Mason Rudolph can recollect seeing Brandon Carr and Earl Thomas closing in on him in Week 5 when the Pittsburgh Steelers faced the Baltimore Ravens. But that's all he can remember. After that, Rudolph has no memory of the Thomas hit that saw him lay on the ground motionless.

Per Brooke Pryor in ESPN.com:

“I did not remember the play at all,” Rudolph said Monday. “Everything before the play and after the play. It was weird. I had to go back and ask the coach, what was the play call because for some reason, just that play was kind of blank. But everything before and after was clear as day.”

When the play happened, there was dead silence in the crowd at Heinz Field. Rudolph seemed to be unconscious for a moment before he began moving his extremities while he remained on the ground. Then, the medical staff proceeded to transfer him to the cart.

Unfortunately, the cart was malfunctioning and the medical staff had to help the second-year quarterback walk off of the field. Rudolph says that he would've been fine walking off of the field before the cart came out.

“When I was on the ground, they made me move my arms and legs and made sure I didn't have any type of spinal cord injury,” Rudolph said. “I guess there were plenty of memes about the cart not working. I wouldn't have needed to be in the cart because I passed all of the tests on the ground. I would've walked, regardless of whether the cart was operational or not.”

It's unlikely that the Steelers (or the NFL) would have allowed him to walk under his own power if the cart was working. Luckily for the Steelers, he didn't have a spinal injury on the play—because making him walk was definitely a questionable decision.

Fortunately, Rudolph was able to be cleared from the concussion protocol last Wednesday. The possible franchise quarterback of the future for the Steelers is expected to start in Week 8 against the Miami Dolphins.