Aaron Rodgers Could Make NFL History in Showdown Against Tom Brady on Sunday

Aaron Rodgers could make NFL history on Sunday when the Green Bay Packers travel to Florida to face Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Through the Packers' first four games of the season, Rodgers has thrown 13 touchdown passes, the third-highest tally in the league along with reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and behind only Russell Wilson and Josh Allen, who have passed for 19 and 14 touchdowns respectively.

Green Bay's signal caller is yet to throw an interception this season and with at least two touchdown passes and no picks against the Bucs, he would become the first player in NFL history to throw for at least two touchdowns without an interception in each of his team's first five games of a season.

Should the two-time MVP throw for three touchdowns and no interceptions, he would draw level with former Cleveland Browns quarterback Milt Plum for the fourth-most touchdown passes without an interception by a player to begin a season in NFL history.

Plum passed for 16 touchdowns before recording his first interception during the 1960 season, a record that has been bettered only three times since. In 2017, then-Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith threw 18 touchdown passes before his first pick, while four years earlier Nick Foles and Peyton Manning notched up 19 and 20 touchdowns respectively before their first interception of the season.

Few quarterbacks in the NFL take care of the football as much as Rodgers, who has recorded double-digit interceptions just twice in his 12 seasons as a starter with the Packers—in 2008 and in 2010—and has thrown just six picks in the last two seasons combined.

To put his accuracy into context, the former California star has 84 career interceptions against 6,200 attempted passes, meaning only 1.4 percent of his passes has been picked off.

Brady has thrown just one fewer touchdowns than Rodgers this season but has already coughed up four interceptions and was impressed with his rival's ability to protect the football.

"It's just been unbelievable to watch over the years, and he's really kept it going. He's a great passer. He's very efficient," Brady told reporters on Thursday, as per the Tampa Bay Times.

"His touchdown-to-interception ratio—he basically doesn't throw interceptions and throws a lot of touchdowns. There's a lot of great things to say about his game. He's one of the great quarterbacks to ever play the game."

After a summer during which Rodgers was reportedly disgruntled at the Packers' decision to trade up to draft Utah State quarterback Jordan Love as his heir apparent, the two-time MVP has started the season with the attitude of a man who seems hell-bent on proving he remains an elite quarterback despite being less than two months away from his 37th birthday.

The Packers have been the hottest offense in the NFL, scoring a league-high 38 points per game and have got off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 2011, when Rodgers won the first of his two MVP crowns and Green Bay went 15-1 before coming unstuck against the New York Giants in the NFC Divisional Round.

Brady and Rodgers have played a combined 37 seasons and 375 regular season games in the NFL, but Sunday will mark only the third time the two will cross paths, with each winning one of the first two meetings.