Milestone marker

More For Gore

It seems almost unfathomable, but the ageless Frank Gore needs just 522 rushing yards in Buffalo this season to move past Barry Sanders and into third place on the alltime career rushing yards list behind Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton. Gore is roughly 2,000 yards behind Payton, which might be a stretch. But the distance to Canton keeps getting shorter and shorter for the man who gained most of his yards with the 49ers and will be their all-time leading rusher for the foreseeable future.

Gould In A Battle

There is some kind of jockeying going on among active kickers as to which will finish as the NFL’s most accurate all-time. Currently, Baltimore’s Justin Tucker is No. 1 at 90.1 percent, having made 237 of his 263 career field goal attempts over seven seasons. But the Niners’ Robbie Gould, on the strength of having made 82 of his last 85 attempts over the last three seasons (33 of 34 last year), is now No. 2 at 87.7 percent (358 for 408 over 14 seasons). New England’s Stephen Gostkowski is right behind Gould at 87.1 percent, as is New Orleans’ Wil Lutz (87.0), Minnesota’s Dan Bailey (86.6), Buffalo’s Stephen Hauschka (86.4) and longtime Atlanta specialist Matt Bryant (86.2), who’s a free agent still looking for a team.

SAY IT AIN’T SO, ANTONIO

Antonio Brown’s numbers in Pittsburgh were so ridiculous. At 31, he’s the one active receiver at this point who has an outside chance to challenge Jerry Rice’s all-time marks for catches, yardage and touchdowns if he continues his rate of production with the Raiders. Brown needs 24 receptions, 877 yards and nine touchdown catches to move into the top 25 all-time in all three categories. That said, he’ll still need 712 catches, 11,688 yards and 123 TDs to catch J.R. Maybe if Brown plays until he’s 50 …

FITZGERALD LOOKS TO SOLIDIFY NO. 2

Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald is already No. 2 on the all-time receiving yards list behind Rice — a distant 6,616 yards behind — and with 23 more receptions will pass tight end Tony Gonzalez for the second most catches behind Rice at 1,326. That would leave him 223 receptions behind Rice’s 1,549, not out of the realm of possibility for a player who’ll enter the season having just turned 36. That’s one Fitzgerald could get if he plays long enough.

BY CARL STEWARD

Toppling Big Ben

Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger is in jeopardy of obtaining a dubious quarterback record — most times sacked in a career. He’s currently sitting at 501, just 24 behind all-time leader Brett Favre. Brady, at 473, can add to his total but will have a tough time “catching” Favre. As for single-season sack records, Houston’s DeShaun Watson was taken down 62 times last year, seventh-most all-time. But that isn’t even the team record. Derek Carr’s brother David holds the all-time NFL mark with 76 sacks taken in 2002 as a Texans rookie.

Frank Gore, now with Buffalo, needs just 522 yards to pass Barry Sanders to move into third place in all-time career rushing. Drew Brees, right comes into this season with 520 passing TDs, with Peyton Maning’s 539 in his sights.

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FITZ VS. GATES

While Fitzgerald is no threat to catch Rice’s 197 career receiving TDs, his placement on the all-time list is still up in the air. He’s currently tied for sixth all-time with Chargers tight end Antonio Gates with 116 scoring receptions. Gates still has a penchant for finding the end zone even though he’s lost a couple of steps, so it’s an intriguing battle. Both Fitzgerald and Gates have an outside shot at catching No. 5 Marvin Harrison (128) and No. 4 Cris Carter (130) before they’re done. No. 3 Terrell Owens (153) could be tougher.

Passing Peyton

When Peyton Manning retired following the 2016 season, he probably thought his career mark of 539 touchdown passes was relatively safe. Nope. It’s not only bound to be broken this season, but by two guys — New Orleans’ Drew Brees comes into the year with 520 career TDs, and New England’s Tom Brady is right behind him with 517. Remember when Dan Marino’s 420 seemed like Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs? Marino is now fifth on the list and could drop even lower over the next few seasons.