Matthew Stafford passes Philip Rivers on all-time regular-season yardage list

It's not quite Nolan Ryan vs. Steve Carlton, but it's an interesting wrinkle arising from the surprise unretirement of Colts quarterback Philip Rivers.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford entered Thursday night's game at No. 8 on the all-time passing yardage list. He exited at No. 7.

With 457 passing yards, Stafford leapfrogged Rivers. Currently, Stafford has 63,988 yards. Rivers has 63,560.

Rivers needs 329 yards on Monday night to reclaim the seventh position. (In his first game back, Rivers threw for only 120 yards against a Seattle defense that Stafford torched.)

Stafford likely won't be looking in the rear-view mirror. With 101 more yards next Monday night against the Falcons, Stafford will bypass Ben Roethlisberger at No. 6 on the career regular-season passing yardage list.

Unless Roethlisberger unretires next week. Which sounds just as crazy now as the notion of Rivers coming back did 12 days ago.