- Aaron Donald was in a league of his own: The elite interior defender recorded a 90.0-plus PFF overall grade in 10 straight seasons — the entirety of his career.
- Derrick Henry remains an after-contact menace: Henry led the NFL in yards after contact in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024, but his 2020 season stands out above the rest (1,490 yards).
- 2025 NFL Draft season is here: Try PFF's best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2025's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Some of the most interesting sports debates center on records — more specifically, records that seem impossible to break. There are team accomplishments, such as the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ undefeated season, and player accomplishments, such as Dan Marino’s 759 pass attempts/19-game streak without taking a sack, that are almost hard to believe.
For this article, we are focusing on five PFF-specific records dating back to 2006 that stand out above the rest in terms of their unlikelihood of ever being broken. While this sample size of the league’s entire history is smaller, nearly 20 years of data gives us some insight into which performances have truly stood the test of time.
Here are PFF’s most unbreakable NFL records.
Consecutive 90.0-plus graded seasons: DI Aaron Donald, Los Angeles Rams (10, 2014-2023)
Aaron Donald — in simple terms — was the most dominant NFL player of the past 20 years. The 13th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft was elite from the start, earning a 90.2 PFF overall grade in his rookie season with the Rams to rank second among 215 qualifying interior defenders.
Donald was the No. 1-ranked interior defender in the NFL every year from 2015-2021, grading no lower than 92.9 in any of those seasons. He generated 100-plus pressures in four of those campaigns despite playing primarily inside as a defensive tackle.
Aaron Donald makes it look easy 😳
— PFF (@PFF) September 9, 2022
(🎥 @NFL) pic.twitter.com/utHhvgLWhC
The future Hall of Famer retired at the end of 2023 after yet another elite season (90.8), making it 10 straight years (his whole career) that he finished with a 90.0-plus PFF overall grade. That type of elite consistency and ability to stay healthy over a decade is unheard of — and what makes Donald arguably the greatest defensive player in the history of the NFL.
Most Consecutive Snaps: T Joe Thomas, Cleveland Browns (10,801, 2007-2017)
The Browns selected Thomas third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, news he heard via satellite radio on a fishing trip with his family that day. The former Wisconsin Badger won the team's starting left tackle job as a rookie and played every snap that season.
Playing every snap as a rookie is a major accomplishment, but that was just the start of how Thomas’ career would unfold. He went on to start 167 consecutive games from 2007-2017, playing every snap across a decade-plus in the NFL before suffering a career-ending triceps injury in Week 7 of the 2017 season.
According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Thomas amassed 10,363 consecutive snaps in his career. However, when accounting for penalties (both pre-snap and accepted/offsetting), that number is 10,801 snaps, according to PFF's database. Thomas’ durability is unmatched, and his consecutive snap count has the feel of a record that may never be broken.
Yards Per Route Run (Season): WR Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins (3.72, 2023)
Hill had already established himself as one of the premier weapons in the NFL before joining the Miami Dolphins in 2022. As the focal point of Mike McDaniel’s innovative offense, his production reached historic levels.
TYREEK HILL. HUGE TOUCHDOWN.
— NFL (@NFL) October 15, 2023
📺: #CARvsMIA on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/B4mQvLOt8O pic.twitter.com/Uis2fkF3el
In 2023, Hill broke Steve Smith’s yards per route run record with a staggering 3.72 clip. Smith’s 2008 campaign (3.63) stood for 15 years, and he’s the only other player in the PFF era (since 2006) to finish a season with a YPRR number higher than 3.25.
Hill’s game-breaking ability any time he touches the ball has made him one of the most explosive wide receivers the game has ever seen and a near lock for the Hall of Fame. It will be difficult for any wideout to match what he accomplished on the field on a per-snap basis in that 2023 season.
Yards After Contact (Season): RB Derrick Henry, Tennessee Titans (1,490, 2020)
While the league has slowly transitioned away from drafting running backs early and paying them big bucks in free agency, Derrick Henry’s career is a reminder that the best running backs do indeed matter and make significant impacts.
No running back has been more valuable than Henry since he entered the league in 2016. He has established himself as one of the toughest backs the game has ever seen, as evidenced by his yards after contact metric year after year.
Henry led the NFL in yards after contact in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. His 2020 season stands out above the rest, as he racked up 1,490 yards after contact that year, accounting for more than 73.5% of his total yardage. For comparison, consider that Saquon Barkley ran for 2,504 yards including the postseason in 2024 and did not top Henry’s 2020 yards after contact number, even factoring in four additional games in the postseason.
Most Receptions in a Season Without a Drop: WR DeAndre Hopkins, Houston Texans (120, 2018)
Dropped passes are inevitable for every wideout, no matter how talented the player. Last year alone, six wide receivers dropped 10 or more passes, including Ja'Marr Chase, CeeDee Lamb and Davante Adams.
DeAndre Hopkins has been one of the most sure-handed wide receivers in the NFL since entering the league in 2013, but never more so than in 2018. That year, he caught 120 passes (including the playoffs) without a single drop. Last season, Jakobi Meyers of the Las Vegas Raiders became the only other player in the PFF era to have more than 75 receptions in a season (87) without a drop.
We will continue to see wide receivers have perfect, no-drop seasons moving forward, but topping Hopkins’ 120-reception mark without a drop seems unlikely anytime soon.
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