CINCINNATI — Early during the first quarter of Thursday’s game at the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers surpassed 64,000 career passing yards.

Late in the second quarter, Rodgers surpassed 64,088 passing yards.

It was that latter figure that was more significant.

Hitting 64,089 stands out because it represents one more than the yardage Steelers two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger amassed over his 18 seasons with the team.

Rodgers on Thursday moved into the top five in NFL history in passing yards, dropping Roethlisberger to sixth.

The play that moves Rodgers past 64,000 yards was a 39-yard completion to DK Metcalf during the first drive of the game. The play that moved him past Roethlisberger was a 15-yard completion to Jaylen Warren.

First-drive success

The Steelers appeared to have fixed their issues in regards to scoring on their opening possession of games.

Rodgers’ 10-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith just 4 minutes into Thursday’s game accounted for their third touchdown on their first offensive drive of a game among six outings this season.

The Steelers did not score any first-drive touchdowns last season, and they have had only five such scores since 2022.

Counting field goals the first time they had the ball during games against the Seattle Seahawks and Cleveland Browns, the Steelers have scored during five of their six opening drives of games this season.

Hold on to it

Rodgers entered the game with the NFL’s second-fastest average time to throw at 2.57 seconds. The early touchdown to Smith upped that number.

According to Next Gen Stats, Rodgers held the ball for 8.6 seconds on the play, making for the longest snap-to-pass time on a touchdown pass in the NFL this season. It also accounts for the longest time to throw for any Rodgers touchdown pass over at least the past 10 seasons (such data began getting measured in 2016).

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