Jerry Rice Has the Most Touchdowns Scored in NFL History

Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for career touchdowns scored, with 208 in regular-season games. If you mean touchdown passes thrown, the answer is Tom Brady, with 649. They lead different statistical categories—not competing versions of the same record. Rice tops the career touchdown leaderboard, while Brady leads the career passing-touchdown list.

What counts toward Rice’s 208?

Rice’s total consists of 197 receiving touchdowns, 10 rushing touchdowns and one touchdown on a fumble recovery. That last score explains why adding only his receiving and rushing totals produces 207 rather than 208. ESPN’s career summary records the full breakdown.

A touchdown pass gives the quarterback a passing touchdown and the receiver a receiving touchdown. In the career touchdowns scored table, the score belongs to the player who scores it—not also to the passer. A quarterback’s own rushing touchdown does count toward that scoring total. The NFL records touchdowns and conversions in distinct statistical categories; two-point conversions do not add to a player’s touchdown count.

The career leaders by category are therefore:

Regular-season career category	Record holder	Touchdowns
Touchdowns scored, all types	Jerry Rice	208
Receiving touchdowns	Jerry Rice	197
Rushing touchdowns	Emmitt Smith	164
Passing touchdowns thrown	Tom Brady	649

Sources: Rice’s scoring breakdown, Smith’s Hall of Fame biography and Brady’s career totals. These are regular-season records; playoff totals are separate. Brady, for example, threw another 88 postseason touchdown passes, which are not included in his 649.

The top five career touchdown scorers

Rank	Player	Touchdowns scored
1	Jerry Rice	208
2	Emmitt Smith	175
3	LaDainian Tomlinson	162
4	Randy Moss	157
5	Terrell Owens	156

Scope: regular-season career touchdowns, excluding passes thrown. The Hall of Fame’s Elias Sports Bureau table lists these totals at the start of the 2026 season; ESPN’s leaderboard confirms the same top five as checked October 14, 2026.

Rice’s lead over Smith is 33 touchdowns. Smith’s 175 combines his record 164 rushing scores with 11 receiving touchdowns—an important distinction when comparing the NFL’s career rushing leaders.

The night Rice passed Jim Brown

Rice took the record on September 5, 1994, against the Los Angeles Raiders at Candlestick Park. He entered the season with 124 career touchdowns, two behind Jim Brown’s 126.

A 69-yard touchdown reception from Steve Young brought Rice to 125. A 23-yard end-around tied Brown. With San Francisco comfortably ahead, coach George Seifert removed Rice and Young, then allowed them back into the game. With 4:13 remaining, Young found Rice for a 38-yard touchdown: career score No. 127. The Hall of Fame’s account details the sequence, and the 49ers’ team history confirms the record came in a 44–14 victory.

Rice scored another 81 touchdowns after that night. His eventual 208 was not simply Brown’s record nudged upward; it was a substantial extension of the mark.

Career totals need era context

Brown scored 126 touchdowns in 118 regular-season games; Rice scored 208 in 303. Those figures describe both production and opportunity, not just a ranking. Career scoring data records their game totals.

Brown’s nine-season career spanned the 12- and 14-game schedules. Rice played 20 seasons in the 16-game-schedule era, although shortened seasons and missed games affected his actual appearances. The Hall of Fame’s schedule history dates the move to 14 games to 1961, 16 to 1978 and 17 to 2021.

If the question is instead about one season, LaDainian Tomlinson scored a record 31 touchdowns in 2006: 28 rushing and three receiving. His Hall of Fame biography documents the breakdown, and Pro Football Reference’s single-season leaderboard confirms the record. It measures a season’s scoring peak; Rice’s 208 measures a career.