I was curious on this idle Friday afternoon about any individual milestones that Patriots players were closing in on, so I decided to compile them into a list.

Season:
- Tom Brady needs 103 yards to hit 5,000 yards passing on the season.
- Brady needs 188 yards to surpass Dan Marino's former record of yards in a single season
- Depending on how long Drew Brees plays for, Brady has a legitimate shot at taking the record himself.

- Tom Brady needs 4 passing touchdowns to throw for 40 touchdowns (or more) for the second time in his career.
- Only Dan Marino has had multiple 40+ touchdown seasons (1984 and 1986)
- A quarterback has thrown for 40 or more touchdowns only 7 times throughout history.
- Brady, Manning, Marino x2, Rodgers, Warner, Brees.

- Tom Brady needs 22 completions to have 400 completions for the first time in his career
- 9 times has a quarterback completed 400 passes in a season.
- Peyton Manning, Drew Brees X 4, Rich Gannon, Warren Moon, Kurt Warner, and Drew Bledsoe

- Tom Brady needs 2 more rushing yards to reach 111 on the season, a career high.

- Rob Gronkowski needs 71 yards to tie Kellen Winslow for most receiving yards in a season by a TE
- Winslow set the mark in 1980 with 1,290 yards.
- With two receptions, Gronkowski will double his receptions from last year (42 in 2010, 82 currently in 2011)

- Wes Welker needs 7 receptions to tie his career high of 123, which he set in 13 games in 2009
- With 4 receptions, Welker will have 120 catches in a season for the second time.
- 6 times has a receiver had 120+ catches. Marvin Harrison, Cris Carter x2, Herman Moore, Jerry Rice, Welker
- Welker needs 1 TD for 10 this season, giving him his first double digit TD season.
- Welker also needs 82 yards for 1,600 this season.
- 13 times has a receiver had 1600 yards+ in a season. Jerry Rice, Isaac Bruce, Charley Hennigan, Marvin Harrison x2, Torry Holt x2, Herman Moore, Jimmy Smith, Randy Moss, Michael Irvin, Rod Smith, Lance Alworth. That's a Hall of Fame collection.

- Aaron Hernandez needs three receptions for 75 on the season, and 28 yards for 800 receiving yards.

- Chad Ochocinco needs 54 receiving yards to avoid having the least amount of yards in a season he's had since his rookie year in 2001, in which he only played 12 games.

- BenJarvus Green-Ellis needs 1 rushing touchdown to post back to back double digit rushing touchdown seasons, the first time a Patriots player will have done that since Clock Killin' Corey Dillon did it thrice consecutively from 2004-2006.

- On defense, Mark Anderson needs 1 sack to put up his first double digit sack season since his rookie year in 2006.

- Jerod Mayo needs 12 tackles to have 4 consecutive seasons with 100+ tackles.

Career:

- Tom Brady needs 3 touchdown passes to have 300 career, which would tie him with Hall of Famer John Elway for 5th all time.

So, yeah. Curiosity brought me to compile this list, and I figured that maybe another person would find it interesting, or something like that, so I decided to post it here. I'm sure all of the Patriots players would forego all of these milestones if that meant that they can get the W on Sunday without any more injuries, and lock up homefield advantage, but I figured it would be something to keep an eye on.

Happy New Year everybody. Here's hoping that albeit the calendar is changing, the Patriots collective ability to pull out gritty wins and be mentally tough will remain the same.