A few days ago, I noted that Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones turned 30 years old on February 3, 2019, and he held the record for receiving yards through age 29.   Well, on February 7, 2019, Lions quarterback Matt Stafford turned 31 years old.  The two former SEC stars played each other once, in 2008, but that was it: Stafford entered the league in 2009 at the age of 21, while Jones waited until he was 22 years old and entered the 2011 draft. But both have been very productive in the NFL: Stafford is now the record-holder in passing yards through age 30.

Is Stafford in play to set the all-time record in passing yards? It’s tough to say, but I’d argue that he’s got a better chance than Jones, just because of the way age seems to impact quarterbacks in modern times relative to wide receivers.  This graph shows how many career passing yards, at each age X, each of Stafford, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Drew Brees had:

Stafford obviously is in the lead, and don’t forget that he will get a leg up on Manning during his age 35 season (when Manning had 0 yards).  Of course, Manning is no longer the leader in career passing yards, and it’s Brees (and maybe Brady?) that Stafford really has to worry about.

What do you think?