Whenever you are 41 years old, have spent two decades in the National Football League, and have played in 247 NFL games, essentially every time you take the field, there’s a chance you can make league history. That describes New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and that’s exactly what the four-time MVP did in Sunday’s 40-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
However, it’s not the kind of history that Rodgers will be proud of, as it’s more of a reminder of the physical toll that 20 years in the league will bring. On Sunday, Rodgers passed Tom Brady as the most sacked quarterback in the 105-year history of the NFL. Rodgers entered the game having been taken down 564 times in his career, one behind Brady at 565. He matched the all-time record—in a safety, no less—late in the first quarter and then broke it midway through the third quarter. Bills’ linemen Gregory Rousseau and DaQuan Jones combined for the record breaker, as those two will now become the answers to random sports bar trivia questions.
Rodgers was then sacked twice more giving him 568 for his career. After the game during his press conference, a reporter brought up the fact that Rodgers is now the record holder, passing Brady.
Rodgers had a light reply on what was another dark day in the 2024 New York Jets season.
“Yeah, I got Tom in that,” Rodgers said, followed by laughs from the assembled media. He also revealed that in a Saturday production meeting, he was made aware of how close he was to the record.
It’s worth noting that Rodgers’ mark is courtesy of official sacks, as the NFL didn’t officially track quarterback sacks until 1969. The unofficial all-time times sacked mark belongs to Fran Tarkenton, who began his career in 1961. Tarkenton was, unofficially, taken down 570 times over his 18-year career, so Rodgers will have to get sacked three more times in Week 18 to pass Tarkenton and be able to say, “I got Fran in that.”
At 41, and with his NFL future that may not extend beyond Week 18, Rodgers’ official record is one that may not last too long. Russell Wilson has been sacked 556 times—just 12 behind Rodgers—and he just turned 36 so would presumably have a few more years in him. A long shot to not only break but put this record in another stratosphere is rookie Caleb Williams. The top overall pick has been sacked a league-high 67 times this year, and while it seems unfathomable that his sack rate will continue in future years, if he maintains this sack rate, he’d reach it at just 30 years old.
For the season, Rodgers has been sacked 37 times, which is the fifth-most in his career. He led the NFL twice before, being taken down 50 times in 2009 and 51 times in 2012. He’s always been known as someone who would rather take a sack than throw a bad pass that could lead to an interception, and that’s evident by not only his career sack numbers but also his interception rate. He’s led the NFL in the latter six times and has been picked off on just 1.4 percent of his pass attempts throughout his career, which is the lowest rate in NFL history.
As for the game in which Rodgers made history, he was one of four quarterbacks to take the field, and of the other three—Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Mitchell Trubisky, as well as New York’s Tyrod Taylor—none of them were sacked even once. Adding on to the misery of this game was that Rodgers accounted for the only two interceptions in the game, while each of the other three quarterbacks all had at least one touchdown and no picks.
After one of Rodgers’s interceptions, another bit of history for the quarterback was made during the interception return. After Christian Benford picked off Rodgers midway through the second quarter and returned it 24 yards before going out of bounds, Rodgers shoved Benford in the back after he had gone out of play. That resulted in a 15-yard unnecessary roughness on Rodgers, which was the first unnecessary roughness flag of his regular season career.
While the four-time MVP was aware that he was inching close to breaking Brady’s times sacked record, Rodgers was unaware that it was the first penalty of that kind that he’s incurred in a regular season game when a reporter brought it up.
“First unnecessary roughness?” asked Rodgers, before telling reporters he was guilty of a similar infraction in the postseason. “I had one other 15-yard penalty in the playoffs.”
With a 4-12 record, Rodgers doesn’t have to worry about picking up another 15-yard penalty—or getting sacked—in the playoffs as the Jets were eliminated from postseason contention weeks ago.
