GREEN BAY, Wis. — Six quarterbacks in NFL history had thrown 400 touchdown passes before Aaron Rodgers reached that milestone Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.
None of them did it as quickly as Rodgers.
Not Drew Brees, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. Not Dan Marino, Brett Favre or Philip Rivers.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback reached 400 touchdown passes for his career in his 193rd regular-season game. That’s 12 fewer games Brees, who was previously the fastest to 400 when he did it in 205 games.
Rodgers, who turned 37 on Wednesday, began the day needing three touchdown passes to reach 400, and two to reach 35 on the season, which would give him his fifth season with at least 35 touchdowns. That’s the most 35-touchdown seasons in NFL history. He had been tied with Brady, Brees and Manning for the most with four each.
After a four-touchdown game the previous week against the Chicago Bears, Rodgers threw two more in the first half against the Eagles. No. 398 came on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, a fade to Davante Adams, who tied a Packers record with touchdown catches in seven straight games (Don Hutson did it twice in the 1940s).
Career touchdown No. 399 came in the final minute of the second quarter, when Rodgers narrowly avoided a sack in time to find Robert Tonyan wide open down the field for a 25-yarder.
No. 400 came in the third quarter and went to who else but Adams. It capped a 99-yard drive that Rodgers started with a 42-yard bomb from the back of his own end zone to Adams.
Adams presented the ball to Rodgers after the play, which prompted former Packers receiver James Jones to compliment Adams for his awareness. Jones tweeted that he threw Rodgers’ 100th career touchdown pass into the stands.
Rodgers is the only quarterback who had fewer than 100 interceptions (he has 88) at the time he reached 400 touchdowns.