TAMPA, Fla. – The best year of Sterling Shepard’s college football career was in 2015 with Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma. Shepard went off for 1,288 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns.
Now that he’s reunited with Mayfield on the Bucs, Shepard hopes for more of that magic. Oh by the way, Shepherd says Mayfield hasn’t changed.
“He’s (Mayfield) a guy that has a lot of energy that you can feed off of,” Shepard said. “He wants to win games. He’s the ultimate competitor, and he always plays with that chip on his shoulder.”
Read: Baker Mayfield ‘It’s Expected To Underestimate The Bucs’
Since being drafted by the New York Giants in 2016, Shepard has had a productive career, but at 31 years old and not on an NFL roster, he thought he might be done. He got a call from Mayfield, who told him to tell his agent to call the Bucs. His agent called. Five minutes later, his agent called him back and said to get ready to go workout in Tampa.
“I had not been running any routes but got out here, and when I strapped on the cleats, it all turned on for me.”
Shepard said his brian was swimming on Monday at the start of the mandatory minicamp. He was just trying to learn the playbook and getting to meet his new teammates. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was asked if he can start to see some of that chemistry Shepard had with Mayfierld back at Oklahoma?.
“Not yet,” Bowles said. “I mean, Sterling is learning a whole new system, and today was his first day. They have natural chemistry, I’m sure, but game-plan chemistry and new-system chemistry is a little different.”
Shepard said he was always a fan of wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and that he can play outside and in the slot.
When healthy, Shepard can be dangerous, but it’s been a while. His best season was in 2018, when he caught 66 passes for 872 yards and four touchdowns.
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