The 2009 NFL Season: Upcoming Milestones

Why are milestones so great? Well, for one thing, they can help define a career. Milestones help shape a picture of how a player performed. Everyone knows about Brett Favre breaking all the records in 2007. Touchdowns, yards, wins by a quarterback, etc.

Well guess what? Those are all critical milestones.

I think one reason milestones are so important is because of how they live on. We'll forever remember Emmitt Smith breaking the all-time rushing record. We remember when Jerry Rice broke all the receiving records. We remember when Reggie White got his 100th sack. It simply lives forever. 

So here we go. This is a complete list of all the potential upcoming milestones in the 2009 NFL season. Many are predictions. You must take into account that some of these players are not currently starters, or there could be injuries involved. But barring variables, here's what could be coming up.

20,000 Passing Yards            

Jake Delhomme 17,877

Chad Pennington 17,391

Carson Palmer 15,630

30,000 Passing Yards

Donovan McNabb 29,320

Brad Johnson 29,054

Kurt Warner 28,591

Tom Brady 26,446

Drew Brees 26,258

Jeff Garcia 25,537 (Huge longshot, career long is just over 4000 yards)

Jon Kitna 27,293

Trent Green 28,475

40,000 Passing Yards

Kerry Collins 37,393

50,000 Passing Yards

Peyton Manning 45,628

10,000 Yards Rushing

Clinton Portis 9,202

100 Rushing Touchdowns

Edgerrin James 80

10,000 Receiving Yards

Hines Ward 9,780

Amani Toomer 9,497

Chad Johnson 8,905

Reggie Wayne 8,129 (Would need to break single season receiving record to reach 10,000 yards)

15,000 Receiving Yards

Isaac Bruce 14,944

Marvin Harrison 14,580

Randy Moss 13,201

1000 Career Receptions

Terrell Owens 951

Tony Gonzalez 916

Torry Holt 861

100 TD Passes

Eli Manning 98

Tony Romo 81

Phillip Rivers 78

200 TD Passes

Tom Brady 197

Donovan McNabb 194

Kerry Collins 186

Kurt Warner 182

Drew Brees 168

100 Sacks

John Abraham 84

Joey Porter 83

50 Interceptions

Ed Reed 43

Champ Bailey 43

Sammy Knight 42

Dre’ Bly 40

Coaching 50 Career Wins (Including Postseason)

Marvin Lewis 46

Lovie Smith 39

Again, many of these possible milestones will not happen. Jon Kitna, Trent Green, and Brad Johnson aren't even starters, so odds are they won't do much of anything. Torry Holt will need to nearly match the all-time receptions record to reach 1,000 receptions. Randy Moss and Reggie Wayne will need astounding seasons to reach their respective milestones.

With this in mind, though, I am confident that many of these will be accomplished next season. We'll just need to wait and see.