Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning takes the field tonight to start a season in which he’ll continue his march toward owning all of the major career passing records.
Most significant of the many accomplishments Manning can achieve this season is surpassing Dan Marino for second place on the all-time passing yardage list. Manning has 59,487 career passing yards, so if he passes for 1,875 yards this year, he’ll pass Dan Marino (61,361 yards) for second all-time, behind only Brett Favre.
Manning has topped 4,000 passing yards in all but two of his pro seasons. He already owns the record for most 4,000-yard passing seasons with 12, and he can add to that record if he gets his 13th 4,000-yard season this year.
If Manning throws 566 passes this season, he’ll also surpass Marino in pass attempts. Marino is second behind Favre with 8,358 passes thrown in his career.
Manning has 22 games with four or more touchdown passes in his career. Only Favre, with 23 such games, has more, so if Manning throws four touchdown passes twice this season, he’ll pass Favre on that front.
Manning is already the all-time NFL record holder in 300-yard passing games, with 72, so every time he tops 300 yards he’s adding to his own record.
All of these accomplishments are listed in the 2013 Official NFL Record and Fact Book, a book that lists Favre as the all-time record holder in pass attempts (10,169), completions (6,300), yards (71,838) and touchdowns (508). Manning is probably about four seasons away from passing Favre in all four categories. Breaking those records would require Manning to keep playing and stay healthy until he’s 40. That’s not easy, but I wouldn’t bet against him.