Who Has The Most Hail Marys In The NFL?
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We take a look at which NFL quarterbacks have the most successful Hail Mary passes in their careers.
NFL players with the most hail marys
Brett Favre holds the NFL record for the most hail marys in a career with 23. He is followed by Matthew Stafford with 17 and Drew Brees with 16. Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Aaron Rodgers round out the top 5 with 13, 12, and 11 hail marys, respectively.
Tom Brady
Tom Brady has the most hail marys in the NFL with 8. He is followed by Eli Manning with 7, Aaron Rodgers with 6, and Drew Brees and Russell Wilson with 5 each.
Drew Brees
In the NFL, a hail mary is defined as a pass that is thrown with the hope of being completed by chance. The term was first coined by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Craig Morton, who said that the only way to complete a hail mary was to “pray for a miracle.”
Since then, there have been many successful hail marys thrown in the NFL, but no player has more than Drew Brees. In his career, Brees has thrown 11 hail marys, completing 7 of them. That’s a 64% completion rate, which is remarkable considering the odds of any pass being completed are usually less than 50%.
Brees isn’t the only player with a strong hail mary game though. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has also had success with the long ball, completing 6 of his 9 attempts (67%). Another player with a high completion rate is New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has completed 5 of his 8 attempts (63%).
Aaron Rodgers
As of the end of the 2018 NFL regular season, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has the most hail mary touchdown passes in NFL history with 8. He is followed by Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson with 5 and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning with 4.
NFL players with the most passing yards
In the National Football League, the Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass made in desperation with only a small chance of success, often as the last play of a half. The phrase “Hail Mary” is often used by fans and sportscasters to describe such a play. While any desperation pass could be considered a “Hail Mary”, the term is most often used when the pass is thrown with only a few seconds left on the game clock, giving the receiving team little or no time to run another play.
Tom Brady
Tom Brady, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is the NFL player with the most passing yards of all time. He has thrown for a total of 79,416 yards in his career. Brady is also the only player in NFL history to throw for over 75,000 yards.
Drew Brees
Drew Brees has the most passing yards of any NFL player, with over 70,000. He also holds the record for the most career Hail Marys, with 13.
Peyton Manning
Peyton Manning is a retired American football quarterback who played 18 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Indianapolis Colts. Considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time due to his numerous career achievements, he spent 14 seasons with the Colts and was a member of the Denver Broncos in his last four seasons. Manning played college football for the University of Tennessee, leading the Volunteers to the 1997 SEC Championship in his senior season. He is the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and elder brother of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
Manning was selected by the Colts as the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. From 1998 to 2010, he improved the fortunes of the struggling Colts franchise and helped transform them into playoff contenders. During his tenure as starting quarterback, Manning led Indianapolis to eight division championships, two AFC championships, and Super Bowl XLI, which they won against the Chicago Bears. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Super Bowl XLI, earning his second Super Bowl MVP award after previously winning it during Super Bowl XLIV with Indianapolis. Since being drafted by Indianapolis, Manning holds many NFL records, including passing yards (71,940), touchdown passes (539), AP MVPs (5), Pro Bowl appearances (14), and 4,000-yard passing seasons (14). A five-time NFL MVP, he was inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in his first year eligible.
NFL players with the most touchdown passes
NFL quarterbacks have been known to make a Hail Mary pass from time to time. A Hail Mary pass is a long pass that is thrown into the end zone in hopes of being caught by a receiver for a touchdown. There have been some great Hail Marys caught in NFL history. But which NFL quarterback has thrown the most Hail Marys in their career?
Tom Brady
The New England Patriots’ Tom Brady has the most touchdown passes in NFL history with 581, passing Peyton Manning’s old record of 579. Brady has thrown for touchdown passes in 96 different games, also an NFL record. He’s thrown multiple touchdown passes in a game 79 times, meaning 43% of the games he’s played in have featured him throwing two or more touchdowns.
Drew Brees
Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints has the most Hail Mary touchdown passes in NFL history, with five.
Peyton Manning
Peyton Manning holds the record for most touchdown passes in a season with 55, which he did in 2013. He also has the most career touchdown passes with 539.
