On Thursday night, Drew Brees was announced as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026. On Aug. 8 in Canton, Ohio, he’ll become the fifth player to spend the majority of his career with the New Orleans Saints to be enshrined.

How did he get there? There are so many ways to explain it. But one of the best ways is numerically. Brees was, quite simply, the NFL’s most prolific passer for a long period of time. Here are some of the records, milestones and other numbers that define Brees’ legendary career:

1

Game missed in Brees’ first 13 seasons in New Orleans.

3

Consecutive years in which Brees broke the old NFL completion percentage record, completing 72.0% of his passes in 2017, 74.4% in 2018 and 74.3% in 2019 — the latter two still the highest ever achieved by more than a percentage point.

4

Times Brees finished second in NFL MVP voting, the most ever. He never won the award, making him perhaps the greatest player to never do so.

5

Seasons in which Brees passed for more than 5,000 yards. The feat has been accomplished only 10 times by every other quarterback in NFL history.

7 for 7

Brees completed all seven passes he attempted on the Saints’ 58-yard drive to take the lead late in Super Bowl XLIX, the last a 2-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Shockey. He added a completion to Lance Moore for a 2-point conversion and a 24-17 lead and was named the game’s MVP.

9

Playoff victories for No. 9, all for New Orleans. The Saints franchise has one playoff win without him.

12

Anchors needed by Dr. James Andrews to repair Brees’ torn right shoulder labrum following his 2005 season with the San Diego Chargers. The injury was feared to be potentially career-ending; instead, the Saints signed Brees and he became the franchise’s greatest player over the next 15 seasons.

16

Times Brees threw for more than 400 yards in a game; no other player has more than 13.

54

Consecutive games in which Brees threw a touchdown pass between 2011-2013, breaking Johnny Unitas’ 52-year-old mark and creating a new record that still stands.

73

Different receivers who caught one of Brees’ 571 career touchdown passes. Marques Colston tops the list with 76 TDs from Brees.

96.67%

Brees broke Peyton Manning’s career passing touchdown record in style, throwing for four TDs against Manning’s old team, the Indianapolis Colts, in a December 2019 game. He also went 29 of 30 in the game, the NFL record for completion percentage in a single game (minimum 20 attempts).

80,358

Career passing yards for Brees, who set the NFL record (since passed by Tom Brady) as he usually did, in style. The record-setting pass was a 62-yard bomb to Tre’Quan Smith on Monday Night Football in 2018.