ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Jake Rudock hasn’t taken a snap in a game that’s counted in the standings for over a year. He’s watched a lot of football. And during his rookie year with the Detroit Lions, he’s learned more than maybe even he imagined.

He picked things up in the quarterback meeting rooms from Matthew Stafford, Dan Orlovsky and coaches Brian Callahan and Jim Bob Cooter. He’s picked things up in the locker room, where his stall is sandwiched in a corner between Stafford and defensive tackle Haloti Ngata, a potential Hall of Fame candidate.

He spent the year absorbing knowledge from the quarterbacks and picking up things from almost everyone else. This, he figures, is how he’d learn.

“Learning from Stafford, Dan; learning from guys like Anquan Boldin,” Rudock said. “Guy takes care of his body so well. He always works so hard. It’s just, it’s nice to see a guy playing for however many years he’s been playing, at such a high level, you see why. It’s not an accident. Just trying to learn from the older guys.”

This spring, Jake Rudock will likely get a chance to show he's ready to be the Lions' No. 2 quarterback. Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire

From the quarterbacks, he picked up how fast Stafford can dissect and “diagnose” a certain play or defense an opponent might run. He learned the nuance of an NFL game plan, how to watch film like an NFL quarterback and how to improve the offense on a weekly basis. From other veterans, he started to understand how important strength was in the league, so on the advice of coaches he gained “at least five, six pounds” throughout the season to help his future durability.

Rudock didn’t want to look back too much at first. He was still in the tail end of the Lions' season -- a season that started for him on the practice squad and ended with him on the 53-man roster, inactive every game but firmly entrenched as the No. 3 quarterback.

And considering the reason he was promoted to the active roster -- the Bears had showed interest in signing him -- it gave an indication the Lions see him as part of their future, perhaps as the backup to Stafford in 2017.

The decision to stay in Detroit instead of going to Chicago, Rudock said, came after weighing the short-term potential of getting playing time with his medium-term and long-term goals. He wanted to be able to continue to learn. He felt his situation in Detroit is a good one.

And as a young player, he didn’t want to have to move around too much.

“There’s so much to learn and you need to learn,” Rudock said. “It’s hard to come in as a rookie and be really good and make a huge impact. It takes time.”

So Rudock spent a year learning. It’s tough for him to truly gauge whether he’s ready to handle the full backup duties yet, including being one bad hit from becoming an NFL starting quarterback. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in his abilities. He does. He’s played in the preseason, mostly in the fourth quarters of games against other players who were fighting for roster spots instead of starting jobs. But he knows the regular season is much, much different.

“I think I would be, but at the same time, you can say whatever you want now,” Rudock told ESPN last month. “It’s like everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth kind of deal. Obviously I’d like to think that, but time will tell and just try to, like right now, try to treat it like that’s what you have to do and treat it like you’re going to go out there and get the first snap and go from there.”

That was a mindset Callahan stressed to him. He knew he was going to get minimal repetitions at best, even in practice, so he had to prepare like a possible No. 1 even though he was No. 3 and mostly running the scout team.

This spring, he’ll likely get more of a chance to show he’s ready for the No. 2 job -- or whatever else the Lions want to do. Once OTAs start, Rudock said his main goal is to have complete confidence in what he’s being asked to do.

“I want to obviously be confident in what I’m doing and just take ownership of the offense,” Rudock said. “That’s all cliché stuff. That’s always stuff you’re working on. You’re always working on timing. You’re always working on quicker decision-making. Oh, that’s a bad look when we get to this play.

“You’re always working on that stuff. So just trying to up your game a little bit.”

If he wants a bigger role in 2017, something that seems like it might happen, he’ll have to.