Rodgers, Adams Believe Shepherd Is Ready for Second Chance
GREEN BAY, Wis. – When Green Bay Packers receiver Darrius Shepherd walks onto Lambeau Field on Monday night, it will be exactly 51 weeks and 357 days since he caught his first NFL pass against the Detroit Lions.
What should have been a moment of triumph for the undrafted tryout player, however, was just the opposite. While the Packers won the game, Shepherd had a hand in two turnovers that almost cost the team the game. In the third quarter, he fumbled a punt return. In the fourth quarter, when Shepherd slipped near the goal line, Aaron Rodgers’ pass went through his hands, hit him in the helmet and was intercepted.
Shepherd wasn’t thrown another pass the rest of the season, was cut two weeks later and spent the second half of the season on the practice squad. He entered training camp as something of an afterthought at a position that didn’t receive any reinforcements. While he didn’t make the final roster, he was promoted from the practice squad last week. Almost a full year later, Shepherd will be back under the primetime lights to face the Atlanta Falcons.
“There was a lot of highs and lows with the season and a lot of growth that had to be done to get to this point,” he said after Friday’s practice. “I always believed in myself but having to go through last year really kicked in, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do,’ and worked to get better. I’m excited to be in this position right now, back with the team.”
Shepherd could have a big role against the Falcons. Allen Lazard won’t play following surgery and Davante Adams is iffy with a hamstring injury. The man who will be throwing the ball on Monday night has complete faith in Shepherd.
“I’m very proud of Shep,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Thursday. “Obviously last year, he had a great training camp, had basically one drop on a ball that was a little behind him, and a lot of people tried to write him off in training camp. He had a phenomenal training camp, he really did. He was as productive as just about anybody in camp.”
Shepherd won over the team last year by doing the right thing. He was the first player to learn the playbook last year. And he’s won over Rodgers this year by continuing that studious approach.
“Damn near every time I come in the Hutson Center during training camp when we’re starting practice, I walk in and do the same thing, put my helmet down,” Rodgers said. “And Shep is picking Davante’s brain about releases and certain things.”
Adams has been a believer all along in Shepherd, who went undrafted and unsigned out of North Dakota State last year.
“He’s blown me away more this year than he did last year, honestly,” Adams said. “Especially doing what he did last year. I don’t know if I can call it a setback, but people kind of assumed he was whatever type of player just based off a couple plays that didn’t go his way. The dude is so smart. He helps me out just because we have a lot of conversations with each other just based off he’s really good with the book part of it.
“He didn’t let anything that happened last year rattle him. The way he came in and just focused on the footwork aspect of it, catching the football, just everything, you can tell his antennae were up and he wanted to come in and shut a few people up. And I feel like he’s doing a good job of that.”
Shepherd considers himself “super-fortunate” to have Adams as a mentor. At North Dakota State, Shepherd watched Adams film “trying to figure out how he was killing” professional defensive backs. That helped him get his foot in the door in the NFL.
Together in the NFL, “We kind of hit it off,” Shepherd continued. “I think he just watched how I practiced and played and, I don’t know, something about him just wanted to help me out and we’ve kind of grown from there and became friends.”
Shepherd’s a new player since last season. He’s got a new look, too. Shepherd wore No. 10 but that was given to first-round quarterback Jordan Love. Shepherd wore No. 9 in training camp but that is not an eligible number for a receiver. So, he’ll be wearing No. 82.
Playing on Monday might not have any special meaning for Shepherd, who’s not focused on a shot at redemption, but the number certainly does. That’s the number his father, Louis, wore when he played. Louis Shepherd died of cancer just before the start of Shepherd’s senior season.
“‘82’ was one of the ones that was available,” Shepherd said. “My dad had worn that in college. I liked the number and I went with it. We’re going to rock with ‘82’ now.”
