Breaking Down The New York Jets' 2018 Draft Picks Not Named Sam Darnold: Nathan Shepherd, DT, Fort Hays State (Round 3, Pick 8)
We’re officially close enough to the NFL season to start talking about it. You can taste it in the air when you wake up in the morning (if you’re homeless or sleep outside a lot), and you can feel it in your bones when you lay down to rest at night.
For us Jets fans, the feeling in our bones is a little more painful than most, because we’re stuck rooting for a usually-incompetent franchise that always seems to do just well enough to get our hopes up before they rip our hearts out. It is what it is. This is a new year and we’ve got a whole new crop of players around camp to get excited about.
All we’ve heard since the draft has been about Sam Darnold out of USC, who fell into our lap after the teams ahead of us in the draft made some questionable decisions, and how much potential he has and what that could mean for the future of our franchise. Don’t get me wrong, having someone with his pedigree is exciting as hell and I really want to see him succeed, but I’ve seen this movie before. I know how it usually goes for us when we’re gifted someone as talented as Sam Darnold could be. I guess what I’m saying is I’ll believe it when I see it. As for the other guys we drafted? It’s completely safe and rational to get fired up over what type of potential they have in the greatest league on Earth. That’s what this is about.
I present to you a breakdown of all the guys the New York Jets drafted who aren’t named Sam Darnold, because it’s time to start getting excited about watching backups play in the NFL Preseason.
Nathan Shepard: Defensive Tackle, Fort Hays State Round 3, Pick 8 (No. 72 overall)
My initial Nathan Shepherd take, coming after not knowing anything about him until we drafted him, was that he appeared to be massive (6’4″ and 315 lbs) and relatively athletic at the inside DL position, the type of player that we’ve done well at identifying in the past, and snagging someone like him early in the 3rd round is great value. Defensive tackle is definitely one of the positions where guys come out of nowhere year after year and produce; some guys just have a feel for the trenches and how to dominate double teams. Damon Harrison is a prime example of a guy who wasn’t highly regarded entering the draft and now leads the league year after year in run stops and is starting to get truly recognized as an elite defensive player in the NFL.
In early May, I stumbled across some tweets from my guy @TylerDBrooke, someone I’ve followed for some time due to his affinity for taking film of obscure players and breaking it down into GIF threads. He was offering to throw together a GIF thread of any player by request, after receiving a Venmo donation for an unspecified amount. Without hesitation, I sent him $1 and asked him to throw one together for Nathan Shepherd, because I was itching for reasons to get excited about all the new Jets draft picks.
Take a look at this massive oak tree in action and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Look, I know this guy was playing at Fort Hays State, no disrespect to Fort Hays State, so who fucking knows who this lineman is that Nathan Shepherd is blowing up, but damn. Anytime you’ve got two college lineman going head-to-head and one of them gets completely embarrassed, the guy doing the embarrassing is more often than not worth taking a second look at.
Maybe it’s all fat, but that guard does not look like a small boy. Nathan Shepherd gets his hands on him, extends his arms, and drives the guy backwards five yards, completely disrupting the running back looking to get across to the left side of his O-line. You love to see it.
Okay this guy is a fucking bully. Again, who knows what the quality of the team is that he’s up against, but if you want to find someone who can compete and make plays up front on an NFL defense at a small school, you better fucking hope he looks as dominant as Nathan Shepherd.
Todd Bowles prefers to run a 3-4 scheme in the box, so Nathan Shepherd isn’t gonna be seeing a lot of these same Center/Guard double teams like the one he splits in this clip, but when you watch a guy with his size (6’4″, 315 lbs) rip through two different interior lineman with two different hands, it speaks a lot on his athleticism and ability to manipulate and control blockers, something that usually translates into an ability to be effective against the run.
I’m sure there will be growing pains as Shepherd shifts outside into a 5-technique (helmet even with outside shoulder of the tackle), but as he gets coached up and develops new techniques to rush the passer, I wouldn’t be shocked if he grows into an effective option on the edge. He well definitely get some looks this preseason in a few different spots on the D-line, so that’s something to keep any eye out for starting Week 1 vs. Atlanta.
Another smart and impressive play from Nathan Shepherd, who gets caught in a down block on the backside of this trap play. You can see Shepherd initially lined up in a 3-technique (outside shoulder of the guard) on the backside, but on the snap his man pulls across the line and the center is tasked with blocking down on Shepherd, something both offensive players are aware of pre-snap.
The whole idea of a trap play is to use a defensive lineman’s aggressiveness against them by assigning blockers to defenders that aren’t lined up in front of them. A lot of interior lineman will take a hard first step downhill without thinking about it, but in the case of a trap play the man they’re expecting to block them takes a drop step and runs across the line to bury an unsuspecting lineman who believes they’re unblocked and forgotten.
With that in mind, it’s worth noticing how Nathan Shepherd, although not the man being “trapped”, reads the play immediately and takes on the down block, rips through the center and chases the play across the LOS (line of scrimmage) to ultimately bury the running back after a short gain.
95% of the credit on that play goes to the DE for taking on the trap block at the LOS and getting his hands on the running back, but a lot of D-line guys will feel themselves getting down blocked away from the play and take it as an opportunity to simply occupy blockers, basically take a play off, and have it still be considered productive. It’s not necessarily a backside defensive tackle’s play to make, but Shepherd demonstrates relentless pursuit while fighting off blockers and is ultimately rewarded by getting to lay a devastating hit on a RB who’s already going down and being served up on a silver platter.
Most importantly, you want to draft guys with heart. Everyone knows that. The play isn’t over till 2 seconds after the whistle, and Nathan Shepherd probably has that tattooed on his ass. Wouldn’t that be something?
My guy @TylerDBrooke noted in his tweet of this clip that Nathan Shepherd ranked in the 19th percentile of all defensive lineman at the NFL Combine in terms of arm length, something that a lot of teams look for when drafting guys who are gonna be putting a hand in the dirt on defense. The idea is that someone with long arms is gonna have an easier time getting his hands on blockers and extending his arms to establish control. This is day 1 technique for anyone who’s ever played on the defensive line at pretty much every level.
For a guy like Shepherd who wasn’t blessed with the longest of arms, despite his massive stature, it’s even more important for him to have active hands and be able to control blockers as he makes his reads in the backfield.
In this clip, we see Shepherd taking on a guard in a pass rush situation. Even without the best jump off the snap, he gets in on his blocker and uses his arms to knock him back off-balance before ripping his arms through and getting his hands on the QB, who’s standing flat-footed in the pocket. He even gets held a bit as he blows past his man, which ultimately gives the QB an extra half-second to react to the rush and momentarily evade Shepherd. Even if he doesn’t end up with a sack in the stat book, that’s a heck of a play to disrupt the pocket in a passing situation.
It’s weird to talk about anyone standing at 6’4″, 315 lbs as “small” or “undersized”, but in Shepherd’s case, every offensive lineman he goes up against is going to be bigger than him. He’s gonna need to develop moves other than just straight up over powering dudes (even if that turns out to be pretty effective at this level) if he wants to stay on the field for 3 downs long term, but I think he’s athletic enough to figure that out on the fly and get some good, productive playing time from the jump this season.
Remember when the Jets used to put Shelden Richardson in the backfield in goal line situations and let him rumble for 1-yard TDs like he was the William “The Refrigerator” Perry? Without getting nostalgic, those plays were the absolute best. Everyone loves seeing guys line up in an unfamiliar position and make a big play.
Look at Nathan Shepherd get rolling downhill like a 315 lb bowling ball and turn the corner to demolish this squid on the opponent’s punt return team. I know he’s not going out for a pass at tight end or hitting the hole as a running back with the ball in his hands, but he moves way too well here to not at least think about the different ways you could use him on the field.
Also, that guy might be dead. When you hear the train coming, you’re supposed to get out of the way.
Okay last one. Just another display of dominance from our guy Nathan Shepherd here. Even with the albeit lazy assist from the guard here, the center isn’t able to get control of Shepherd and ultimately gets his ass tossed to the turf as Shepherd moves on to devour the ball carrier at the LOS. It’s nothing major or jaw-dropping, and something you’d expect to find in the game film of every defensive tackle drafted this past year, but the way he makes this look like a drill in practice should be recognized.
You want your interior guys to demand double teams and free up space for the linebackers to fill holes, and it appears Nathan Shepherd will at the very least do that incredibly well from the jump this season.
I’m sure there’s hours upon hours more of Fort Hays State film to look at that would give us even more insight as to how Nathan Shepherd’s game is gonna translate to the next level this season, but I think these clips show enough for us to get irrationally excited about his future. We’re talking about an extremely athletic, 6’4″ 315 lb monster of a defensive tackle, who, despite his short arms, shows an affinity for being a disruptive force in the backfield when he isn’t consumed by double teams, and even sometimes when he is.
With the departure of Muhammad Wilkerson and Shelden Richardson over the past few years, Leo Williams has been left out to dry, pretty much taking on double teams play after play without a significant threat opposite him to draw away any attention. I think Nathan Shepherd has beyond a puncher’s chance of filling that void this season, making some plays in the backfield and ultimately forcing offensive coordinators to send some extra help to whoever’s tasked with blocking him, which will only make things easier for our stars like Leo Williams, Jamal Adams, and even an athletic but undersized linebacker like Darron Lee on defense.
It’s not gonna be an immediate thing by any means. This isn’t a guy who’s gonna come out in the preseason and early on in the regular season and start racking up sacks; he’s gonna need time to get used to the speed and size of his peers, but I truly believe this is a guy we will look back on and be able to talk about getting good value with the 72nd pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
Stay tuned for the next New York Jets 2018 Draft Pick Not Named Sam Darnold Breakdown. Preseason football is coming. It’s time to educate yourself and get ready for Week 1.