If you look at Mason Rudolph’s Instagram page, he appears to be a person who is living his best life.

He’s hanging out with his friends. He’s hanging out with his mom. He’s posing for pictures in overalls and tuxedos. He’s in the mountains. He’s hanging out with dogs. He’s chilling with his brother. He’s working out. He’s at the gym. He’s everywhere, man.

Most importantly, Rudolph seems happy while posing for pictures in his new Tennessee Titans uniform. He also seems at ease while throwing passes as the Titans’ new quarterback.

Truth be told, Rudolph isn’t the Titans’ new quarterback. No, he’s their new backup quarterback behind Will Levis. Tennessee has to go with Levis, right? After all, the Titans are coming off of a bad season, but Levis, a 2023 second-round pick out of Kentucky, was one of the few bright spots; he was named the starting quarterback midway through his rookie season and threw for 1,808 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. Not great numbers, but Levis showed potential.

Levis was a first-round candidate who dropped to the second. Tennessee simply has to give him every chance to succeed, to flesh out his talents, to develop his skills.

Rudolph, a third-round pick by the Steelers out of Oklahoma State in the 2018 NFL Draft, never got a fair shake in Pittsburgh. He certainly wasn’t given much of a chance beyond what he showed in his 2019 debut as Ben Roethlisberger’s emergency replacement. Rudolph appeared in 10 games following Roethlisberger’s season-ending elbow injury against the Seahawks in Week 2; Rudolph didn’t look great–he didn’t provide any “ah ha!’ moments–but he did tally 1,765 yards while throwing 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions. His passer rating was 82. These weren’t Killer B numbers, but they weren’t bad. Unfortunately, head coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t too pleased with Rudolph’s performance and benched him late in the year in favor of Devlin “Duck” Hodges, a rookie undrafted free agent from FCS school, Samford. Despite the reported first-round grade the Steelers gave Rudolph pre-draft, he was never again given a real shot to become Roethlisberger’s successor. He got minimal playing time over the next two years, appearing in seven games and starting just two. When Roethlisberger officially retired following the 2021 campaign, Pittsburgh signed veteran quarterback Mitch Trubisky in free agency and drafted quarterback Kenny Pickett in the first round. The writing was on the wall: Rudolph, a free agent, was not long for Pittsburgh. Only problem was, nobody else wanted Rudolph, either. So, he quietly signed a one-year deal to be the Steelers’ third-string quarterback for the 2022 season. He didn’t play, save for his preseason appearances. How did Rudolph do in the preseason? Pretty good, actually. Still, he got booed by the home fans at Acrisure Stadium. Steelers fans wanted Pickett, the returning Pitt hero, and they wanted him right away.

Trubisky and Pickett traded starts throughout the 2022 campaign, while Rudolph quietly did his thing as the third-string quarterback.

Rudolph signed another one-year deal to remain in Pittsburgh in 2023.

The 2023 season played out pretty much the same way for Rudolph until an injury to Pickett followed by ineffective play by Trubisky forced Tomlin’s hand and forced his veteran backup into the mix as the starting quarterback over the final three games. Rudolph sparked an offensive effort fans hadn’t seen in a long time while leading the team to three wins to close out the regular season. Yes, the bar was set fairly low, but Rudolph was the only passer in town who had cleared it in many years. Pittsburgh even made the playoffs and put up a decent enough fight against the Bills.

After showing the Steelers how much he had improved, did they want to finally give Rudolph a fair chance to be their starting quarterback? No. Instead, they signed Russell Wilson, traded Pickett and traded for Justin Fields. The quarterback room of the previous two seasons was completely overhauled.

Rudolph is now a Titan.

They say one should just live their best life after a breakup. But did Rudolph and the Steelers ever actually date? You might say Rudolph played the long game in the hopes that his bosses would finally see he was the quarterback for them. They obviously never came to that conclusion.

That’s fine. Perhaps Rudolph has figured out that life as a backup NFL quarterback isn’t so bad after all. Still 11 months shy of his 30th birthday, Rudolph has made nearly $10 million in career earnings. He’ll likely never get the big contract, but he has a good shot at playing several more years at the vet minimum of just over $1 million a season.

That’s good work if you can find it.

It’s hard to say why someone like Rudolph, who is a great teammate and person, by all accounts, has never been given a real shot to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL. He certainly has the measurables (6-5 and 235 pounds) and the arm strength. He’s more mobile than people give him credit for and has never suffered a serious injury.

At the end of the day, there are only 32 starting quarterback jobs in the NFL, and it’s the most scrutinized position in all of team sports. Once people make their minds up about a particular passer, it’s hard to get them to change them, especially with a new influx of arm talent coming into the league every year.

However, there are less than 100 NFL quarterback jobs available, and it says something when a person proves himself good enough to have one of them. Trust me, they’re not going to let just anyone stand around on the sideline with a clipboard. Even the backups and third-stringers have to prove they belong.

Rudolph may never get a chance to be a full-time starting quarterback, but he’s proven that he belongs in the NFL. In that way, he has beaten the odds.

Mason Rudolph really is living his best life as a backup quarterback in the National Football League.