The Matthew Stafford Rams touchdown record is his at last — and with it, a piece of NFL history nobody else owns. Stafford threw three touchdown passes in the first half against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, and the third of them, an 11-yard strike to Puka Nacua in the second quarter, was the 155th of his Rams career. That moved him past Roman Gabriel, whose franchise record of 154 had stood since 1972, and made Stafford the first quarterback in NFL history to hold the career touchdown-pass record for two franchises: he already owns the Detroit Lions' mark with 282. The Rams went on to beat the Raiders 35-21, and Stafford finished 23 of 29 for 195 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Matthew Stafford Rams touchdown record — the Rams quarterback in his white No. 9 jersey at Tennessee in 2025
Matthew Stafford in the Rams' white jersey. File photo from the Rams' 2025 game at Tennessee: Wikimedia Commons, "2025 Rams vs Titans Matthew Stafford.png". Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Three touchdowns, one half, one record

Stafford arrived in Las Vegas needing three touchdown passes to pass Gabriel outright, and he did not waste time. He opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown pass to tight end Davis Allen in the first quarter, found Allen again from 5 yards early in the second to make it 14-3, and then, with 4:18 left in the half, hit Nacua looping through the Raiders' defense for the record-breaker and a 21-3 lead. Kyren Williams added a 17-yard touchdown run just before halftime, Matt Gay's second field goal made it 28-6 at the break, and Stafford's halftime line — 17 of 19 for 148 yards and three scores, per NBC Sports — was close to flawless.

The pace is the story inside the story. Gabriel threw his 154 touchdown passes across 130 games and eleven seasons, from 1962 to 1972. Stafford reached 155 in 81 games — barely six seasons into his Rams career, and in roughly three-fifths of the games. The Rams' own website confirmed the milestone on Sunday afternoon, as did NBC Sports, theScore and the New York Post, all reporting the same sequence: two to Allen, the record to Nacua.

Roman Gabriel, whose Rams touchdown record of 154 stood from 1972 until Stafford passed it, pictured in 1970
Roman Gabriel wearing the Rams' No. 18 in 1970. His 154 touchdown passes were the franchise record for more than five decades. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, "Roman Gabriel, 1970.jpg".

Why this matters

Franchise records are usually a monument to staying in one place. Quarterbacks who lead a team for a decade accumulate its records almost by default. Stafford has now done it twice, in two cities, in two completely different phases of a career — and that is precisely what makes the record historically strange. In Detroit, across 12 seasons and 165 games, he threw 282 touchdown passes for a Lions franchise that never won a playoff game with him. In Los Angeles, in barely half the games, he has thrown 155 — while winning Super Bowl LVI in his first season, collecting a league MVP award, and, as theScore noted, missing the playoffs only once as a Ram.

Put the two halves together and the arithmetic is startling: 437 career touchdown passes, every one of them thrown for a franchise whose record book he now tops. Great quarterbacks have been traded before — Peyton Manning finished in Denver, Tom Brady in Tampa Bay — but none left town as one franchise's all-time touchdown leader and then became another's. Stafford's second act has quietly become the stronger argument in his Hall of Fame case: the first act proved the arm, the second proved what the arm could do with a contender around it.

The record the losing streak needed

The timing mattered for the Rams, too. Los Angeles arrived in Las Vegas having lost two straight heartbreakers — a 37-34 overtime loss to Buffalo and an 18-16 loss to Arizona in which they never found the end zone through the air enough to survive six Cardinals field goals — and with a roster, as Rams Wire put it, riddled by injuries. Davante Adams was out on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. Nacua played through a calf issue and still caught seven passes for 63 yards and the record-breaking touchdown in the first half alone. Against that backdrop, Stafford's afternoon was not just a milestone; it was a 38-year-old quarterback dragging a depleted offense back into the win column almost single-handedly in the first half.

Puka Nacua, who caught Stafford's record-breaking 155th Rams touchdown pass, at Rams training camp in his original No. 17 jersey
Puka Nacua at Rams training camp, wearing his original No. 17 jersey (he now wears No. 12). Nacua caught the 11-yard pass that gave Stafford the record. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, "Nacua 731.jpg".

Context: the other record Stafford set this season

This is, remarkably, Stafford's second major record of the autumn — though the first was one no quarterback wants. In September he threw the 33rd pick-six of his career in the Rams' loss to Denver, passing Brett Favre for the most in NFL history, on a night he also moved up the all-time touchdown list. The two records together capture the whole Stafford paradox: a gunslinger whose aggression produced both the interceptions returned against him and the touchdowns nobody else has matched for two different teams. Longevity plus volume plus a late-career reinvention is a rare combination, and Sunday's milestone is the cleanest single fact yet in the case that his career, taken whole, belongs in Canton.

What happens next

The record itself will keep growing — every touchdown pass Stafford throws from here extends a mark that, given it took 54 years for Gabriel's to fall, could plausibly stand for decades. The nearer questions are team questions: whether the Rams can turn the 35-21 win in Las Vegas into real momentum before hosting the Chargers next Sunday, and whether a healthier roster in November lets Stafford's form — three touchdowns and two incompletions in a half — turn into a genuine NFC West run. Detroit fans, meanwhile, are left with the strangest footnote of all: their franchise's greatest passer set his second franchise record wearing somebody else's uniform, against a team playing in a stadium in the desert.

Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas at night, where Stafford set the Rams touchdown record against the Raiders
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where Stafford broke Gabriel's record on Sunday. File photo, 2022: Wikimedia Commons, "Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada (52258484667).jpg".

Sources

  • Los Angeles Rams (official), Oct 25 2026: "Matthew Stafford becomes Rams' franchise leader in passing touchdowns" — 155 passing TDs as a Ram, passing Gabriel's 154; sequence 3 yards and 5 yards to Davis Allen, 11 yards to Puka Nacua. https://www.therams.com/news/matthew-stafford-becomes-passing-touchdown-leader-in-rams-franchise-history-2026
  • NBC Sports / Pro Football Talk, Oct 25 2026, 5:36 p.m. ET: Stafford first player to hold the franchise TD-pass record for two of the current 32 NFL clubs; Gabriel 154 in 130 games 1962-72; Stafford 155 in 81 games; Lions record 282 in 165 games; halftime update: Rams 28-6, Stafford 17-of-19, 148 yards, 3 TD. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/matthew-stafford-becomes-rams-leader-in-td-passes-first-to-be-no-1-for-two-teams
  • Rams Wire / USA Today, Oct 25 2026: first quarterback in NFL history to lead two franchises in career touchdown passes; record set in 81 games vs Gabriel's 130; Super Bowl and league MVP in Los Angeles. https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2026/10/25/rams-matthew-stafford-touchdown-pass-leader-history/92435300007/
  • theScore, Oct 25 2026: 155th TD pass; entered the game two behind Gabriel (152), threw two to Allen then the record-breaker to Nacua, all in the first half; joined Rams in 2021 after 12 Lions seasons; Super Bowl LVI champion. https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/3634980/stafford-becomes-rams-all-time-leader-in-passing-t-ds
  • New York Post, Oct 25 2026: 11-yard second-quarter strike to Nacua; entered Sunday needing three TD passes to eclipse Gabriel's 154 (130 games, 1962-72); Lions record 282 in 165 games. https://nypost.com/2026/10/25/sports/matthew-stafford-makes-nfl-history-breaks-rams-all-time-passing-touchdown-record-vs-raiders/
  • Sportradar live match data, Oct 25 2026: Rams 28-6 Raiders late Q3; scoring plays (Allen 3y Q1 6:28, Allen 5y Q2 10:02, Nacua 11y Q2 4:18, Williams 17y run Q2 1:24; Gay FGs 30y and 27y); Stafford 20-of-24 for 160 yards, 3 TD at the Q3 check.
  • NBC Sports / Pro Football Talk, Oct 25 2026 (final): "Rams get back in the win column with 35-21 victory over Raiders" — Stafford finished 23-of-29 for 195 yards, three touchdowns and one interception; Williams 99 rushing yards and a touchdown, Corum 93 and a touchdown; Sportradar final: Rams 35, Raiders 21. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/rams-get-back-in-the-win-column-with-35-21-victory-over-raiders