When it comes to quarterbacks, Brett Favre leads the NFL in interceptions. In his 20-year career, he has thrown 336 interceptions. Despite having the most interceptions, Brett Favre had a well-rounded Hall of Fame career. He finished with 30,000 yards passing and 200 touchdowns.
The next highest total is Peyton Manning with 233 interceptions. He has more than Favre but less than John Elway who is in third place on the all-time list with 257 interceptions.
A quarterback will usually throw around 10 to 20 interceptions per season. The most interceptions ever in a single season was the 1994 Vikings team that threw 22 interceptions. They also have the record for most interceptions by a rookie quarterback with 16 thrown by Mike Vick in 2001.
Interception rates are going up because of increased use of the dropback pass. Before the introduction of the dropback pass, very few passes were dropped back to avoid contact. Now that style of play is common throughout football and interception rates are rising. Interceptions can be caused by a wide range of mistakes including but not limited to: throwing into traffic, missing open receivers, and being caught out of position. There are certain players who tend to throw a lot of interceptions including Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr, and Ryan Tannehill.
With 166 fumbles in his career, Brett Favre has the most of any quarterback. He also has the most lost fumbles with 93. Of those, 44 were returned for a touchdown. In addition, he had 13 fumbles that were caused by interception and nine more that were dropped by teammates.
Favre's career average of 1.6 fumbles per game is second only to Dan Marino (1.8).
The other three quarterbacks have one fumble each: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Alex Smith. Brady's was lost due to injury while Manning's and Smith's were both dropped by their teams. All four quarterbacks have a record of at least 12-4.
Favre had more than one fumble in a game six times. His worst day ever with the ball was December 4, 2010 when he had two fumbles and an interception.
He had five games with at least one fumble during his years with the Green Bay Packers. That's more than any other quarterback.
In those five games, he had a total of 33 fumbles, which is second only to John Elway's 37 from 1983-87.
Dak Prescott, 2016, has the most straight throws attempted with no interceptions to begin a career: 176. Aaron Rodgers has the lowest interception percentage in his career (minimum 1,500 attempts) at 1.351 from 2005 to 2020. (89 INTs, 6,587 attempts). See List of National Football League season receiving touchdown leaders for a more full list.
The lowest interception percentage in NFL history is 0.9% by Dave Krieg in 1975 with the San Francisco 49ers. He had 12 touchdowns vs 11 interceptions that year.
The highest interception percentage in NFL history is 7.4% by Don Hutson in 1932 with the Detroit Lions. He had 72 interceptions over 77 games that year.
There have been 9 seasons where players have not thrown an interception during a regular season game. The last one to do so was in 2014 when Russell Wilson did not throw an interception while playing for the Seattle Seahawks.
Wilson is the only player to never throw an interception in a regular season game while playing for the Seattle Seahawks. He played in all 16 games in each of those seasons and started 15 of them. He also had 3,118 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions in those 16 games without throwing an interception.
Wilson's interception rate of 0.5% in 2014 & 2017 were both record lows among qualifying quarterbacks (with at least 250 attempts).
3.96 touchdown-to-interception ratio
| All-Time Touchdown-to-Interception Ratio Leaders | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quarterback | TD | Ratio |
| 1. Aaron Rodgers | 226 | 3.96 |
| 2. Tom Brady | 392 | 2.74 |
| 3. Peyton Manning | 530 | 2.27 |
Five interceptions Drew Brees has the most interceptions in a game against the Falcons on November 29, 2012, with five. The record is held by Jack Patera with six in 1964.
Brees joined the Saints when they moved to New Orleans and became an immediate success finishing his first season with 4,593 passing yards and 37 touchdowns against only 10 interceptions. He has continued to be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL over the last 15 years. During that time he has made more than 100 million dollars. In 2017 he will make nearly 11 million dollars per season.
Brees is one of the highest paid players at his position with a cap number of 16.9 million dollars. He has been ranked No. 1 by his fellow professionals on several occasions including the NFL Top 100.
Brees was born on January 9, 1984, in Metairie, Louisiana. He plays for the Saints following in the footsteps of his father who also played for the Saints and for Southern Mississippi. His mother works as a nurse's aide while his brother Brett plays football too. He grew up around sports playing baseball, basketball, and football.
In terms of touchdowns and turnovers, Manning has been outplayed by opponent quarterbacks in Super Bowls on average. Manning has thrown at least one interception in each of his four Super Bowl appearances, and he has scored less touchdowns than his opponents. The average score of these games is 44-10 in favor of the defending champion.
Manning's number of interceptions has increased in recent years. He has 20 interceptions in 10 postseason games over the last five seasons. That's two more than his previous career high of 18 set in 2009 when he led the Denver Broncos to their first championship victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
The most interceptions he's thrown in a game is three. He did that twice - once in 2008 against the Chicago Bears and again in 2013 against the New England Patriots.
He also had two interceptions returned for touchdowns during that span. One of those came in 2008 when Charles Tillman threw behind Marvin Harrison for a touchdown with just under six minutes left in the fourth quarter. The other time was in 2013 when Darrelle Revis picked off Tom Brady late in the fourth quarter and returned it 98 yards for a touchdown. Both times it ended up being the winning score.
Manning is still very much capable of throwing multiple interceptions if he gets beat deep too often by opposing defenses.
Manning holds the record for the most throwing touchdowns, with 539 in his career. Brady became the third quarterback in NFL history to exceed 500 yards passing in Week 4 of the 2018 season. For the top slot, he'll have to beat out Drew Brees. The former New Orleans Saint is second all time with 533 touchdown passes.
Brady and Manning are the only quarterbacks to ever throw for over 4,000 yards in a season. In 2016, Brady threw for 4,688 yards; the most ever by a quarterback in his first year with a new team. The last player to do so was Manning in 2013 when he had 4,542 yards with the Indianapolis Colts.
Both quarterbacks still have something to prove before they can say they're among the best of all time. In 2017, Brady lost his starting job to Jacoby Brissett early in the season. He came back strong though, leading the Patriots to a 17-3 record after the bye week. In Manning's first season with the Denver Broncos, he threw for 3,831 yards - a new franchise record - but also had 57 interceptions. He ended up losing the starting job to Joe Flacco after one game.
It's safe to say that both quarterbacks have amazing careers so far.
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