During yesterday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes to bring his regular season total to 500. Only two men – Peyton Manning and Brett Favre – have reached this plateau before him. When it comes to another one he also reached yesterday, though, Brady stands alone: wide receiver Josh Gordon became the 71st man to catch a touchdown from the 41-year old.
The fourth quarter scoring pass to Gordon broke a tie with Vinny Testaverde for most individual touchdown recipients over the course of a career. But while Testaverde played for seven different organizations (including the Patriots) during his 21 seasons in the NFL, Brady did it all with just one franchise and an ever-changing cast of pass catchers surrounding him – some well known, others more obscure.
Let’s take a look at the list and how many touchdowns each of the 71 players caught over the course of his career. How many of them would have known?
TE Rob Gronkowski (76)
WR Randy Moss (39)
WR Wes Welker (34)
WR Deion Branch (24)
WR Julian Edelman (24)
TE Aaron Hernandez (18)
TE Daniel Graham (17)
TE Benjamin Watson (17)
WR David Patten (16)
RB James White (16)
WR Troy Brown (15)
TE Christian Fauria (13)
TE David Givens (12)
WR Danny Amendola (10)
RB Kevin Faulk (10)
WR Chris Hogan (10)
LB/TE Mike Vrabel (8)
WR Brandin Cooks (7)
WR Brandon LaFell (7)
RB Shane Vereen (7)
TE Martellus Bennett (6)
WR Jabar Gaffney (6)
TE Tim Wright (6)
RB Dion Lewis (5)
WR Reche Caldwell (4)
TE Scott Chandler (4)
WR Aaron Dobson (4)
WR Bethel Johnson (4)
WR Brandon Lloyd (4)
WR Malcolm Mitchell (4)
WR Donte’ Stallworth (4)
WR Kenbrell Thompkins (4)
RB Danny Woodhead (4)
RB Rex Burkhead (3)
WR Doug Gabriel (3)
WR Chad Jackson (3)
RB Antowain Smith (3)
TE Jermaine Wiggins (3)
WR Sam Aiken (2)
RB Brandon Bolden (2)
TE Kyle Brady (2)
TE Chris Baker (2)
TE Alge Crumpler (2)
RB Corey Dillon (2)
WR Phillip Dorsett (2)
WR Tim Dwight (2)
FB Marc Edwards (2)
WR Donald Hayes (2)
WR Keshawn Martin (2)
WR Cordarrelle Patterson (2)
WR Brandon Tate (2)
TE Dwayne Allen (1)
OT/TE Tom Ashworth (1)
RB LeGarrette Blount (1)
TE Matt Lengel (1)
WR Michael Floyd (1)
FB Larry Centers (1)
TE Cam Cleeland (1)
WR André Davis (1)
FB Heath Evans (1)
WR Terry Glenn (1)
WR Josh Gordon (1)
TE Michael Hoomanawanui (1)
WR Charles Johnson (1)
RB Laurence Maroney (1)
TE Matthew Mulligan (1)
WR Chad Ochocinco (1)
FB Patrick Pass (1)
TE David Thomas (1)
WR Brian Tyms (1)
WR Dedric Ward (1)
The 71 players listed above are not the only men to catch touchdowns from Tom Brady, though: he also threw touchdown passes – 71 to be precise – to 27 different players in the postseason. While most of them are already on the list above, two are not. Both offensive tackle Nate Solder and fullback James Develin caught scoring passes from Brady during the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Colts.