Tag: NFL history

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes continues to make NFL history

Mahomes made a bit more NFL history with his epic performance against the New York Jets on Sunday.

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Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes keeps finding new ways to get his name stamped in the NFL history books.

Mahomes’ dominant performance against the New York Juts culminated in 416 passing yards and five passing touchdowns on the day. The passing touchdowns brought his season total to 21 and a single interception. ESPN’s Stats & Information page discovered via the Elias Sports Bureau that this marks the first time in NFL history that any player has at least 20 touchdown passes and one interception through the first eight games to start a season. He also became the first player in Chiefs history to ever throw for 400 passing yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions in a game.

Check it out:

The crazy thing about this is that Mahomes didn’t even play the full game in each of the past two weeks, with Chad Henne relieving him in the fourth quarter of each game after a large enough lead was secured.

This wasn’t the only impressive feat accomplished by Mahomes this week either. He’s now tied for third in NFL history with 21 games passing for 300 or more yards. He now has 10 career games where he has thrown at least four touchdown passes, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer QB Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with 10 such games in their first four seasons of their careers. It also marks the most such games by a quarterback in Chiefs franchise history. Len Dawson previously held that record with nine games.

Mahomes also needs just three passing touchdowns to reach 100 career passing touchdowns. If he can throw for those three touchdowns within the next five games, he’ll beat Marino’s pace record to become the quickest QB to throw 100 career passing touchdowns in NFL history. Mahomes could very well get those three passing touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers in Week 9.

It’d be a great way for the Chiefs’ quarterback to head into the bye week, with a little boost to his confidence heading into the final stretch of the 2020 season.

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Alvin Kamara has the most fantasy points of all time, behind Emmitt Smith and… Alvin Kamara

New Orleans Saints star Alvin Kamara has scored the third-most fantasy football points in NFL history among running backs through 4 weeks.

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Alvin Kamara was already among rare company after his impressive play in the first three weeks of the 2020 season, but the New Orleans Saints superstar has leveled up even further with four games behind him. Through four games, he has now put up the third-most fantasy football points among running backs in NFL history. And one of the two seasons ahead of him is his own 2018 campaign.

In 2020, Kamara has scored 127.7 fantasy points for lucky owners. That’s good enough to rank third-best, behind Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith in second place, who racked up 130.3 fantasy points in the first four games of the 1995 season. Smith of course was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.

But the top spot belongs to Kamara’s 2018 season, when he scored 136.1 fantasy points in the opening four weeks. That stretch included games where Kamara gained 100-plus yards through the air (Weeks 1 and 3) and on the ground (Week 4’s famous walk-off touchdown run against the New York Giants), with six touchdown-scoring plays from scrimmage. He finished the year with a combined 18 touchdowns. In 2020, Kamara has already scored seven times.

So pat yourself on the back if you wisely invested in Kamara at your fantasy football draft earlier this summer. The early returns suggest he couldn’t have been picked early enough, and there may not be a limit to how great he can be.

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Chiefs become first NFL team to start 4-0 in four consecutive seasons

The Kansas City Chiefs made NFL history as they advanced to 4-0 on the 2020 NFL season.

The Kansas City Chiefs broke some history following their Monday night dust-up with the New England Patriots.

The team advanced to 4-0 on the season with a hard-fought win over the Patriots. This marks the fourth consecutive season that the team has advanced to 4-0 to start the year. According to NFL Media’s Research Department, they’re the only team in the history of the NFL to ever do so.

This also marks the fifth time under Chiefs HC Andy Reid that the team has started out the season 4-0. It’s really a testament to his coaching and the culture that he brought to this team back in 2013 when he first joined the franchise.

Now, you might be thinking: “Well, the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. He’s undefeated in September. That’s not so impressive.”

I have to say to you: “Not so fast.”

Back in 2017, Kansas City went 4-0 to start the season with Alex Smith as the starting quarterback for the team. While the arm of the 2018 AP NFL MVP certainly helped break this record for the Chiefs, this one was a team effort. It was earned by each and every individual that ever started a game on those teams and the coaching staff also deserves due credit for their creativity as well.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes becomes fastest NFL player to 10,000 career passing yards

Mahomes has stamped his name on yet another piece of NFL history.

Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes has added yet another achievement to his ever-growing list of career accolades. Back in November of 2019, he became the fastest player to reach 8,000 career passing yards and 65 career touchdowns. This time he’s passed two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in another pace, stamping his name in the NFL history books.

As if a “Monday Night Football” contest between the reigning Super Bowl MVP and the league MVP wasn’t exciting enough, Mahomes had to go and make some NFL history. Throwing for just 75 yards against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, Mahomes has become the fastest player in NFL history to reach 10,000 career passing yards.

Week 3 of the 2020 NFL season marks the 34th career game for Mahomes, dating back to when he received his first start back in the final week of the 2017 NFL season. Mahomes reached 10,000 yards a whole two games quicker than the previous record-holder, St. Louis Rams HOF QB Kurt Warner. Mahomes also passes others in the top five, such as Matthew Stafford (37), Marc Bulger (38), Andrew Luck (38), and Dan Marino (38).

This is going to be a tough record for others to beat in the coming years. Mahomes has averaged just over 300 passing yards per game in the first two seasons of his career. He 318.6 passing yards per game in 2018 is good for the No. 12 performance in NFL history. This type of production at this pace isn’t easily achieved, even with the NFL’s shift toward pass-heavy offenses.

The next career record Mahomes will have his eye on is the passing touchdown record. He needs just 19 touchdowns within the next 10 games to reach 100 career touchdown passes. The current record-holder is Marino, who hit the 100 passing touchdown mark in 44 career games.

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WATCH: Deion Sanders career highlights

The man once known as “Prime Time” turned 53 years old on Sunday.

The man once known as “Prime Time” turned 53 years old on Sunday.

Former Falcons CB Deion Sanders was arguably the greatest defensive back in NFL history and one of the best athletes the league has ever seen. Drafted fifth overall by Atlanta in 1989, Sanders went on to win two Super Bowls, make eight Pro Bowls and be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Celebrate Sanders’ birthday with some of the best plays from his career below:

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Chargers among best franchises at drafting quarterbacks

The Chargers have a great track record of drafting quarterbacks.

NFL clubs have a lot on the line when drafting players at arguably the most important position on the field.

ESPN’s Seth Walder ranked how all 32 teams have done when it comes to drafting quarterbacks. To stack the teams up, Walder used Pro Football Reference’s weighted career approximate value (AV) to measure production, stretching all the way back to the start of the common draft era in 1967.

The Chargers have had a lot of success at doing so, ranking No. 2 in the league, right behind the Patriots.

Here’s a look at Walder’s ranking for the Bolts along with the reasoning behind it:

Total drafted QB career AV above expectation: 197
Best value pick: Drew Brees, No. 32 in 2001
Worst value pick: Ryan Leaf, No. 2 in 1998

I saw the Chargers at No. 2, and for a moment, I thought, “Huh?” But then it clicked. Even with the Leaf disaster, the Chargers have drafted several successful quarterbacks … for other teams. The aforementioned Brees is one. Eli Manning and Trent Green are two more.

Add in Dan Fouts, a Hall of Famer drafted with the 64th overall pick who did play for them, and it all makes perfect sense.

The Chargers have a quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame with Dan Fouts. The franchise could possibly have another in the near future with Philip Rivers.

Rivers wasn’t drafted by the Chargers. Instead, he was involved in the blockbuster trade with the Giants. Eli Manning was the original pick. Despite shipping Manning away, he still managed to have a productive career with New York.

The Bolts were also the ones who drafted Drew Brees, who has had a lot of success with the Saints, as well as Trent Green, who earned a Super Bowl ring with the Rams and two Pro Bowl appearances with the Chiefs.

While the franchise was victims of drafting one of the NFL’s biggest busts in Ryan Leaf, the other signal-caller’s success has outweighed the poor career from one player.

Los Angeles, who hadn’t drafted a quarterback in the first-round since 2004, is hopeful that their 2020 draft pick, Justin Herbert can pan out like the rest of the top tier signal-callers that they acquired in the past.

Julio Jones leads NFL in catches of 15 yards or more since 2017

Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones has been so consistent over his nine NFL seasons that his greatness occasionally gets taken for granted.

Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones has been so consistent over his nine NFL seasons that his greatness occasionally gets taken for granted. At 31 years old, Jones is still the league’s most physical big-play weapon.

Over the past three seasons, no other receiver has come close to Jones in receptions of 15 yards or more. In fact, he’s recorded 30 more than anyone else since 2017, per Pro Football Focus‘ below tweet:

In 2019, Jones had 99 catches for 1,394 yards (14.1 yards per reception), the sixth consecutive season in which he’s gone over the 1,300-yard mark.

Playing in a division full of talented receivers, including Chris Godwin, Michael Thomas and Mike Evans, it can be easy to overlook Jones’ steady production.

When you look at the numbers, though, it’s clear the former Alabama star isn’t ready to give up his mantle as the NFC South’s top receiver just yet.

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In 2020, 37-year-old RB Frank Gore could make pro football history

The list of successful 37-year-old running backs is virtually nonexistent. Frank Gore is looking to change that.

Since Frank Gore was selected by the 49ers in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft, he’s been one of the most consistent and beloved players in the league. The consistency is obvious — from 2005 through 2016, he missed the 1,000-yard mark in just three seaasons (2005, 2010, 2016), and over that stretch, no other running back has more rushing attempts (2,965), or rushing yards (13,065), and only Adrian Peterson and LaDainian Tomlinson have more rushing touchdowns than Gore’s 74.

Gore has plied his trade for the 49ers, the Colts, the Dolphins, and the Bills through his 15-year career, and now, he’ll be running the ball the Jets, who signed him to a one-year contract on Tuesday, per Gore’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Gore will turn 37 on May 14, which puts him in rarefied air for his position. We all know that running backs are fungible as other positions aren’t, and that running backs tend to get used up by the sheer physical demands of what they do.

But if Gore is able to match or exceed the 599 yards on 166 carries he put up for the Bills last season, he’ll make even more history than he already has. Hall-of-Famer Marcus Allen, in his final NFL season, ran for 505 yards and 11 touchdowns on 124 carries at age 37. After that, you have to hit the Wayback Machine for the next most prolific back at the age Gore will be when the 2020 season begins: John Henry Johnson for the AFL’s Houston Oilers in 1966, with his 226 yards and three touchdowns on 70 carries. No other running back in professional football history has managed even 100 yards in a season at age 37 or older. Only Allen and John Riggins gained more rushing yards at age 36 than Gore did, so there’s that.

Most of the most prolific runners 37 years of age or older, in fact, are quarterbacks. Doug Flutie (1999), Steve Young (1998), and Ryan Fitzpatrick (2019) rank second, third, and fourth on the single-season Old Guys rushing list regardless of position, and after John Henry Johnson pops up, it’s John Elway (1997), Roger Staubach (1979), and Flutie three more times (2000, 2001, and 2003). Heck… Earl Morrall, who would never be recognized as the most athletic quarterback at any point in his career, ran for more yards in 1972 at age 38 for the perfect Dolphins (67) than the next running back after Gore and Johnson on the list — 37-year-old Tony Richardson of the Jets in 2008 (65).

So, when we say that it is exceedingly rare for a running back of any stripe to have the potential to be productive at Frank Gore’s level at his age, there is a historical component which says that this just doesn’t happen. If Gore is able to beat Father Time this time around, it will be uniquely historic — and another component to when should eventually be his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Because being the best old running back ever? It’s a pretty remarkable feat.

Video: Falcons trade up for Julio Jones in 2011

Nine years ago, the Atlanta Falcons made a splash when they moved up in the 2011 draft to pick No. 6 and selected All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones.

Nine years ago, the Atlanta Falcons made a splash when they moved up in the 2011 draft to pick No. 6 and selected All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones.

The trade remains one of the most successful moves of Thomas Dimitroff’s tenure as general manager. In nine seasons with the Falcons, Jones has recorded 797 catches, 12,125 receiving yards and 57 touchdowns.

As we are now less than a week away from the league’s first virtual draft, let’s relive the moment when Atlanta selected Jones, as shared by the NFL’s Twitter account below:

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Matthew Stafford turns 32: Here’s how he ranks historically at that age

Happy 32nd birthday to Lions QB Matthew Stafford

Happy birthday to Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford! The Lions longtime QB turns 32 today (Feb. 7th).

Stafford has already played 11 NFL seasons at his relatively young age. He ranks very high in a plethora of historical categories for NFL players through age 31.

Here are a few examples of Stafford’s historical rankings:

Passing yards – 41,205, second (Peyton Manning 41,626)

Worth noting that Stafford has played in 149 career games, 11 fewer than Manning did on his 32nd birthday.

Passing TDs – 256, third (Manning 306 and Dan Marino 290)

Completions – 3,559, first (Manning 3,468 is next)

Attempts – 5,696, first (Drew Bledsoe 5,599 is 2nd)

Interceptions – 138, 17th

Marino and Bledsoe top the INT list with 165 apiece. Most of the other QBs above Stafford here played in the less passer-friendly era before Marino, a list that includes five Pro Football Hall of Famers. Stafford’s INT rate of 2.35 (INTs thrown per 100 throws) is 16th-best all-time for his age. Aaron Rodgers is the best at 1.64.

Sacked – 347, 6th

Randall Cunningham was sacked 439 times in just 103 career starts by his 32nd birthday. Stafford has been sacked the exact same amount of times as Russell Wilson, who turns 32 in November. Stafford has the same career sack rate (5.7 sacks per 100 dropbacks) as Brett Favre, Dan Fouts and Troy Aikman when those Hall of Famers all turned 32.

Pick-sixes – 20, 1st (Marino, 16)

Not a category Stafford wants to lead…

Game-winning drives – 34, 1st (Matt Ryan and Marino, 32)

4th quarter comebacks – 28, 1st (Ryan, 24)

No quarterback has ever created more late-game victories prior to age 32 than Matthew Stafford.

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