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Possible Milestones for 2009 Patriots
It's the slow off-season, so at the risk of jinxing the Pats by looking too far ahead, here are some of the many milestones that the Pats may meet or exceed this season.
Note: all of these are regular season milestones unless specifically stated otherwise.
Tom Brady needs 441 yards passing to pass Steve Grogan for 2nd place all time, and 3212 yards to pass Drew Bledsoe to take over first place in franchise history in yards passing. Brady needs 3554 yards to reach the 30,000-yard milestone, and 13 victories for his 100th regular season career win. Four players may hit the 30,000-yard mark this season: Brady, Donovan McNabb, Kurt Warner, and Drew Brees could extend the size of this group to 33 players in NFL history.
With three more touchdown passes Tom Brady will become the 27th NFL player to throw 200 touchdown passes. He needs 15 to tie Terry Bradshaw for 22nd place, 17 to tie John Brodie for 21st place and 35 to tie Steve Young for 20th place in NFL history. Brady needs to complete 99 passes to become the 34th player in NFL history with 2400 completions, and 199 passes to become the 28th player in NFL history to complete 2500 passes.
Brady and Tedy Bruschi need to play in one more playoff game than Mike Vrabel and two more than Jon Runyan to take over sole possession of the lead for most playoff games and most playoff games started by active NFL players. Their current total of 17 is still far behind the all time leader, Jerry Rice, who had 29.
Bill Belichick ranks 19th in NFL history with 138 regular season wins. He needs just one more win to tie Tony Dungy, five to tie Marv Levy, eight to tie Mike Shanahan, and 11 to tie Bill Cowher for 15th place. In total regular season and playoff wins Belichick is already ahead of Dungy with 153; he needs just one to tie Levy and Shanahan, four to tie Steve Owen, and eight to tie Cowher. When the regular season is completed Belichick will be tied with Cowher for 19th place in most games as Head Coach, at 240.
Belichick currently ranks fifth in NFL history with 15 playoff wins; he needs one more to tie Chuck Noll and two more to tie Joe Gibbs. One more trip to the Super Bowl would tie Belichick for 2nd place for most conference championships in the Super Bowl era with Tom Landry, with five. Belichick also needs one more Super Bowl win to match Noll’s NFL record of four Super Bowl victories.
With another winning season Belichick and the Patriots can extend their streak of consecutive winning seasons to nine, the most in the salary cap era. The Dallas Cowboys hold the NFL all-time NFL record with a remarkable twenty consecutive winning seasons from 1966 to 1985.
Kevin Faulk enters the season in 8th place in Pats history for career rushing with 3170 yards. Faulk needs 11 yards rushing to pass Corey Dillon for 7th place; 80 yards to pass John Stephens for 6th place; 222 yards to pass Don Calhoun for 5th place; and 630 yards to pass Curtis Martin for 4th place.
Faulk starts the season in 7th place in Pats history with 777 rushing attempts; with 44 runs he will pass Don Calhoun for 6th place.
Kevin begins the season with 14 rushing touchdowns. One more will tie him for 11th place in team history with Carl Garrett; three more will tie him John Stephens for 10th place; four rushing touchdowns will tie him with Mosi Tatupu for 9th place.
Faulk is also fifth in number of punts returned with 94; he needs 17 more to catch Mike Haynes for 4th place. Faulk ranks 6th in punt return yardage with 901 yards; he needs 59 more yards to tie Stanley Morgan for 5th place. Faulk already holds the team records for kickoffs returned with 175 and kickoff return yardage with 3954; he needs one more kickoff return for a TD to tie the team record of three held by Raymond Clayborn and Ellis Hobbs.
Laurence Maroney enters the season in 17th place in Pats history with 1673 career rushing yards. Maroney needs 345 yards to pass #16 Andy Johnson; 504 yards to pass #15 Steve Grogan; 563 yards to pass #14 Carl Garrett; 743 yards to pass #13 Mosi Tatupu; 765 yards to pass #12 Leonard Russell; and 797 yards to pass #11 Craig James.
Sammy Morris enters the season in 24th place with 1111 yards rushing; with 188 yards he will pass Mack Herron for 20th place and with 426 yards he will pass Ron Burton for 18th place.
While Pats fans don’t want to see him run, with twenty rushing yards Tom Brady will tie Drew Bledsoe for 37th place in franchise history; Brady enters the season with 533 yards rushing.
BenJarvus Green-Ellis starts the season in 56th place in the team record books with 275 yards. With 151 yards rushing he will tie Patrick Pass for 40th place.
Matt Gutierez enters the season in 217th place with –13 yards rushing; he needs to lose four more yards to take over sole possession of last place in Pats franchise history for rushing yardage.