Using the power of NFL Pro -- granting unique team and player insights and a wealth of analytics from Next Gen Stats -- NFL Research breaks down the records that stand to be broken in Week 17. Sign up for NFL+ Premium to gain access to NFL Pro.
1) Justin Herbert: professional thrower of the football from day one
Justin Herbert has already matched his career high of 11 wins with still two games yet to play in 2025. His 11-4 Chargers have won each of their last four games and are looking for a win on Saturday to set up a winner-take-all showdown in Week 18 against the Broncos for the AFC West crown.
Herbert ranks in the top four in both passing yards and touchdowns since he entered the NFL in 2020. 24,584 passing yards are the second most in NFL history by a player in their first six seasons, and with 302 more on Saturday against the Texans, he'll break Hall of Famer Peyton Manning's record of 24,885.
Herbert's 162 career touchdown passes rank fifth all-time through six seasons. With two games still to go in year six, he sits just five behind Manning and Josh Allen in a tie for third most at 176 touchdowns. Only Hall of Famer Dan Marinowith 196 and Patrick Mahomes with 192 have more.
2) Year (two) of the running back
Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley rank first and second, respectively, in rushing since changing teams ahead of the 2024 season – the only players with at least 3,000 rushing yards over the last two seasons.
Henry's 3,174 rushing yards with the Ravens are 53 yards shy of breaking the NFL record for the most rushing yards by a player in their first two seasons with a new team, currently held by Ricky Williams with 3,225 yards in 2002-03 for the Dolphins.
Since joining the Eagles, Barkley's 3,077 rushing yards are fifth most through two seasons with a new team. He can pass Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis for fourth with 20 yards and Priest Holmes for third with 94 yards.
Henry and Josh Jacobs – also a 2024 free agency signing – are tied for second in the NFL with 28 rushing touchdowns over the last two years. The two backs – set to square off on Saturday night – are tied for the third most by any player in their first two seasons with a new team.
They sit one rushing score behind Priest Holmes with 29 in second, and with two games left to play this season, they need just three rushing touchdowns to match the all-time record held by Terry Allen's 31 touchdowns with Washington from 1995-96.
3) Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba: Veteran signal caller meets budding superstar pass catcher
Thanks to their improbable fourth quarter comeback and overtime victory in Week 16 over the Rams, Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks are perched up a game clear of the rest of the NFC in the race for the No. 1 seed.
With win No. 12 a week ago, Darnold became the first quarterback in NFL history to win at least 12 games in back-to-back seasons with two different teams. Tom Brady – with the Patriots and Buccaneers in 2019 and 2020 – is the only other quarterback to ever win even 11 games in consecutive seasons with different squads. Darnold needs just one more victory to make it a baker's dozen in back-to-back seasons, a feat only accomplished by four quarterbacks before him – all of which did so with the same team in both such seasons.
Aaron Rodgers in 2019-21 with the Packers, Brady in 2003-04 and 2010-11 with the Patriots, Hall of Famer Peyton Manning in 2012-13 with the Broncos and Hall of Famer Brett Favre in 1996-97 with the Packers are the others.
Smith-Njigba has accounted for 44% of the Seattle's receiving yards which is the highest percentage of team receiving yards by a player in the NFL as he continues putting together one of the greatest seasons from a young receiver in the history of the sport.
He leads the NFL with 1,637 receiving yards, a Seahawks franchise record for a single season by more than 300 yards and counting. It's the fourth highest single-season total by a player under the age of 24 in NFL history.
With 10 yards in Week 17, he can pass 2013 Josh Gordon for third place. If he racks up 145 yards – a mark he's already hit twice this year – he'll clear 1995 Isaac Bruce for second place. The all-time record is held by 2022 Justin Jefferson, whose 1,809 receiving yards sit just 172 yards out of Smith-Njigba's reach with two games remaining.
4) Matthew Stafford and Kyren Williams
Sitting outside the NFC's top two seeds for the first time since Week 10, the Rams are hoping a late season surge, paired with some help from elsewhere in the conference, can vault them back to the top come playoff time.
Matthew Stafford and Kyren Williams, in the midst of helping the Rams chase down the NFC leaders, are chasing down some of their own history in Week 17 on Monday Night Football.
Stafford has tossed at least three touchdowns without an interception in eight games this season, a feat only accomplished three other times in league history – all of which came in MVP seasons. Tom Brady did it in his 2007 MVP season, and Aaron Rodgers did it in his 2014 and 2020 MVP seasons.
With another such performance this season, Stafford would join that 2020 Rodgers season as the only two players all-time with at least nine games of three touchdown passes and no interceptions in a season.
Standing behind Stafford in the backfield, Williams needs just two more scrimmage touchdowns to make it three consecutive seasons with at least 15 scores from scrimmage. That has only been accomplished by six other players in NFL history. HOF LaDainian Tomlinson did it in six straight seasons. Shaun Alexander strung together five. Priest Holmes and Hall of Famers Terrell Davis, Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice each did it in three straight seasons.
He would also join only Tomlinson, Davis and Alexander as the only players to reach the mark in three of their first four career seasons in the NFL.
5) Bijan Robinson
On the opposite sideline for Monday Night Football, Bijan Robinson continues to rack up yardage on the ground and through the air.
Robinson leads the NFL with 2,026 scrimmage yards in 2025, and he's the only player to reach 1,900 yet this season. He has 5,376 career scrimmage yards, nearly 500 more than any other player since he entered the NFL in 2023.
Still at just 23 years old, that career total is good for third most in NFL history prior to age 24. He needs 16 yards to pass HOF Barry Sanders for second and 68 yards to break Christian McCaffrey's all-time record of 5,443 scrimmage yards prior to his 24th birthday.
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