Roster Lock Sterling Shepard
August 19th, 2025
Sterling Shepard
Listeners to the Ira Kaufman Podcast know that Joe has said for weeks that veteran receiver Sterling Shepard is a lock to make the Tampa Bay roster.
Hit hit the trifecta: close friend of the quarterback, guaranteed money in his contract and healthy. Ding!
Barring a very unique situation, the Bucs weren’t about to hose a returning player in that situation, a guy who caught 32 balls last year.
Now with receiver Jalen McMillan out for weeks with a bad neck, Joe’s confident that not only will Shepard make the team, he’ll be a key cog in the offense in September.
Todd Bowles blessed Shepard this morning.
“Sterling played well [Saturday],” Bowles began. “I mean, he had a heck of a camp; he had heck of a training camp. Considering he came in injured last year, he practiced every day [this year]. He’s a big energizer guy out there. He talks more than anybody out there, in a good way, in a very good. You love his energy out there, but he made a lot of plays last week.”
With Mike Evans, Emeka Egbuka and Shepard to open the season at receiver, Joe thinks the Bucs will be just fine if everyone stays healthy.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:15 pm
Sterling looks a lot better this year already. Hopefully he can keep the show going until CG and JMac are back
August 19th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
If he eliminates the false starts and drops, he will do fine!
August 19th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
Next man up!
August 19th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
Do not play Sterling or EE against The Bills this week. Just don’t do it Bowles.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:30 pm
Happy for Shep. He has been looking great.
Agree with buc4evr, don’t play him this weekend.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:41 pm
He makes as many catches as boneheaded plays. He’s also a one trick pony that doesn’t play on special teams. Id rather keep some of the younger guys.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Remember in 2023 when Rob Munch said Sterling Shepard wouldnt make the team in 2024, and he did. Well I guess he’s done it again. Good job old man Shepard!!! You rightfully earned it. Love your talent and energy.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:44 pm
And, more Culp.
And, lots of two RB sets.
C’mon Griz. Don’t let your distracted half boss negatively influence your playbook.
August 19th, 2025 at 12:54 pm
I’m not the biggest fan of Shep, but we need him with JMac going on IR. I don’t think he’s WR3 on a down to down basis and think we can work the younger guys into the rotation so we can still try to exploit matchups.
Lost in all this is Godwins’ availability and I think the team has taken advantage of not having to report injuries officially while keeping his situation relatively unknown. We don’t know what he’s doing on his own or when cameras/reporters are not around to report on. Could be just me being optimistic, but we’ll know in about a weeks time.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:01 pm
Shep is honestly one of my favorite players and personalities on the team.
He brings that fire and swag that we need out there.
He just needs to make sure he doesn’t take it too far like he does sometimes.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:07 pm
Shep, EE, won’t play Saturday. Going to be fun watching the other receivers slug it out for not just a PS spot, but an actual roster spot. Unless balloon boy Teddy gets another killed.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:28 pm
I am afraid we aren’t going to see CG anytime soon if at all this year. I think we’d be hearing more info if he was doing well.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:41 pm
BRASWELL NEEDS TO PLAY EVERY SNAP VS THE BILLS!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
August 19th, 2025 at 1:43 pm
Only because of the injuries. Teams don’t carry 4th-6th receivers that don’t play special teams.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:44 pm
Good character guy also…. he was hosed on a few of those calls last year by the refs. They weren’t penalties, don’t think for a moment that refs won’t make a crooked call to influence a game. Shep was a victim of this a couple of times.
August 19th, 2025 at 1:52 pm
Sterling Shepherd is productive as well just needs to stay out of the penalty box.
August 19th, 2025 at 2:29 pm
He should be. Baker and him are on the same page. He is a vet who provides comfort if Godwin and Jalen are both out at the beginning.
Having a vet like that as your number 5 is crazy.
Tez is the return guy and I think they start with Ryan Miller on the team as well.
Kam, Greene, Jarrett go the practice squad.
August 19th, 2025 at 2:53 pm
Too bad. Sheperd’s okay but if Palmer weren’t so disappointing he’d be gone.
August 19th, 2025 at 3:00 pm
He will probably be sent to practice squad and activated for game day, so his contract is not fully guaranteed. He had too many dropsies last year, but hopefully that has cleared up because he does run nice routes.
August 19th, 2025 at 3:12 pm
We can get what we gotten from Sheppard from the RBs & TEs position collectively.
32 catches and 334 yards and a score is not hard to replace.
August 19th, 2025 at 4:04 pm
Careful Bucs, the Bills may be coming in angry after the beat down they took from the Bears.
August 19th, 2025 at 4:14 pm
…and that’s why we keep him around… this team is still incredibly dangerous with him as WR3.
August 19th, 2025 at 4:32 pm
Other outlets (Scott Rynolds @PR) are saying He and Teddy will be cut and brought back to the practice squad. Activated game one. They say the Bucs won’t want to guarantee their vet minimum salary rate. I don’t know if I’m buying it. I definitely wouldn’t be saying that Shep is a lock to make the 53.
August 19th, 2025 at 5:12 pm
If they put anyone on the practice squad for even 2 seconds can’t another team snarf them? Is that how it works?
August 19th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Absolutely zero depth at WR now. Injury to Evans or EE and we’re screwed
August 19th, 2025 at 6:15 pm
St.Pete
Practice squad players can only be poached by another team if the poachers are bribing them to the active roster, no lateral moves from one PS to another PS. There’s more to it, but that’s what I personally know for certain.
August 19th, 2025 at 6:16 pm
*bringing, not bribing lol
August 19th, 2025 at 6:27 pm
I encourage people to watch the entire 2024 season again – every single game. Contrary to what some have posted no this here website, Sterling Shepard was a MAJOR component oof the Bucs offense late in the season. He made plays that moved the chains on third down and kept the Bucs in games.
If he can cut down on the stupid penalties, he’s definitely a quality receiver – certainly better than the #3 receiver on 90% of NFL teams (he was the #1 for years in New York).
I have all the confidence in the world in Shep and Ryan Miller right behind him.
August 19th, 2025 at 7:34 pm
Shepard is still a good receiver. Just needs to keep his head. Especially this season!
August 19th, 2025 at 10:15 pm
Tez gets open. He has a special knack for that. Greene is a football player. Miller is tough and works hard. JMac and Godwin will be back. I think sooner than most around here think. Evans and Egbuka are Lions. But you’ve got to admit that Shep is handy to have around. He isn’t near as good as many of our receivers but he loves the game and he works hard at it. Hope he is a part of this team for another couple of years. We could do worse than that. And I’m not talking about Palmer. Speaking of Palmer I hope the best for him. But to be an NFL receiver you have to be able to read defenses today and Palmer couldn’t. He’s got talent and I hope the best for him. I think he could help some teams in the NFL but he has to little work to do. He’s young, I think he can make it. Just gonna be tough on this team.
August 20th, 2025 at 3:47 am
Nailed it Joe but if they don’t give Miller some targets from the slot they have lost their minds. The guy makes plays!
Go Bucs!
August 20th, 2025 at 4:39 am
He looks faster this year.
I love his energy also.
When some of our nice guys are scared of evil teams like the Saints or Ravens,
We need a gangster on offense like Sterling to fight back!
I love Sterling. He is tough!
August 20th, 2025 at 5:38 am
Shep definitely made some clutch plays for us last year.
But, he also had a few bonehead (in my mind) penalties that a vet with his experience shouldn’t have made.
I haven’t seen any tape of him in camp this year, so I have to rely on what I see reported here. I’m glad to hear/read that he seems much improved and is having a good camp.
He may be a “lock” as you say, Joe. But, he’ll need to stay at the top of his game to stay locked in.
Eventually, we’ll see Chris and Jalen back on the field. And we’ve got some seriously talented younger guys that’ll be on the practice squad (and looking over Shep’s shoulder…)