Matt Ryan Reaches Two Career Milestones Against New York Jets

The Falcons quarterback passed Eli Manning in the NFL record book in Week 5.

No matter what continent he's playing on, Matt Ryan is a great quarterback. In Week 5 against the New York Jets in London, he reached two more career milestones.

By the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter Sunday, Ryan had 270 passing yards. With that total, Ryan moved ahead of Eli Manning for eighth on the all-time NFL passing list. 

Ryan also completed his 5,000th career pass in Sunday's fourth quarter.

Entering Week 5, the future Hall of Fame quarterback needed 267 yards to eclipse the younger Manning brother. Ryan accomplished that and surpassed 57,000 passing yards in his career in the second half against the Jets.

Manning played 236 games in his NFL career, finishing exactly .500 as a starter with a 117-117 record. Ryan reached 57,000 passing yards and moved ahead of Manning's passing mark in 209 games. Ryan also entered Sunday with a 114-95 career record.

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Ryan has never led the league in passing, but he's been the model of consistency. He's thrown for at least 4,000 yards in each of his last 10 seasons. With a 17th game this year, Ryan should reach the 4,000-yard mark again in 2021, barring injury.

Coming into Sunday, he was averaging 247.5 passing yards per game this year, which put him on pace to finish shy of 4,000 yards by the end of Week 17. But with 270 yards against the Jets, Ryan is on track to reach 4,000 yards before Week 18.

Ryan completed his 5,000 pass on the same drive where he moved ahead of Manning in passing yards. Ryan is seventh all time in completions in NFL history and third among active quarterbacks.

Up next on the passing list for Ryan is Dan Marino with 61,361 yards. However, Ryan will not be able to reach that total this season. Of the seven quarterbacks ahead of Ryan on the passing list, four of them were playing as recently as 2019, but only Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger are still active in 2021.

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