The rookies are alright.
Another week of the 2024 NFL season is almost at an end – the Bills and Jets round things off on Monday Night Football.
There were notable individual performances in Week 6 – Caleb Williams, Tyrone Tracy and Chris Godwin among them.
It is Williams and the rest of the rookie quarterbacks who had a weekend to remember.
Following in the footsteps of Williams, Jayden Daniels and Bo Nix, Drake Maye and Spencer Rattler earned their first NFL starts in Week 6.
As a collective, they wrote themselves into some NFL history.
Daniels, Maye, Nix and Williams each threw at least two passing touchdowns in Week 6. It is just the second week in NFL history where four rookie QBs have done so – also Week 14 in 2011.
In total, the five rookies threw 12 touchdown passes. That number is the most in a single week in the Super Bowl era – excluding the 1987 strike season.
Of the rookies, Williams had the best week. This year’s number one overall pick became the first quarterback to throw four touchdowns at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
4th TD for Caleb
2nd TD for KeenanThe @ChicagoBears are rolling in London.
📺: #JAXvsCHI on NFL Network
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/WeNKcGonoq— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024
Williams also because just the fourth rookie quarterback to throw four touchdowns and add over 50 rushing yards. Troy Aikman, Robert Griffin III and Deshaun Watson are the others.
The old heads still have it too
The rookies were not the only quarterbacks to write a little bit of NFL history in Week 6.
At 39 years of age, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Joe Flacco is still strutting his stuff.
Flacco threw for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the Colts’ 20-17 win over Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
That game was the eighth in a row in which Flacco has throw two or more touchdowns.
Flacco is keeping good company with that streak, is just one more such game away from the all-time record.
The only quarterbacks to throw two touchdowns in nine straight games? Congratulations if you said Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Flacco to Michael Pittman, Jr.! @Colts take the lead!
📺: #INDvsTEN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/aqoeORrufR— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024
Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson also reached key milestones in Week 6.
Jackson surpassed Cam Newton for the second-most rushing yards by a quarterback in NFL history.
Jackson’s 5,661 rushing yards is now only beaten by Michael Vick – who has 448 more with 6,109.
Meanwhile, Goff achieved a passer rating of over 150 for a second-straight start. Only Drew Brees has previously done so in NFL history.
In his first nine seasons, the Detroit Lions quarterback now has 27 games with over 300 passing yards and a passer rating above 100.
Only Patrick Mahomes has more, on 28 – although he is only in his eighth season in the league.
