Who has the most passing touchdowns in NFL history?
There are three active players in the top ten list of touchdown passes made in the NFL and as you might guess, Tom Brady is the all-time leader.
The all-time leader in passing touchdowns in the NFL is Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. He’s had the most time to accomplish that statistic as he’s just starting his 23rd year in the league at age 45, the longest of any quarterback. Interestingly, he has never been the leader in passing touchdowns on the season for consecutive seasons. The last quarterback to do that was Drew Brees in 2011 and 2012.
Along with Brady, there are two other active players in the top ten all-time passing touchdown leaders in the NFL, but they would have to do a lot of work to catch up to him.
10. Eli Manning, 366 touchdown passes
The younger of the Manning brothers spent 16 seasons in the NFL and retired at age 39. He spent his entire career with the New York Giants and had 57,023 passing yards with 366 touchdown passes.
9. Matt Ryan, 368 touchdown passes
At 37 years old, Matt Ryan now plays for the Indianapolis Colts, but he spent 14 seasons with the Atlanta Falcons before that. As one of the active players on this list, he still has a chance to lead the league in touchdown passes on a season. In his best season (2016), Ryan threw for 4,944 yards and 38 touchdowns.
8. Ben Roethlisberger, 418 touchdown passes
Ben Roethlisberger retired last season at the age of 39 after 18 years in the NFL. He may have had a chance to be higher up on this list, but he missed a good chunk of the 2019 season with an injury. Not only is he 8th in TD passes, but he’s also fifth in regular and post season wins.
7. Dan Marino, 420 touchdown passes
Dan Marino is known for being one of the best passers in NFL history. He threw 48 TDs for 5,084 yards in just the second season of his career and led the league in passing TDs and passing yards the two seasons after that and averaged around 24 TDs and 4,000 yards per season for the rest of his time in the NFL. He retired after 17 seasons at the age of 38.
6. Phillip Rivers, 421 touchdown passes
Rivers retired in 2021 after spending 16 seasons with the Chargers and his last with the Colts. He was 39 years old and in his time in the league, he was never known as one of the best QBs, but he always put up huge numbers despite not having much to show for it. He is eighth all-time in career wins with 139.
5. Aaron Rodgers 449 touchdown passes
Rodgers is one of the other quarterbacks on this list who’s still going on in the NFL. At 38 years old, he’s in his 17th season in the NFL. Being fifth on this list is even more impressive when you factor in the fact that Rodgers was a backup for his first three years, plus spent significant time out with injuries in 2013 and 2017. In 2020, he had his career-best 48 touchdown passes.
4. Brett Favre, 508 touchdown passes
Brett Favre spent 20 seasons in the NFL before finally retiring at age 41, not without a few retire-unretire moves first. From 1995-97, he led the league in touchdown passes for three straight seasons. Although he is fourth on this list, it could be because he would just throw whether or not it would be caught by his teammates or the opponents - he also has the most interceptions of any quarterback.
3. Peyton Manning, 539 touchdown passes
The older of the Mannings has a few more TD passes than his brother. Peyton Manning spent 18 seasons in the league before retiring at age 40. Even in his rookie year, he stood out with 26 touchdowns. He broke a record in 2013, throwing for 5,477 yards and a league-record 55 touchdowns.
2. Drew Brees, 571 touchdown passes
It was in 2018 when Drew Brees surpassed Peyton Manning on this list. At that point, he was number one on the list. He spent 20 seasons in the league and retired at age 42 in 2021, still the leader in touchdown passes. He was also the first QB to surpass 80,000 passing yards.
1. Tom Brady, 635 touchdown passes
Brady just won’t go away. He was supposed to retire this year finally, but that didn’t last long. The 45-year-old is back for his 23rd season in the NFL and looking to make sure no other QB comes close to overtaking him on this list. He’s led the league in TD passes five times so far, including last season with 43 total. He surpassed Drew Brees to become the No. 1 QB in passing yards with over 84,000 during the regular season and last year, he became the first player to reach 600 TD passes.