The NFL has made it official, with owners voting to add a 17th game to the regular season beginning in 2021. They’ll eliminate the fourth preseason game and essentially replace it with a new and meaningful regular-season matchup.
One of the ramifications of a 17-game season is that it’s going to make NFL single-season records a bit easier to obtain. It was tough as-is with a 16-game schedule because a lot of the times the teams with quarterbacks that are having record-breaking success would rest players in Week 17 ahead of the playoffs. The extra game now basically ensures that players get a full 16 games in the regular season, with the potential for 17 if you’re still competing for seeding in the playoffs.
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes has already come pretty close to breaking a few of the passing records during the first season of the three seasons he’s been a starter. During that 2018 campaign, Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards in a full 16 games started. Peyton Manning set the single-season record back in 2013 with 5,477 yards in a full 16-game season.
In 2018, Mahomes also came close to the record for passing touchdowns which is also held by Manning. During the 2013 season, Manning threw 55 touchdown passes. Mahomes threw 50 touchdown passes during the 2018 regular season, which led the league that season but wasn’t enough to beat out Manning. He probably had a few called back that would have put him a bit closer to matching the record.
One single-season record that Mahomes hasn’t come close to so far is the receptions record. He posted his career-high in receptions in 2020 with 390 receptions in 15 games played. Recently-retired Saints QB Drew Brees owns the current record with 471 receptions in a single season, set back in 2016.
Having these records a bit easier to achieve will certainly make things a bit more exciting as the league continues to shift toward a pass-heavy approach. On the other hand, if Mahomes were to break one of these records in 2021, you can rest assured there will be plenty of detractors who add an asterisk to the achievement and complain about the fact that he had an extra game to accomplish it.
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