Patrick Mahomes can surpass Peyton Manning in the NFL history books against the Giants

Patrick Mahomes needs one passing touchdown to surpass Peyton Manning

At the beginning of the season, Patrick Mahomes was three passing touchdowns away from beating Peyton Manning’s NFL record of most touchdown passes by a player in his first nine seasons.

That includes the postseason, where Mahomes has come up clutch with 46 passing touchdowns and helped win three Super Bowls.

If you consider that the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos legend played his rookie season, while Mahomes didn’t, it makes it even more remarkable.

After a single passing touchdown in each of his first two games this year, the loss to the Chargers and then the Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles, he is now level with Manning with 293.

In what is a ‘must-win’ trap game for the Chiefs against the Giants, it feels inevitable that the first touchdown pass will be schemed to the man he’s thrown so many to, Travis Kelce.

It is more likely that this is the case when considering how many wide receivers Mahomes is missing at the moment. The Chiefs are hopeful Xavier Worthy returns, but that will likely be a game-time decision.

Travis Kelce needs two receiving touchdowns to reach 100

If it weren’t for Eagles’ rookie safety Andrew Mukuba’s interception, legendary tight end Travis Kelce might have been able to celebrate his 100th NFL career touchdown while Mahomes surpassed Manning.

Ahead of the season, Kelce had 97 NFL career touchdowns, and he added to that tally in Sao Paulo against the Los Angeles Chargers.

In the loss to the Eagles, Mukuba and Reed Blankenship essentially won the Super Bowl champions the game with that crucial coverage and interception.

The Eagles’ offense wasn’t firing, but they marched down the other end and scored the game-winning touchdown via the ‘tush push’ . Tyquan Thornton’s score came too late to have any real impact.

Now, Kelce needs two receiving touchdowns to become the fourth tight end all-time with at least 100 career touchdown receptions, including the playoffs.

The other three? Antonio Gates (118), Tony Gonzalez (115), and Rob Gronkowski (107). Excluding the playoffs, that list only consists of Gates (116) and Gonzalez (111).

Kelce needs 22 more to reach 100 regular-season receiving touchdowns, which seems almost impossible if this is to be his last year, as some think. For context, Gronkowski finished on 92.