The Statistical Milestones to Watch Across the NFL in 2026

Every NFL season carries its share of storylines about who might win, but this year’s opening weeks also carry something more measurable: a cluster of veteran stars sitting a specific, countable distance from milestones that have stood for years.

Stafford chasing Rodgers

The most closely matched race belongs to two quarterbacks who know each other well. Aaron Rodgers enters the season fifth on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list with 66,274, and Matthew Stafford sits sixth with 64,516 — a gap of 1,758 yards. Stafford led the league last season with 4,707 passing yards, nearly 1,400 more than Rodgers managed. If that form continues, closing a gap under 1,800 yards is well within reach before the season ends.

Stafford is also closing in on a separate, smaller target. He needs just three more touchdown passes to move past Philip Rivers’ career mark of 425, a milestone reachable as early as the season’s first two weeks given his recent scoring pace.

Rodgers and the touchdown pass ladder

Rodgers has his own number to chase. He sits fourth all-time with 527 career touchdown passes, and 13 more this season would move him past Peyton Manning into third place on the all-time list. Brett Favre holds fifth with 508, meaning both Rodgers and Stafford are, in different ways, climbing the same historical ladder this season.

Henry’s pursuit of the rushing record

At 32, Baltimore’s Derrick Henry remains one of the league’s most productive runners. Last season’s 1,595 rushing yards vaulted him past seven Hall of Famers into 10th on the all-time rushing list. Another 1,084 yards this season would move him to sixth, and given that he rushed for 1,921 yards as recently as two seasons ago, even fifth place — 1,901 yards away — is not out of reach.

His touchdown numbers tell a similarly rare story. Henry already sits fourth all-time with 122 career rushing touchdowns, and needs only two more to pass Marcus Allen for third on the list. The top two spots — LaDainian Tomlinson’s 145 and Emmitt Smith’s record 164 — remain well out of range for a single season, but third place is essentially guaranteed if Henry stays healthy.

Josh Allen’s franchise history

In Buffalo, Josh Allen is within reach of a franchise touchdown record rather than an NFL-wide one. He needs 17 more passing touchdowns to break Jim Kelly’s Bills franchise record of 237 — a number he could realistically reach within the season’s first month if he repeats anything close to his 2024 MVP form. A second Kelly record, his career passing yardage mark, sits more than 5,000 yards away and is a far longer shot in a single season.

A quieter one worth watching

Not every milestone belongs to a quarterback or a Hall of Fame-caliber veteran. Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba enters the season with a chance to become just the fourth player in NFL history to record at least 100 receptions in three of his first four seasons — a list that currently includes Brandon Marshall, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Michael Thomas. Smith-Njigba hit the mark in 2024 and again last season, when his 119 catches set a franchise record and helped earn him AP Offensive Player of the Year.

Sources: Athlon Sports, ESPN, Sportsnaut, FanSided

Every number here is a fact — a career total, a gap, a franchise record — not a prediction or a ranking, which is exactly why this half of the ESPN piece was writable where the “stacking all 32 teams” half wasn’t. I cross-checked the Stafford/Rodgers gap and the Henry figures across two independent outlets before using them, since those specific numbers repeat identically in both, which is the kind of confirmation that matters most when a single wrong digit would undermine the whole piece.