National Football League

Patrick Mahomes, Micah Parsons headline potential 2025 NFL record setters

Published Jun. 2, 2025 12:40 p.m. ET

With the arrival of June, the long summer wait for the 2025 season is about to begin. While much of the focus is on big-picture questions like who will win the Super Bowl, there are smaller storylines that will emerge during the season.

Among those storylines are players nearing career records and milestones, and even a team landmark to watch. Here are 10 milestones to keep an eye on in 2025:

Chiefs match Patriots for longest playoff streak

If Kansas City indeed makes it back to the playoffs, it will be for the 11th year in a row, matching the NFL record set by the Patriots from 2009-19. New England's record is more impressive when you consider that the Patriots nearly had a streak of 17 straight seasons, with 2008 the lone exception and that being a year when New England went 11-5 after losing Tom Brady to injury in the season opener. Last season, the Chiefs moved past the Colts (2002-10) and Cowboys (1975-83) for the second-longest playoff streak.

Another streak the Chiefs are closing in on is consecutive division titles. The Patriots own that record at 11 in a row, while this coming season would be a 10th straight title for Kansas City, which started its current postseason run as a wild card in 2015.

Patrick Mahomes sets touchdown records

The Chiefs quarterback will almost certainly break the NFL record for fewest games to reach 250 career touchdown passes. The current record is held by Aaron Rodgers with 121 games. Mahomes is at 245 TDs in 112 games, so he needs only five touchdown passes in eight games to break Rodgers' record. You'll see that record as "fastest," but Rodgers spent three years largely on the bench to start his career, so it's only fastest in terms of games played.

Mahomes played in only one game as a rookie, but he still owns the NFL record for touchdowns in a QB's first eight seasons, edging Peyton Manning by a single TD. If Mahomes is to extend that record to most in the first nine seasons, he'll need 31 TDs this year — he had 27 and 26 in the past two years, so it's no lock he does that — to break Manning's record of 275. For perspective, Russell Wilson had 267 and Dan Marino had 266.

Most passing yards in the first nine seasons? That mark is possible but unlikely for Mahomes, who would need 5,350 yards to catch Matt Ryan, who has the nine-year mark with 37,701 yards. Mahomes' single-season high is 5,250 yards.

Derrick Henry moves up the career rushing, TDs lists

Henry's monster 2024 with the Ravens moved him up to 19th on the NFL's career rushing yards list, and he can cover serious additional ground with another successful season in 2025. He stands at 11,423 yards, and if he can rush for just 1,317 this fall, he'll move all the way up to 10th, passing seven Hall of Famers: Thurman Thomas, Franco Harris, Marcus Allen, Edgerrin James, Marshall Faulk, Jim Brown and Tony Dorsett.

Henry is already higher on the career rushing touchdown list. He's tied for sixth with Brown at 106, and after leading the NFL with 16 last year, Henry is in range to pass Walter Payton (110) and potentially Adrian Peterson (120) and Allen (123). If Henry is top 10 in rushing yards and top five in rushing touchdowns, he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer, for sure.

After a huge first season with the Ravens, Derrick Henry is moving up the ranks in career rushing and touchdowns. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Micah Parsons joins rare 10-sack, five-year club

Parsons has never had more than 14 sacks in a season, but he's had at least 12 in each of his four years. The only other players in NFL history to get double-digit sacks in each of their first four seasons are Reggie White, Derrick Thomas and Dwight Freeney. (Unofficially, Claude Humphrey did it as well, before the sack became an official stat in 1982.)

If Parsons can get to 10 again in 2025, he'll join White as the only players ever to do so in each of their first five seasons. White did it in his first nine, so there's a long way still to catch him for that one.

Mike Evans chases Jerry Rice's 1,000-yard record

Evans has been a model of consistency with the Bucs, recording at least 1,000 receiving yards in all 11 seasons, easily the most to begin an NFL career. An injury nearly cost him that streak last year. He surpassed 1,000 on the final play of the final game of the season, and that allowed him to tie Jerry Rice for the longest streak at any point in a career.

Evans can have the record all to himself if he gets 1,000 for a 12th straight season — that, and his 105 career touchdowns make a compelling Hall of Fame case. He currently ranks ninth all time in career touchdown catches, and he can catch Tony Gonzalez (111) and perhaps Antonio Gates (116) with a solid 2025 season.

Mike Evans celebrates surpassing 1,000 receiving yards for the season on his last catch of the 2024 regular season. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

Three receivers can join the 1,000-catch club

There are only 15 players in NFL history with 1,000 career catches — all in the past 30 years — but that list could have three new members by the end of the 2025 season.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce joined the group last year, and three more are well within range. The Ravens' DeAndre Hopkins has 984, unsigned free agent Keenan Allen has 974 and the Rams' Davante Adams has 957. All would pass the milestone this season if they simply match their 2024 production.

Nick Sirianni chases NFL coaching legends

With two Super Bowls and a championship in his first four seasons as a head coach, Nick Sirianni has a 48-20 career record. That's a .706 winning percentage, which ranks fourth-best in the Super Bowl era. If the Eagles win their first two games this season — the second is at the Chiefs, mind you — then Sirianni will move ahead of George Allen (.712) for third-best, though he'll have to finish 13-4 this season to stay at No. 3.

The top two spots among coaches who spent time in the Super Bowl era will be even tougher to crack. Vince Lombardi is at .738, and John Madden is at .759. Sirianni would have to go 17-0 to catch Madden this season.

Aaron Rodgers moves up career passing list

We'll still preface this with an if — if Aaron Rodgers plays in 2025, likely for the Steelers — then he can move up on the NFL's career passing lists in key categories. Rodgers threw his 500th career touchdown pass last season, and with 503, he needs just six this season to pass Brett Favre (508) and move into fourth place all time.

Rodgers ranks seventh in career passing yards with 62,952, and if he stays healthy, he'll easily pass two QBs this season. Philip Rivers is sixth with 63,440 and Ben Roethlisberger is fifth with 64,088, so Rodgers only needs 1,137 yards to move into the top five. To get any higher than that, Rodgers would need another 7,000-plus yards.

Is waiting for Aaron Rodgers setting the Steelers back?

Lavonte David, Calais Campbell chase career TFL marks

Pro Football Reference has tracked tackles for loss since 1999, and Bucs linebacker Lavonte David is moving up the list of an underappreciated stat normally dominated by edge rushers. David is ninth in career TFLs with 169, and if he can match his 2024 total of nine, he'll move into the top five. The 35-year-old David is within range to pass Demarcus Ware (171), Jared Allen (171), a still-active Von Miller (171), Julius Peppers (175) and Aaron Donald (176).

Even higher on the list is the ageless Calais Campbell, who turns 39 in September but is still going and back with Arizona. Campbell is third all time with 187 TFLs, within range to catch J.J. Watt (195) for second. The most on record — again, only since 1999 — is Terrell Suggs with 202.

Harrison Butker can become NFL's most accurate FG kicker

The five most accurate field-goal kickers in NFL history are all technically active, though that includes Justin Tucker, who has the No. 1 mark at 89.1% but was cut by the Ravens amid off-field issues. If he stays at that number, there's a window for the Chiefs' Harrison Butker — currently second at 88.6% — to catch Tucker with a strong season. Butker missed four field goals last year, but if he makes his first 11 field goals of 2025, he'll pass Tucker. Going 20-for-21 would also do the trick.

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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