It took Matthew Stafford a long time to reach a Super Bowl, much longer than it took Patrick Mahomes, but both quarterbacks belong as key stepping stones in the annals of NFL passing history. One such record is the number of passing yards that a quarterback has through “X” career games and Stafford’s name is prominently featured on that list.
But Mahomes is erasing his name every week.
Mahomes is going to career game #107, while Stafford is going into #212. That’s almost twice as long. But it won’t take Mahomes 10 years to erase Stafford’s name from this particular list at this pace: Stafford has the most career passing yards for a QB through games 107-185. As you can see from this list by @ScottKacsmar, Mahomes is tracking to replace Stafford’s entire place on the list over the next 79 games.
Once you get to #186, that’s when Drew Brees overtakes Stafford. Then Tom Brady overtakes Brees at career game #305.
Stafford would need to play seven more years after this season, without missing a game, to catch up to Brady’s career number of games played.
It would be hard for Mahomes to not surpass Stafford every step of the way unless he is injured mid-game, which nobody wants to ever see happen. (I guess I can’t say “nobody”, there’s always Raiders fans.)
Stafford’s career marks are really unbelievable, and his body of work continues to be underrated despite being a Super Bowl winner and a former number one overall pick. Mahomes is also unbelievable, and having Andy Reid with several Hall of Fame teammates didn’t hurt raise his stock either.
Mahomes is following Stafford in the passing records. Who will follow Stafford on the Rams and can he maybe someday catch up to Mahomes?