23 seasons, 333 starts

Brady started 333 regular-season games across 20 seasons with New England (2000-19) and 3 with Tampa Bay (2020-22). He averaged 268 passing yards per start across his career — including the seasons where he played behind one of the league’s lower-volume offenses (2001-04 Patriots) and the seasons in his late 30s and 40s where the Patriots offense was famously low-target-share due to Belichick’s run-game emphasis.

His most-prolific single season was 2011 (5,235 yards in 16 games — second-most in a season behind only Peyton Manning’s 5,477 in 2013). He passed Brett Favre’s prior all-time record of 71,838 in October 2018, then passed Drew Brees in October 2021 to take sole possession of #1.

Why no one's catching him soon

Behind Brady (89,214) on the all-time list: Drew Brees 80,358, Peyton Manning 71,940, Brett Favre 71,838, Matt Ryan 62,792, Aaron Rodgers ~62,000+ entering 2024-25, Philip Rivers 63,440, Ben Roethlisberger 64,088. Among current/recently-active QBs: Patrick Mahomes (~32,000 entering 2024 at age 28).

To catch Brady, a current QB would need to pass for 5,000+ yards per season for 11+ more seasons after age 30 (typical career arc). Mahomes is the only current QB statistically capable; he’d need to maintain 4,500+ yards/season for the rest of a 16-17 year career, which is plausible but not certain. The structural shift in the modern league is toward more rushing-heavy QBs (Lamar Jackson, Hurts, Allen) who generate fewer pure passing yards.

Other records Brady takes with him

Beyond the 89,214 yards mark, Brady’s other career records include: 649 passing touchdowns (record by 100+ over Drew Brees), 251 regular-season wins (record by 65+ over Peyton Manning), 35 game-winning drives in the 4th quarter or overtime (record), 10 Super Bowl appearances (record by 4 over John Elway), 7 Super Bowl wins (record by 3 over Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, Charles Haley, etc.).

Brady’s single-game records are more modest — his career-high single-game passing yards is 517 (vs. Miami in 2011) — because his teams were rarely in trail-mode situations that drive volume passing. The records that may be most-untouchable are his 251 wins and 7 Super Bowls, both of which combine longevity and team success in ways no current QB realistically projects to match.

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Tom Brady and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records.