowns (350). At his current pace, Brees would pass John Elway (51,475) for fourth place in passing yards early next season.
The Big Three in all of the major career passing records are Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Dan Marino, and Brees still has a ways to go to catch any of them in any of the major statistical categories. Manning has a good chance to break all of Favre’s records, and if Manning keeps playing at his current level for a few more years, he would probably put the major career passing records out of reach for Brees, even though Brees is three years younger than Manning.
But even if Brees doesn’t catch Favre or Manning, he’s carving out a place for himself in the NFL record book. And at age 34, he’s still got a whole lot more passes to throw.