Two-time Pro Bowl tight end decides to retire after 12 seasons, ends career by catching Tom Brady’s final TD

After 12 seasons in the NFL, Kyle Rudolph has decided to call it quits. Earlier this year, there were hints that Rudolph might be retiring, but he didn’t make it official until this week when he shared the news with NBC Sports. 

The former Vikings tight end started his career in 2011 when the Minnesota selected him in the second round of the NFL Draft. The pick ended up paying off big time for the Vikings with Rudolph spending 10 of his 12 career seasons in Minnesota. 

As a rookie, Rudolph caught 26 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns, and after that, he only seemed to get better with each passing season. In 2012, Rudolph made his first Pro Bowl after a year where he caught a career-high nine touchdown passes, which was tied for the most in the NFC among tight ends. 

Although Rudolph did have some injury issues early in his career — he missed a total of 15 games in 2013 and 2014 — he ended up bouncing back just fine. In 2016, he had arguably the best season of his career when he caught 83 passes for 840 yards and seven touchdowns. 

Rudolph followed up his impressive 2016 season with a second Pro Bowl season in 2017, a year where he finished the season with eight touchdown catches, which was the eighth most in the NFL. 

Over the course of his career, Rudolph made plenty of big plays, but even he would probably agree that the biggest one of all came during the 2019 playoffs. In a wild-card game against the Saints, the Vikings got the win after Rudolph caught a game-winning touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins in overtime. 

Unfortunately for Rudolph, that would be one of his final touchdowns as a member of the Vikings. Rudolph parted ways with the team just one year later after a 2020 season where he caught just one score. 

Over the final two seasons of his career, Rudolph spent time with the Giants (2021) and Buccaneers (2022) and although he didn’t make a huge mark with either team, he did end up finishing his career on a high note. 

In Week 18 of the 2022 season — his final game ever — Rudolph caught what would end up being the final touchdown catch of his career AND the final TD pass of Tom Brady’s career. 

That scoring play gave Rudolph an even 50 touchdowns for his career. It also made Rudolph the 98th different player to catch a TD pass from Brady. 

To go along with his 50 touchdown catches over 12 seasons, Rudolph also caught 482 passes for 4,773 yards. 

Now that he’s retiring, Rudolph will be making the move to the media. Not only will he be calling Big 10 games for NBC Sports this fall, but he’ll also be hosting a weekly radio show for Fox Sports.