Broncos' Julius Thomas Becomes 2nd Player with 9 Receiving TDs Through 5 Games

Denver Broncos tight end Julius Thomas has made it look easy this year, becoming just the second player in NFL history to record nine receiving touchdowns through his team's first five games of the season, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The other player to accomplish the feat was Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, who scored nine of his 16 touchdowns in 2011 within the first five games of the season. Johnson had a pair of touchdowns in each of his first four games that year, then added a ninth in his fifth appearance of the season.

Outside of the influx of touchdowns, Johnson essentially posted his typical numbers during the five-game stretch, averaging 5.8 receptions and 90.2 receiving yards compared to career averages of 5.4 catches and 87.2 yards.

Thomas has also done his red-zone damage without a spike in his other numbers, as he's on pace to finish the year with 77 receptions for 886 yards after recording 65 catches for 788 yards in 14 games last season.

One year removed from turning 12 of his 65 receptions (18.5 percent) into touchdowns, Thomas has remarkably scored on nine of his 24 catches (37.5 percent) through the first five weeks of the season.

He's on an unsustainable pace for 29 receiving touchdowns, which would smash the single-season tight end record of 17 set by Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots in 2011, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

While Gronkowski's record seems well within reach, Thomas is unlikely to ride his hot start to the single-season record regardless of position, as wide receiver Randy Moss caught a record-setting 23 touchdowns for the 2007 New England Patriots.

Thomas still needs 14 more just to match Moss, who had eight multi-touchdown outings during that memorable season. Gronkowski's tight end record, which required seven multi-TD efforts along the way, sits just eight away from Thomas' current total of nine touchdowns.

Of course, Gronkowski and Moss were both huge contributors outside of the red zone during their record-breaking campaigns, finishing with 1,327 and 1,493 receiving yards, respectively.

With plenty of other mouths to feed in the Denver offense, Thomas will need to keep catching an unusually high percentage of his passes in the red zone in order to make history.

Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders can only look on with envy, having yet to reach the end zone this year, despite piling up a team-high 35 catches for 473 receiving yards through five games.