Aaron Rodgers is one victory from Brees. His teams have won 180 games he has started, counting the playoffs, according to NBC Sports, and win No. 181 would match the total Brees carried into retirement.
The haul comes from three stops. Rodgers banked 158 wins as the Green Bay Packers’ starter, added six with the New York Jets, and has 16 so far with Pittsburgh. The Steelers are 6-2 heading into Week 11, tied at the top of the AFC North with Cincinnati.
The three names still ahead
Only three quarterbacks in league history have won more as a starter than Brees. Tom Brady sits in a category of his own with 286 wins. Peyton Manning is next on 200, and Brett Favre holds third with 199.
Rodgers has already erased Manning from one of the sport’s signature leaderboards this autumn. In the Steelers’ win over the New Orleans Saints in Paris on 26 October, he threw his 540th career touchdown pass, moving past Manning into third on the all-time regular-season touchdowns list.
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The record he will not catch
The one piece of climbing that is not in play is Favre’s 199. Rodgers has publicly framed this as his final NFL season, meaning any realistic shot at third place on the all-time wins list is already gone. The gap between 181 and 199 is not a one-season chase at age 42.
That leaves Brees as the ceiling. Brees, who spent the bulk of his career with the Saints, retired after the 2020 season with 172 regular-season wins and nine in the playoffs for a total of 181.
Burrow and the Bengals stand between Rodgers and 181
The opportunity to match that number arrives in the Week 11 Sunday Night Football game at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, where Rodgers and the Steelers meet Joe Burrow and the Bengals on Sunday, 15 November. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:20pm local time.
Pittsburgh already beat Cincinnati earlier this season, in a game Rodgers threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns. A repeat result would give the Steelers the outright AFC North lead at the midway mark, and would put Rodgers on 181 for his career.
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