Cincinnati added not only a familiar weapon, but one with a great name.

One of the most unique parts of the 2021 NFL Draft was the reuniting of college teammates in the passing game. The Cincinnati Bengals drafted LSU quarterback Joe Burrow first overall last season; holding the 5th overall selection this year, Burrow was rumored to be pushing his organization to draft his former teammate, Tigers WR Ja’Marr Chase. The Bengals did in fact pull the trigger on Chase, making them the extremely rare combination of quarterback and receiver to get drafted out of the same college and to the same team in the first round in back to back years.

But it didn’t stop there.  With the very next pick, Miami drafted Alabama WR Jaylen Waddle, a year after drafting Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick.  But it didn’t stop there: Alabama WR DeVonta Smith was selected by the Eagles with the 10th overall pick, and that reunites him with Jalen Hurts, the Eagles starting quarterback and a member of the 2017 and 2018 Crimson Tide teams.

That made me wonder: what is the record for most touchdowns by a quarterback and receiver in the NFL among those teammates who also played together in college?

The answer is 26, and I think you could probably win $20 in every bar in the country with this one. Tobin Rote and Billy Howton were teammates on the 1949 Rice Owls team that finished 10-1 and won the Cotton Bowl. Green Bay drafted Rote with the 17th pick in the 1950 Draft, and two years later, selected Howton 15th overall. The two would find immediate success, as Howton led the NFL in receiving yards his rookie season. They would connect for 26 touchdowns together as pros, the mark that Burrow and Chase, among others, will be chasing. ^[1]Hey, don’t count out Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne, either!

Two other quarterback/receiver pairings had 16 touchdowns. In 1971, Stanford’s Jim Plunkett was the first overall pick in the NFL Draft to the Patriots. Over 400 picks later, the Rams drafted his top weapon in 1970, wide receiver Randy Vataha. Los Angeles cut Vataha before the start of the season, but the Patriots picked him up, and Plunkett and Vataha connected for 9 touchdowns as rookies.

At Provo in 1977, BYU quarterback Marc Wilson and running back Todd Christensen helped BYU generate a high-powered offensive attack. In ’78, Christensen was selected by the Cowboys with the 56th pick to play fullback; he didn’t work out there or with the Giants, but resurrected his career at tight end with Oakland in the ’80s. Meanwhile, in 1980, the Raiders drafted Wilson with the 15th overall pick; together, Wilson and Christensen connected for 16 touchdowns, which made Christensen the top overall target for Wilson in his career (as for Christensen, he caught 20 touchdowns from Plunkett).

There have been some other notable combinations. In the late ’50s, Butch Songin and Jim Colclough were teammates at Boston College; perhaps unsurprisingly, the AFL’s Boston Patriots snatched them both up, and they connected for 14 touchdowns. More recently, Stanford teammates Andrew Luck and Coby Fleener were drafted by Indianapolis in 2012, and they scored 14 times through the air. In the early ’90s, Michigan quarterback Elvis Grbac and wide receiver Derrick Alexander were stars, and led the ’92 team to an undefeated season. They would be reunited at the end of the decade in Kansas City and combined for 13 touchdowns.

Vanderbilt’s Jay Cutler and Earl Bennett were reunited in Chicago and produced 11 touchdown receptions, while Jim Plunkett and Gene Washington hit on 10 touchdown passes in 1976 and 1977 for San Francisco.