Can a professional athlete really start to blossom so relatively late in his career as the fifth season for an outside linebacker? Bud Dupree of the Pittsburgh Steelers is trying to show that it is very much possible by accomplishing it in 2019, as he plays out his fifth-year option after originally being drafted 22nd-overall in the 2015 NFL Draft.
While he has been a starter for most of his career—when he hasn’t been sidelined with injuries, as in his second season—Dupree has yet to put up the sort of numbers that you would expect from a ‘franchise’ player at a marquee position.