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Drew Brees Breaks Peyton Manning's All-Time Passing TD Record vs. Colts
December 17, 2019
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees broke one of Peyton Manning's notable records.
Again.
Brees has now thrown more touchdown passes than any quarterback in NFL history after hitting tight end Josh Hill for a score in their game against the Indianapolis Colts on Monday. It was the 540th touchdown pass of his career, which is one more than Manning retired with at the end of 17 seasons.
Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, among others, were quick to congratulate Brees on the accomplishment:
The Saints signal-caller entered the 2019 campaign a mere 19 touchdowns behind Manning with 520. He wasn't the only one in pursuit, as New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was in third place on the all-time list with 517.
It was only a matter of time before the Purdue product passed Manning.
The last time he finished with fewer than 20 touchdown passes in a season was the 2003 campaign when he appeared in 11 games as a member of the San Diego Chargers. He also showed few signs of slowing during a dominant 2018 season when he completed an NFL-best 74.4 percent of his passes for 3,992 yards, 32 touchdowns and five interceptions while leading the Saints to the NFC Championship Game.
It was the 10th time in 11 years that Brees, 40, surpassed 30 touchdown throws, so reaching 20 this season was a formality.
Breaking Manning's records is also nothing new for Brees, who surpassed the former's 71,940 career passing yards last year.
Manning planned ahead and congratulated Brees on the upcoming touchdown record in an amusing video that saw the legend make fun of the fact that he held the yardage record for just 1,000 days and was too busy in retirement to continue offering congratulations:
The touchdown record is another notch on Brees' Hall of Fame resume that places him among the best quarterbacks in league history.
He is a Super Bowl champion, 12-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl MVP and two-time Offensive Player of the Year, and he has now thrown more touchdowns than any other signal-caller ever to lace it up.
Brees will need to continue throwing touchdowns if he wants to hold the record longer than Manning did because Brady is two behind him, still active and coming off a Super Bowl championship. Whichever one plays longer will likely be on top of the list, but the record is Brees' for now.