Steelers’ Mason Rudolph Almost Quit Playing Football

Last weekend, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph led his team to a blowout win over the Cincinnati Bengals in his first start since 2021.

However, the opportunity for Rudolph to start again almost wasn’t there. Not because of the Steelers, but because of Rudolph himself.

This past offseason, Rudolph almost considered changing professions, so much so that he even updated his resume for the first time since he was at Oklahoma State.

“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,” Rudolph said, via the Steelers’ official team website. “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.”

He ultimately ended up re-signing with the Steelers.

Rudolph began the 2023 campaign third on the depth chart behind Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky, but Pickett has been recovering from ankle surgery and Trubisky struggled in Pickett’s place.

During Pittsburgh’s Week 16 victory, Rudolph went 17-for-27 with 290 yards and a couple of touchdowns. The win moved the Steelers to 8-7 and could be described as a season-saving win for the club.

Rudolph was originally selected by Pittsburgh in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

He made eight starts in 2019 in place of the injured Ben Roethlisberger and threw for 1,765 yards, 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions while completing 62.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 82.

Up until last Saturday, Rudolph had only made two starts since then.

Mason Rudolph and the Steelers will take on the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday. They will then head on battle the Baltimore Ravens when they wrap up the regular season on Jan. 7.

It should be noted that Pittsburgh has not registered a losing campaign since 2003.