Tag: passing leader

Drew Brees’ historic 62-yard TD pass is Saints Play of the Day

Drew Brees’ historic 62-yard touchdown pass is the Saints Play of the Day. Peyton Manning had a great reaction to his rival taking another one of his records:

We’ve got 62 days to go until the start of the New Orleans Saints’ 2024 regular season, and that makes Drew Brees’ historic 62-yard touchdown pass the Saints Play of the Day.

This was the play on which Brees won the NFL’s all-time passing yards record in 2018 (taking it from his old rival Peyton Manning, who handled it well), but it was also the first career touchdown catch of Tre’Quan Smith’s career. The rookie wideout got open down the sideline during a coverage breakdown in the Washington secondary, and Brees wasted no time exploiting that opportunity.

Smith caught the pass at the visitors’ 37-yard line and wasn’t touched for about 30 yards into the end zone, having shrugged off a desperate shove from safety Montae Nicholson. It was a great moment for all involved in black and gold, with Brees mobbed by his celebrating teammates before he could even reach the Saints’ bench. The Saints won this one 43-19 in prime time in what became one of the best seasons in franchise history. What a moment. Tom Brady currently holds the passing yards record.

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Dak Prescott on cusp of passing Roger Staubach on list of Cowboys QBs

Prescott will likely become the franchise’s No. 3 all-time passer in Week 2 or 3, behind just Troy Aikman and Tony Romo. | From @ToddBrock24f7

While many Cowboys fans still seem to have their doubts about Dak Prescott, the 27-year-old is about to move into rarefied air within the exclusive club of Dallas quarterbacks.

This most recent season ended in disappointment for the team, but Prescott wrapped his sixth pro season by quietly slipping into fourth spot on the franchise’s all-time passing yardage list. Barring some unforeseen development, he’ll jump another spot within the first month of the 2022 season, ahead- perhaps unthinkably to some- of Roger Staubach.

No. 4 is about to become No. 3.

Prescott’s 4,449 passing yards in 2021 pushed him one spot past Danny White on both the Cowboys’ and NFL’s all-time passing leader list. He currently sits 97th with 22,083 career yards. He’s just 617 yards behind Staubach, who’s ranked 94th.

One can argue it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. Staubach is NFL royalty, with five Super Bowl appearances, two championships, a Super Bowl MVP award, six Pro Bowls, Cowboys Ring of Honor immortality, and a Hall of Fame jacket as only the most obvious accolades in a highly-decorated career.

Prescott still has much to accomplish to earn a fraction of Staubach’s reputation among the all-time legends. But surpassing Staubach in any quarterbacking category is a noteworthy accomplishment in North Texas.

 

Many observers take all the gaudy passing yardage totals with a huge grain of salt. The modern pass-happy game bears little resemblance to the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offenses of yesteryear. With defensive secondaries so limited and quarterbacks so protected, it’s a different game now.

One look at the current rankings shows how skewed the numbers are toward today’s quarterbacks. Of the top ten all-time career passers, only two (Favre, Marino) are more than ten years removed from active duty. Two (Brady, Roethlisberger) retired within the past few weeks, two (Brees, Rivers) walked away just the year before that, and two more (Ryan, Rodgers) are still active. It truly is the golden age of quarterbacks.

Washington’s Sammy Baugh was considered the gold standard in his day. Easily one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, he retired after the 1952 season as the most prolific, with more passing yards than any man had ever amassed to that point.

But now, his 21,886 career yards are only good enough for 99th place all-time. What took him 167 games- 16 seasons in that time- to accomplish, Prescott did in 85 games.

While it is perhaps unfair to compare passers of different generations by lumping them all together on the same list, one list is all the league maintains. And if Prescott has a very reachable 4,000-yard season in 2022, he’ll vault to No. 73, ahead of names like Otto Graham, Andrew Luck, Daunte Culpepper, Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Joe Theismann, and Jim Plunkett.

The list really measures longevity first and, then to a certain degree, success. Greatness is not automatically directly proportional to one’s ranking on it. The upper half of the list is littered with quarterbacks whose yardage totals were once considered impossible, but they themselves aren’t necessarily considered legendary by today’s measures. Ryan Tannehill has 30,729 yards (52nd place). Kirk Cousins has 32,593 (43rd). Joe Flacco has 41,269 (19th). All are still adding to those stats and climbing higher.

Where Prescott’s numbers eventually land remains to be seen. His place among the elite will be decided by history, even as his ascension within the Cowboys record books is all but inevitable.

After Prescott overtakes Staubach- likely in Week 2 or 3 of the 2022 season- he’ll still have a couple seasons to go before he finds himself within striking distance of Troy Aikman and Tony Romo atop the franchise’s all-time leaderboard.

QB Gms Comp Att Yds TD INT Comp Rtg
1.Tony Romo 156 2,829 4,335 34,183 248 117 65.3 97.1
2. Troy Aikman 165 2,898 4,715 32,942 165 141 61.5 81.6
3. Roger Staubach 127 1,685 2,958 22,700 153 109 57.0 83.4
4. Dak Prescott 85 1,924 2,889 22,083 143 50 66.6 98.7

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