- Aaron Rodgers could climb the passing leaderboards: Rodgers needs just 13 passing touchdowns to move into third place in NFL history.
- Mike Evans might keep scaling the all-time receiving yardage ranks: Another 1,000-yard campaign might move Evans up to 12th.
- Introducing the NEW PFF Pro subscription: PFF Pro includes everything in PFF+, plus an upgraded Premium Stats Pro experience, higher base access to Guru AI, revamped player and team pages, enhanced data and visualizations, an improved interface and programmatic data access for modeling. Click here to subscribe.
As is the case every season, we will be keeping a keen eye on the NFL’s record books in 2026. The 17-game regular season naturally gives players more opportunities to chase down milestones, but the changing shape of NFL careers is just as significant. Player longevity has increased, particularly at quarterback, allowing the league’s biggest stars to continue climbing all-time leaderboards well into their late 30s and, in some cases, beyond.
The NFL currently appears to have more future Hall of Famers operating in or around their primes than approaching the finish line. The likes of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Myles Garrett, Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson still have plenty of football ahead of them, meaning many of the league’s most significant records remain longer-term pursuits.
There are still plenty of milestones within reach in 2026, though. Here are the all-time records and landmarks worth tracking this season.
All-Time Passing Records
The league’s resident elder statesmen Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford are the men to watch on the all-time passing leaderboards. No other active starter is within the top 25 of passing yardage leaders.
With both form and age on his side, it’s feasible that Stafford leapfrogs Rodgers for the fifth overall spot in passing yards given Rodgers announced he is retiring after this season. Currently, only 1,750 yards separate the two.
Rodgers isn’t going to catch his predecessor Brett Favre in his final year, but if old friend Mike McCarthy lets his quarterback roll back the clock as a farewell gesture, there’s a decent chance he accumulates the 3,726 yards necessary to reach the 70,000 milestone. Rodgers led the fourth-most pass-heavy offense in football with the Jets in 2024. Meanwhile, the Steelers ranked 11th in pass play percentage last year.
Rodgers also needs just 13 more passing touchdowns to jump Peyton Manning for third place all time in that regard behind Drew Brees and Tom Brady.
There will also be a handful of somewhat surprising names breaching the top 100 in all-time passing yards this season. Kyler Murray and Geno Smith will do so provided they retain their starting places. Don’t lose sight of Baker Mayfield either, who’s already all the way up at 65th all time. He’s on pace to surpass names like Kurt Warner, Troy Aikman and Steve Young in the next two seasons.
All-Time Rushing Records
There’s one name here who stands above all other active players when it comes to the rushing record books: Derrick Henry. At 32 years old, he continues to defy conventional modern wisdom about running back career longevity.
Henry currently ranks 10th all time in rushing yards and fourth in rushing touchdowns — quite impressive considering his 2,662 career attempts aren’t even among the top 20. Henry’s opening score of the 2026 season will draw him level with Marcus Allen in third place all time, but he’ll still be 41 touchdowns short of Emmitt Smith’s lead.
Henry should make up a little more ground on the yardage leaderboard. Another 1,000-yard season would see Henry surpass three Hall of Famers. However, he would remain over 4,000 yards short of Smith in first.
Is Henry showing any signs of slowing down? Last year’s 1,595 rushing yards with the third-highest yards-per-carry mark of his career (5.2) should remove any hint of regression.
However, PFF’s underlying metrics may suggest otherwise. Last season, Henry forced a missed tackle once per every seven carries, on average. That was the lowest figure of his career. Consider that Henry broke a tackle one in four carries just a couple of years ago.
Among quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson already leads the way in all-time rushing yards, while Josh Allen can say the same about rushing touchdowns. Both will extend their leads even further in the coming years.
Injuries rendered 2025 the least productive rushing season of Jackson’s career. Just 2.8 designed runs per game was the lowest mark of his career. It will be fascinating to track how his style evolves entering his veteran years. Jackson is going to finish his career with more rushing yards than several Hall of Fame running backs.
All-Time Receiving Records
Only two active NFL pass-catches are inside the top 25 of all-time receiving yardage: Mike Evans and Travis Kelce. Projections for Evans remain high entering his 13th NFL season and first with the 49ers, where he is expected to be the top receiving target. However, Evans missed the first extensive time of his career last season, and when he was available, he didn’t always look like a top wideout — his overall PFF grade dipped below 70.0 for the first time in his career.
Ranked 21st in all-time receiving yardage, another healthy 1,000-yard season would see Evans climb as high as 12th. Even two respectable 700-yard campaigns to close out his career would have Evans end up among the top 10 all time, with a very strong case for the Hall of Fame.
Davante Adams is only five places off Evans in yardage, but following a league-leading 14-touchdown season last season, he stands in a much better position on the all-time receiving scores leaderboard. Only six wideouts have caught more touchdowns than Adams in NFL history, and even a ho-hum five-touchdown season would surpass Larry Fitzgerald.
Adams’ 63 touchdowns on plays within 10 yards of the goal line is a PFF-era record. He has long been deemed unguardable in these goal-line situations thanks to his flawless release package. Adams has 16 career touchdowns on slant routes, along with 12 on goal-line fades.
If Adams were to replicate the exact same production as last year, he’ll climb as high as fourth overall. But from there, the trio of Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens are practically out of sight.
Both Evans and Adams will have their eyes firmly on a first Super Bowl ring above any personal accolades in the twilight of their respective careers.
Among younger wideouts, Justin Jefferson is the obvious candidate to climb the furthest up the leaderboards. He broke into the top 100 in all-time receiving yards last season. If he can maintain his current pace for just four more seasons, he will reach the top 10. But to give you an idea of how unbreakable the true record is, Jefferson would need to keep pace until he’s 38 years old to surpass Jerry Rice.
All-Time Defensive Records
As far as all-time sacks are concerned, Myles Garrett is the name to look out for. Following his history-making 2025 campaign, Garrett now finds himself in the most fruitful situation of his career. Super Bowl potential aside, Garrett is now on a top team, with whom opponents must throw the ball against in order to keep pace. The Rams faced 100 more dropbacks than the Browns in last year’s regular season.
Garrett currently ranks 28th all time in sacks. Of the 26 retired players above him, 21 are in the Hall of Fame. The sack leaderboard’s margins get thin at the top. Three more years of sack production at Garrett’s career pace would see him rise as high as fourth in NFL history.
In the PFF era, Garrett’s 21.4% pass-rush win rate towers above all other modern legends. His raw pressure numbers also paint an interesting story — Garrett has been one of the very best pressure-to-sack converters in PFF history. Players like Khalil Mack and Calais Campbell have over 150 extra career pressures than Garrett but still trail him on the all-time sack leaderboard.
Among the top of the NFL’s all-time tackling rankings, two legendary linebackers finished the 2025 season ranked third and fourth. Lavonte David announced his retirement this offseason. Just 22 solo tackles behind him, future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner has not officially called it quits just yet.
Wagner remains without a team to begin the 2026 season, but if injuries strike for a contending team, Wagner is the most reliable replacement you could ask for. He’s coming off his seventh consecutive 1,000-snap season. His 78.7 overall PFF grade from last year is still very respectable despite not being quite at his foremost form. Wagner remained elite against the run, converting 95% of his tackle attempts and logging a 90.4 PFF run-defense grade.
A couple of places further down the tackling leaderboard, 37-year-old Demario Davis will start for the Jets again this year. He needs 49 more solo tackles to become just the 16th defender in NFL history to amass 1,000 tackles.
Secondary records are much harder to come by. As quarterbacks have become so much more secure with the football in the modern game, the all-time interception list reads like history. The highest-ranked active player is Kevin Byard, whose 36 career interceptions are all the way down in 119th place. No other active player is inside the top 250 in all-time interceptions.
The barometer for what makes a defensive back Hall of Fame-worthy can no longer start with turnovers. When compared to any legendary cornerback or safety of a bygone era, the modern day defensive back has no chance.
That’s where modern coverage metrics can come in useful to compare across eras. Charles Woodson, Darrelle Revis and Champ Bailey are three of the best cornerbacks of the early PFF era. When comparing their metrics to more recent stars like Jalen Ramsey and Pat Surtain II, the three Hall of Famers produced higher PFF coverage grades, lower completion percentages allowed and lower passer ratings given up in coverage.
You may argue that there are better modern defensive backs than Surtain and Ramsey to use for this exercise, and perhaps the position is more difficult than ever to succeed. But the fact remains that the league hasn’t witnessed a true all-time great cornerback in several years.
© 2026 PFF - all rights reserved.