Brett Favre became the NFL’s all-time passing touchdowns leader in September 2007. After Week 3 of the 2025 campaign, Favre is now fifth on the list. On Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers passed his former teammate with his 509th touchdown pass.
Rodgers tossed a pair of touchdowns to lead the Steelers to a 21-14 victory against the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Rodgers is now fourth in NFL history in touchdown passes. After the win, though, the 41-year-old downplayed the accomplishment.
“I mean not super duper high,” Rodgers said when asked where the achievement ranked for him. “You know, it means that I’ve played a long time.
“I grew up, [49ers] quarterbacks were my favorite, and Brett [Favre]. And I got to play with Brett.”
Aaron Rodgers Passes Brett Favre on NFL’s Passing TD List
Rodgers wasn’t wrong when he said he has played a long time. The quarterback has spent 21 years in the league, so it’s not shocking that he’s ranked highly on an all-time passing list.
But Rodgers didn’t start until his fourth season. He also missed at least seven games in three different campaigns.
Favre was an iron man, starting in 297 consecutive regular season contests. While that was a tremendous accomplishment likely never to be broken, it helped Favre accumulate a lot of stats.
Obviously, both Rodgers and Favre were two of the best in their eras. Rodgers, though, passed Favre on the passing touchdowns list while playing in 51 fewer games.
Week 3 was Rodgers’ 244th NFL start. This season, he’s already thrown seven touchdowns for the Steelers.
With 510 career touchdown passes, only Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are ahead of Rodgers on the historic list.
Rodgers needs 30 more passing touchdowns to leap Manning for third place. Manning threw 539 touchdowns in 266 NFL games.
Making his accomplishment Sunday even more impressive, Rodgers has climbed the all-time passing touchdown list while protecting the ball incredibly well. Rodgers has thrown just 119 interceptions in his career.
Manning had 251 interceptions while Favre is the NFL’s all-time interceptions leader with 336.
Rodgers Raves About Philip Rivers After Passing Favre
While the Steelers veteran quarterback minimized his own achievement Sunday and then just mentioned Favre, he had a lot of positive things to say about former Pro Bowl quarterback Philip Rivers.
Rodgers grouped Rivers in with the 49ers signal-callers and Favre as quarterbacks he enjoyed watching play before he entered the league.
“I was drafted the year after Phil Rivers. I had a friendship through the game with him for years. Loved watching Phil play,” Rodgers said. “His mannerisms, lack of swearing trash-talk. Phil was one guy that I really enjoyed watching on tape.
“And the only guy to get out of the Pro Bowl with an excuse that he had his eighth or ninth kid, I think, right before that. It’s good to be mentioned with those guys.”
Rivers finished his career with 421 passing touchdowns in 244 games over 17 seasons. Although there is a big gap between the two quarterbacks, Rivers is just behind Favre at No. 6 on the NFL’s passing touchdowns list.
Rivers finished with one more touchdown pass than Dan Marino, who held the all-time passing touchdowns record in the NFL until Favre broke it in 2007.
Interestingly, Ben Roethlisberger is also in the top 10 just behind those two quarterbacks with 418 passing touchdowns. He sits at No. 8 on the list.
Another former Steelers quarterback, Russell Wilson, is 12th with 353 passing touchdowns.
Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers Responds to Beating Brett Favre Accomplishment