As the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ starting quarterback going into Week 16, Mason Rudolph was adored by the supporters. As the Vikings faced the Bengals on Saturday, Rudolph was greeted with hero’s acclaim in Pittsburgh. That nearly didn’t take place.
If Rudolph hadn’t been selected for an NFL squad this season, he was in the middle of pursuing a career in commercial real estate.
After leading the Steelers to a 34-11 victory over Cincinnati on Saturday in his first start in over two years, he revealed his thoughts. Rudolph said
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t work on my resume a little bit,”
He said that since his freshman year at Oklahoma State, he had not updated it. He had no need to do anything prior to that. But when free agency arrived and he failed to complete a single pass in the previous season, speculation that he might be done with the league started to grow.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I wanted to have a Plan B and think about a Plan B a bit,” he said. “Your whole life you’re doing one thing and your head is down and you’re just ‘I’m not going to think about it’. I had a little bit of time to talk to my family about what I might be interested in and I still had a lot of confidence that I was going to get an opportunity somewhere…”
Mason Rudolph re- signed for Steelers and his QB role
It ended up being with the Steelers, who re-signed Rudolph for a single season to retain his position as the No. 3 quarterback.
When he did got a chance to start, he made the most of it, throwing for two touchdowns and 290 yards.
Rudolph is expected to participate in Sunday’s Seattle Seahawks game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which carries significant playoff implications.
Since leading the Steelers to three straight victories in 2019, Rudolph has not been the winner of consecutive starts. Now would be the ideal moment to end that run.
