A look at the potentially increased role awaiting receiver Sterling Shepard

Sterling Shepard no longer has to wear a yellow pinny at practice and now has his eye on Week 1 against Dallas, where he's likely looking at a significantly expanded role in the offense.

When Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard broke the tip of his left thumb early in training camp, he told everyone it wasn’t that big of a deal.

A few weeks later, the thumb has healed enough to where Shepard no longer has to wear the yellow pinny which warns teammates not to throw to him or make physical contact (not that it stopped the former from happening).

“Yea, I didn’t think the yellow jersey was doing much anyway,” Shepard said Sunday. “It’s not that big of a difference.”

Even though the thumb is healed, Shepard will still likely miss the remaining two preseason games as a precautionary.

“If I could go, I would be going. I can’t go right now; it’s not ready to play in a game,” he said.

“Give it a couple more weeks, and I feel like it will be. You don’t want to go out there and risk another injury when you can prevent that.”

Instead, he and the team are more interested in his availability for Dallas in Week 1, where he can expect an even more significant role in the offense what with fellow receiver Golden Tate set to miss the first four games of the season due to his league-imposed suspension.

“I’ll be bouncing around a little bit more than I would if he was here,” Shepard said. “I expected that going into the season anyway. My mind is set on that, and it should be fun.”

According to Pro Football Focus, last year Shepard took 934 snaps on offense. Of those, he lined up inline on 24, in the slot in 517 snaps and split out wide on 393 snaps.

By comparison, in 2017 when he was primarily a slot receiver, Shepard spent 511 of his 687 snaps in the slot, and only 163 split out wide.

Along with the different places where he’ll be lining up, Shepard is probably going to be leaned on more heavily as far as pass targets go given Tate’s absence.

Not that it’s going to be a new role for him. Last year Shepard caught 22 of his 66 pass receptions in the team’s final five games of the season, four in which No. 1 receiver Odell Beckham Jr was absent due to a leg injury.

Overall, he also saw his pass targets increase from 2017 to 2018. In 11 games played in 2017, Shepard was targeted on 13.6% of the team’s total pass attempts; last year, that number rose to 17.7%.

“I felt like I handled it pretty well, so I imagine it being the same way,” Shepard said of his anticipated workload. “I’m going to go out and be myself and let everything take of itself.”

That includes the support he’ll get from his fellow receivers, whom he said are perfectly competent in contributing.

“We have ballers in the room, and when Golden is back it’s going to be a huge help as well,” Shepard said. 

“You see Bennie Fowler and Cody Latimer—they make big plays. I have guys that are helping me out; I’m not the only one out there.”

BLUE NOTES

Tate was held out of Sunday's practice after suffering a concussion in Friday night's preseason win over the Chicago Bears. ... Defensive lineman Dalvin Tomlinson was excused from the practice for personal reasons. ... Offensive lineman George Asafo-Adjei remains int he concussion protocol.

Also sitting out Sunday's practice due to injury were corners Sam Beal (hamstring), DeAndre Baker (knee) and Antonio Hamilton (groin); and long snapper Zak DeOssie (toe).

Linebacker Alec Ogletree (calf), running back Wayne Gallman (foot) and offensive tackle Brian Mihalik (burner) all returned to practice in some capacity. All three missed Friday's game against the Bears. 

(Top photo by Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports)