Increased responsibility.

Until Jalen McMillan got hurt, veteran receiver Sterling Shepard logged most of his training camp time catching passes with the second-team offense.

He was targeted a lot and caught a lot of balls.

Joe often uses where a guy plays (first or second team) and how often he gets touches as a barometer for where the guy sits on the food chain.

If a guy is with the third team (bouncers, substitute history teachers and insurance claims adjusters), his job is in danger. If a guy is on the third team and rarely gets touches (like Rakim Jarrett), that is a very bad position to be in.

If a player is on the second team but doesn’t often get touches, he’s on the bubble. If a guy is logging plays with the first team, even part of the time, that means he’s very likely to make the roster.

That’s sort Joe’s pecking order over the years.

Shepard gets targets whether he is taking snaps with the first team or the second team. He’s in a secure place, especially after McMillan’s injury.

(Joe thought about this driving to record an edition of the “Ira Kaufman Podcast” Friday morning: The camp meat cornerback with the Steelers, Daryl Porter, the man who undercut McMillan, that was a classic camp-meat-trying-to-make-a-splash-play-to-get-noticed kind of stunt. Joe’s not saying Porter deliberately wanted to hurt McMillan, but against a guy who knows he’s making the Steelers’ 53-man roster, and Joe doesn’t think McMillan is undercut like that.)

Joe thought entering training camp that Shepard was pretty much safe unless he blew chunks on the practice fields of One Buc Palace. Shepard is a reliable veteran and he just happens to be very tight with Baker Mayfield.

Sometimes, it’s not what you know, but who you know. And he has guaranteed money in his contract.

The way Bucs coach Todd Bowles spoke about Shepard this week, Joe is sure Shepard, short of an injury, is secure when the Bucs shave the roster down to 53 on Tuesday.

Bowles praised Shepard for often working with quarterbacks in a give-and-take on the field to help move the chains and score points.

“Well, he’s performed well because he [confers with quarterbacks] on the field, not because he hangs with the quarterbacks,” Bowles said. “But he’s very smart and he has opinions and advice just like Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin] do.

“He’s a veteran receiver, so quarterbacks understand him and they give him little nuances to work with. He’s very good that way. We’re getting everybody on the same page.”

Yes, Shepard made too many boneheaded plays last year. He cuts down on those; he’s an effective receiver.

Shepard will get snaps. Right now he’s the No. 3 receiver until Chris Godwin or McMillan return, whenever that may be.

Joe hopes McMillan’s return is on the short side of Thanksgiving and Godwin returns well before Halloween.