Matthew Stafford is 5 touchdowns shy of 40, which would be his third career season with at least 40 touchdowns. Only two other quarterbacks in history have done that: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
Peyton
Manning, Dan Marino, and Drew Brees didn’t do that. They only had two such seasons each. Patrick Mahomes hasn’t done it yet either. Stafford is on track to hit 40, but he’s also on track to hit 41 touchdowns.
Six more touchdown passes and Stafford will have 41 on the season, his third career season with 41 touchdown passes. No quarterback in NFL history has ever had three seasons with 41 touchdown passes. Stafford could stand alone as 1.
Stafford had 41 touchdowns in 2011 with the Lions and 41 touchdowns with the Rams in 2021, the season that led to his first and only Super Bowl. Stafford has 35 touchdowns now and with four games left he only needs 1.5 per game to get to 41. With the season that Stafford is having, he could get to 40 by this weekend against his former team.
In his career against his former team, Stafford has thrown six touchdowns in three games.
The Lions are 28th in passing touchdowns allowed this season. Stafford may be salivating for the opportunity to get into the red zone against Detroit.
Some other unusual quirks about Stafford’s 40-touchdown seasons is that he’s done it with two different teams and he’s done it 10 years apart.
Manning also did it with two different teams (Colts, Broncos) and nine years apart (2004, 2013).
Brady did it in 2007 with the Patriots when he hit 50 touchdowns but not again until 2020 and 2021 with the Bucs.
Rodgers did it with the Packers in 2011, 2016, and 2020.
Kurt Warner did it with the Rams in 1999 and then he had 36 touchdowns in 2001, but then he never came close again in his career.
Stafford has had a great career, but he’s also had an interesting career. Six more touchdown passes and he’ll have another notch on his belt for a career with accomplishments we’ve never or rarely seen before.
