Aaron Rodgers now stands alone behind only Tom Brady and Drew Brees in NFL history.

His 540th career regular-season touchdown pass arrived on Sunday night in Saint-Denis, in front of 78,488 fans at Stade de France, and it moved him one clear of Peyton Manning’s 539. Only Brady (649) and Brees (571) are still ahead.

The record play itself was not a long bomb but a four-yard fade to the corner of the end zone, caught by 6ft 7in tight end Darnell Washington over Saints cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry. It was also the first touchdown ever scored in a regular-season NFL game on French soil.

A quiet night built on one big play

The game was close throughout. Rodgers finished 19 of 30 for 212 yards and the one touchdown, with no interceptions, as Pittsburgh ground out a 16-10 win and improved to 5-2. The Saints, under head coach Kellen Moore, fell to 2-5.

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The key sequence came in the second quarter: a 51-yard strike down the field to receiver DK Metcalf set up the goal line, and the fade to Washington on the next series put Rodgers past Manning. The 42-year-old quarterback also made a late eight-yard scramble on third-and-six in the fourth quarter to help close the game out.

On that run, he was characteristically dry about his own athleticism.

“Sometimes you’ve got to suck it up and make a play for your guys. I think because I am so much less athletic than I used to be, it actually fires up the guys even more,” he told reporters in the post-game press room.

McCarthy frames the Paris trip as special

Rodgers had tied Manning the previous week in an overtime win over Tampa Bay, so Sunday was always set up to deliver the record somewhere. That it came in Paris was the twist nobody had scripted.

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Head coach Mike McCarthy, in his first season in Pittsburgh after Mike Tomlin’s 19-year run ended, framed the Paris trip as a one-off for the group.

“I think the most important thing is you have a chance to travel as a team, and the challenge of being on the road is always exciting, but this is special,” McCarthy told reporters in Saint-Denis.

The chase for Brees is still a long shot

Rodgers has already said 2026 will be his final NFL season, which gives a hard ceiling to how far up the list he can climb. He is 31 touchdown passes short of Brees and 109 short of Brady, and Pittsburgh has 10 regular-season games left on the schedule after the Paris trip.

Next up for the Steelers is a Week 8 date with AFC North rivals the Cleveland Browns at Acrisure Stadium.

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