61,361 yards.
That was the NFL record for career regular season passing yards Dan Marino held when he retired after the 1999 season. He was nearly 10,000 yards ahead of John Elway, who was drafted in the same year as Marino, but retired one year earlier. After Sunday, Marino will likely be in fifth on the all-time list.
Marino was first passed by Brett Favre, who established a new career record of 71,838 yards when he retired in 2010.
Then, Peyton Manning passed Marino and Favre, finishing his career in 2015 with 71,940 passing yards.
Earlier this season, Drew Bress surpassed Marino’s career total and currently has 65,761 yards heading into Week 17 of this season.
Now, it would appear Tom Brady will pass Marino on Marino’s home field.
The New England Patriots head into South Florida this weekend for a season finale showdown against the Miami Dolphins. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has thrown for 61,306 yards thus far in his career, putting him just 55 yards behind Marino’s career total. Since becoming the starting quarterback for the Patriots, Brady has only been held to fewer than 55-passing yards once, a January 1, 2006 Week 17 game against the Dolphins when he only threw for 37 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Of course, Brady only attempted eight passes in the game and played 19 snaps before being replaced by Matt Cassel to avoid injury prior to the start of the playoffs.
Short of the Patriots deciding to rest Brady for the entire game, it does appear he will be able to reach 56 passing yards to move himself into fourth place all time on the passing yardage list, and make Marino the fifth-highest passer in league history.