Dan Marino threw for 5,084 yards in 1984, an unprecedented achievement in a time when rules and strategies made a quarterback’s job significantly harder. So what could Marino do in today’s more passing-friendly NFL?
We’ll never know, but Marino would like to think 6,000 yards would be within reach.
“The best part about this is I’m retired and I don’t have to prove it. Yes, we’d throw for 6,000 yards,” Marino told Kevin Clark. “It would be a lot of fun. I wish I could.”
The NFL record for passing yards in a season is 5,477, set by Peyton Manning in 2013. Manning’s season was outstanding as well, but for Marino to top 5,000 yards three decades earlier was truly extraordinary. Marino says the biggest difference between his era and the environment modern quarterbacks play in is that today’s quarterbacks are far better protected than he was.
“You can’t hit the quarterback the way you used to. You can’t get a shot in the head, they can’t go to your knees. And I think that’s a good thing because when I played you were allowed to do that. Players could take shots at you,” Marino said.
Despite all that, Marino was able to play until he was 38. And put up numbers that would only be matched after the NFL made life a lot easier for quarterbacks.
