After spending his entire NFL career with the New York Giants, veteran wide receiver Sterling Shepard has decided to make a change during this NFL offseason as he has agreed to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It has been a rough few years for Shepard in New York, as the 31-year-old has only played 25 games over the past three seasons, catching only three touchdown passes during that time, which obviously isn’t ideal for the player or the team.
Despite seemingly heading in a downward spiral, Shepard felt it was time for a change, especially with New York seemingly heading in the wrong direction after a promising 2022 campaign.
The Buccaneers, however, were thought to be a team that would struggle after superstar Tom Brady announced his retirement ahead of the 2023 NFL season.
Surprisingly enough, Tampa Bay replaced arguably the greatest quarterback of all time with Baker Mayfield, who has bounced around the league since being traded by the Cleveland Browns.
Apparently, Mayfield helped the Buccaneers to get Shepard to sign on the dotted line, according to what the veteran wideout told the New York Post (via ProFootballTalk).
“I got a text from my boy and I just thought it was ‘regular old checking in to see how I was doing’ type of text, because we do that from time to time to each other,’’ Shepard said.
Sterling Shepard says Baker Mayfield got the ball rolling on his signing with the Bucs. https://t.co/8o4wulOAI6
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) June 8, 2024
The Buccaneers already had a talented receiving corps led by Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but the addition of Shepard made the team much deeper in the position.
Along with re-signing Evans and bringing in Shepard, the Buccaneers drafted Jalen McMillan out of the University of Washington, giving Mayfield another solid option downfield next season.
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