It’s only been a matter of days since Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw the four touchdown passes that handed him Peyton Manning’s crown as the king of touchdown passes.

Drew Brees Inherits The Crown As King Of Touchdown Passes

The record-setting pass was a whole 5 yards from Brees to Josh Hill halfway through the third quarter of a 34-7 Saints victory over the Colts – Manning’s original team.

In a game against the Colts, he also broke the NFL record for single-game completion percentage with his 540th career touchdown pass. Since then, he has another victorious game under his belt against the Panthers. And he’s getting dangerously close to beating the NFL record for consecutive passes as well.

Drew Brees Inherits The Crown As King Of Touchdown Passes

But he has not had an easy or easily predictable rise to this top spot. He was selected out of Purdue University back in 2001 by the San Diego Chargers, in the second round of the NFL draft. At the time – not so long ago, and many still up until today – commentators breezily wrote Brees off as too short to be an elite professional quarterback; at 6 feet tall, he's 5 inches shorter than Manning, and 4 shorter than Tom Brady. Even this season, he started off quite far behind his competition after missing five of the earlier games in the season because of his thumb injury and respective surgery.

But at 40 years old, over the prime age and under the prime height, it seems his peak is just arriving – or, hopefully, even still ahead of him.

Drew Brees Inherits The Crown As King Of Touchdown Passes

The New England Patriots' Brady, a legend in his own right with 538 career touchdowns and six Super Bowl rings, even tweeted his congratulations to Brees and said he looked forward to trying to eclipse his record.

But since Brady's own record – which includes 538 career touchdowns and six Super Bowl ring – has been withering this season, it looks like Brees might be in good standing to keep his own streak going strong.