Which players have the most passing touchdowns in NFL history?

Originally a run-happy league, the NFL has become the pass-happy version we know today. Part of that is due to the offense-friendly rules the NFL has begun to institute, but a bigger reason is the talent of the signal-callers who have entered the league. 

To put it in sharper focus, before 2004, a quarterback had thrown 40 or more passing touchdowns in a season just three times. From 2004 to today, that mark has been reached 19 times.

That trend figures to continue, but which quarterbacks to this day have had the most success in league history? Who has the most passing touchdowns among the elite QBs who have graced the NFL field?

Here are the 10 players with the most regular-season passing touchdowns throughout their careers.

10 players with the most passing touchdowns in NFL history

Stafford, the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, has been a gunslinger from day one in the league. Unlike most of the other names on this list, he is still playing at a high level and has a chance to move up the rankings. He has put up three seasons with 30 or more TD passes in his 16-year career. If the 37-year-old continues on his current pace (average of 29 passing TDs across a 17-game season), he could end up just outside the top five on this list if he plays until he’s 40.

The recently retired Ryan checks in with the ninth-most TD passes in NFL history, along with four Pro Bowls and a 2016 NFL MVP to his name. Ryan had a stretch during which few quarterbacks were as dominant. Over a span of 11 years, Ryan finished nine of them with 25 or more passing touchdowns, including two seasons with 35 or more TD passes and fewer than 10 interceptions. 

A two-time Super Bowl winner, Big Ben put up huge seasons, but a large chunk of them came in the later stages of his career. Roethlisberger had four seasons with 30 or more touchdown passes, with two coming within his last three healthy seasons. In the second half of his career, he also had a run, not counting an injury-shortened year, when he threw for 25 or more passing touchdowns in eight of nine seasons.

7. Dan Marino: 420

The only quarterback on this list to play before 2000, Marino is the prototype for pocket passers. He was accurate and decisive, and as a result, started his career with 30 or more touchdowns in three of his first four NFL seasons. In fact, other than Marino’s two seasons with 40-plus touchdowns in 1984 and 1986, only one other player in NFL history had 40 or more TD passes in a season before the turn of the century. That was Kurt Warner in 1999.

An underrated passer of his generation, Rivers was an eight-time Pro Bowler and is one of just five quarterbacks to compile more than five seasons of 30 or more passing touchdowns from 2006-2020 (his playing career). His six seasons trail only Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. Not bad company. Moreover, in his 15 years as a full-time starter, he never once finished with 20 or fewer passing TDs.

The last name on this list who is still active … well, technically. Rodgers is one of just five players to cross the 500 passing TD threshold, and joins another famous Packers quarterback in the group (more on him later). The four-time MVP and 10-time Pro Bowler knows how to sling it, as evidenced by his touchdown total, but he has also avoided mistakes. His eight seasons with 30 or more touchdown tosses and fewer than 10 interceptions are the most all-time.

4. Brett Favre: 508 

Favre, the other Packers QB on the list, made 11 Pro Bowls in his career, but most impressively, he put up 30 or more touchdown passes in five straight seasons from 1994 to 1998 for Green Bay. He would add four more of those seasons over the rest of his career. His mark of nine total seasons with 30 or more touchdown passes is tied for the second-most all-time, with only Brees reaching 10 such seasons.

3. Peyton Manning: 539

The maestro of the greatest QB season of all time, Manning dished out an NFL-record 55 touchdown passes in 2013 for the Broncos. That record still stands to this day. He also, along with Rodgers, is the only signal-caller to produce two seasons with 45 or more touchdown passes, putting up 49 in 2004 for the Colts. Although his career ended with a less-than-stellar nine touchdown passes in 2015, Manning finished with nine seasons of 30 or more touchdowns, equal to the number of seasons (including one he missed due to injury) in which he had fewer than 30 touchdown passes.

The only quarterback in NFL history to total 10 seasons with 30 or more touchdown passes, Brees was an offensive dynamo, recording those in a span of just 11 seasons. In addition, he compiled five seasons with 5,000 or more passing yards, one fewer than every other QB on this list COMBINED. Few players commanded an offense like Brees.

It shouldn’t shock anyone that the leader is the GOAT. Brady delivered elite play well into his 40s, something that is still hard for people to believe despite witnessing it. In fact, two of the three seasons in which he reached 40 TD passes came at ages 43 and 44! Brady’s best year was in 2007, when he led the Patriots to a perfect regular season behind a barrage of 50 TD passes. After an injury-shortened 2008, Brady posted 25 TDs in 13 of his last 14 seasons, a remarkable accomplishment.

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