Rodgers Makes History with 50,000-Yard Milestone
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made history on Sunday night against the Chicago Bears by becoming the 11th player in NFL history to reach 50,000 career passing yards.
The milestone came on a 39-yard touchdown pass to tight end Robert Tonyan midway through the third quarter.
Rodgers entered Sunday with 49,835 passing yards. Hall of Famer John Elway is No. 10 all-time with 51,475 yards. Rodgers entered the game trailing Elway by 1,640 yards. He’d have to average 273.3 yards per game to get there this season.
According to the Packers, Rodgers reached 50,000 yards on his 6,436th career passing attempt. Only Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger (6,361) got there faster.
The first of Rodgers’ touchdown passes went to Davante Adams. It was catch No. 500 of Adams’ career. The second of Rodgers’ touchdown passes went to Marcedes Lewis. It was catch No. 400 of Lewis’ career.
The milestone came on a deep pass - a key area of improvement this season. According to Pro Football Focus, Rodgers was No. 1 in the NFL with 25 completions and 980 yards on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield at the start of this week.
“A lot of it has been some of the work I did in the offseason, some of the things I've picked up in training camp watching some of that old film, and then just tying it all together and being markedly more accurate this year,” he said this week.
Rodgers finished 21-of-29 passing for 211 yards with four touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 132.3. For Rodgers, who is having an MVP type of season, it was his 10th game out of 11 with two-plus touchdown passes and a 105-plus passer rating.
Rodgers improved to 20-5 in his career (including playoffs) against the Bears.
“With Aaron, you just feel you’re capable of anything,” coach Matt LaFleur said this week. “He’s just got such a unique ability. You’re talking about a Hall of Famer. There’s not many ever like him. I always joke with our guys that the only thing that limits us is our imagination. It’s a credit to his ability to go out there and make all the throws, make all the great decisions. Certainly, when you don’t have a guy in that chair or the trigger man, it definitely makes life much more difficult. I think you really spend a lot more time thinking about how you’re going to try to get certain things done.”
