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Sterling Shepard to the rescue?

Bucs will have to use veteran pass catcher

Tampa Bay is hurting at wide receiver. Chris Godwin (ankle) is out for the year. Mike Evans tried to play through a hamstring injury on Monday night, suffering a worse hamstring injury and may now miss multiple weeks. It's a mess.

Certainly, Cade Otton is going to be involved. He caught 8 passes for 100 yards last night. But they'll be searching for wide receiver production from reserves like Trey Palmer, Jalen McMillan and Sterling Shepard, too. The first two look better long-term, with Shepard a 31-year-old who hasn't played a ton the last three years. But don't rule out Shepard being the best bet -- the most Godwin-like guy -- this year.

Back before injuries derailed things, Shepard was a very productive pass catcher for the Giants. In three of his four seasons as a full-time starter between 2017 and 2020, he averaged over 5 catches per game. In that time period, a total of 52 players did that (minimum 50 catches); only eight others did it three times. (One of the 2-timers was Godwin.) Data from pro-football-reference.com used in compiling this table.

WRS AVERAGING OVER 5 CATCHES/GAME, 2017-2020
PlayerYearGNoRecTDNo/G
Michael Thomas201916149172599.3
Davante Adams2020141151374188.2
Stefon Diggs202016127153587.9
Michael Thomas201816125140597.8
Davante Adams2018151111386137.4
Antonio Brown201714101153397.2
DeAndre Hopkins2018161151572117.2
DeAndre Hopkins202016115140767.2
Keenan Allen20201410099287.1
Adam Thielen201816113137397.1
Julio Jones201816113167787.1
Jarvis Landry20171611298797.0
JuJu Smith-Schuster201816111142676.9
Antonio Brown2018151041297156.9
DeAndre Hopkins201915104116576.9
Davante Adams2019128399756.9
Stefon Diggs201815102102196.8
Julio Jones20191599139466.6
Keenan Allen201916104119966.5
Michael Thomas201716104124556.5
DeAndre Hopkins201715961378136.4
Allen Robinson202016102125066.4
Keenan Allen201716102139366.4
Julian Edelman201916100111766.3
Tyler Lockett2020161001054106.3
Julian Edelman2018127485066.2
Chris Godwin20191486133396.1
Cooper Kupp2020159297436.1
Allen Robinson20191698114776.1
JuJu Smith-Schuster2020169783196.1
Keenan Allen20181697119666.1
Robert Woods20191590113426.0
Cooper Kupp201916941161105.9
Tyreek Hill202015871276155.8
Sterling Shepard2019105757635.7
Adam Thielen20171691127645.7
Robert Woods2020169093665.6
Tyler Boyd20191690104655.6
Julio Jones20171688144435.5
Sterling Shepard2020126665635.5
Tyreek Hill201816871479125.4
Tyler Boyd20181476102875.4
Chris Godwin2020126584075.4
Mike Evans20181686152485.4
Robert Woods20181686121965.4
Sterling Shepard2017115973125.4
Davante Adams20171474885105.3
Tyler Boyd2020157984145.3
Jarvis Landry20191683117465.2
Mike Evans20191367115785.2
Tyler Lockett20191682105785.1
Jarvis Landry2018168197645.1

Nobody should be blowing the waiver budget on Shepard, with him being pretty long in the tooth. But the Bucs are a pass-first offense, and they've got to throw it to someone. I like Shepard as a usable PPR player this week, and going forward.

--Andy Richardson

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