![\"Sterling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tampa-bay-buccaneers-v-atlanta-falcons-atlanta-georgia-october-03-sterling-e1789500973108.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Sterling Shepard. <\/p>\n
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants<\/a> wide receiver Sterling Shepard<\/a> is headed back to New York \u2014 just not with his old team.<\/p>\n \u201cBack to Jersey for Sterling Shepard: The former Giants WR is signing with the Jets\u2019 practice squad, source says,\u201d NFL Network\u2019s Mike Garafolo wrot<\/a>e on his official X account on Tuesday. \u201cAfter a stint with the Texans<\/a> in camp, Shepard heads to Florham Park \u2026 with Omar Cooper<\/a> Jr. injured, the Jets<\/a> brought in a few receivers for a workout today, including JuJu Smith-Schuster<\/a>. Shepard lands the gig.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper, 1 of 3 1st-round picks by the Jets in 2026, was injured in Sunday\u2019s season-opening win over the Tennessee Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Jets are signing WR Sterling Shepard to their practice squad,\u201d SNY Jets wrote<\/a> on its official X account. \u201cShepard, the former Giant, has 4,800 career receiving yards and spent the last two seasons with the Buccaneers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s an interesting one: Sterling Shepard to the Jets practice squad with Omar Cooper expected to miss some time,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Zack Rosenblatt wrote<\/a> on his official X account on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cSterling Shepard had 71 catches and 700+ combined over the last two years in Tampa,\u201d The Jet Press wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cCapable veteran slot WR who can fill in and play a few depth snaps with Cooper and Patrick out. I imagine he\u2019ll be elevated rather quickly, possibly as soon as Week 2. Should be WR4 over Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n Sterling Shepard Spent Almost Decade With Giants<\/p>\n Shepard, 33, was a 2nd-round pick (No. 40 overall) by the\u00a0Giants<\/a>\u00a0in the 2016 NFL Draft and played the 1st 8 seasons of his career with the Giants before playing the last 2 seasons for the\u00a0Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most notably, the\u00a0Giants<\/a>\u00a0signed Shepard to a 4-year, $41 million contract extension before the 2019 season.<\/p>\n In 8 seasons with the Giants, Shepard had 372 receptions for 4,095 yards and 23 touchdowns in 90 regular-season games.<\/p>\n Bucs Made Classy Move With Shepard\u2019s Contract<\/p>\n Despite coming up short on several bonus clauses in his contract, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still paid Shepard an extra $500,000 in incentives for the 2025 season \u2014 mainly as a \u201cThank You\u201d for being such an incredible team player this season.<\/p>\n \u201cCool move by the Bucs \u2014 receiver Sterling Shepard was inactive the last four games as other WRs got healthy, and finished one catch and 29 yards short of $125,000 incentives as a result,\u201d\u00a0Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman<\/a>\u00a0wrote in a series of posts on X. \u201cTeam paid out both, and an additional $250k for $500k as a separate bonus \u2026 Shepard finished with 39 catches for 371 yards, and had incentives paying $125k each for reaching 40 and 50 catches, and 400 and 500 receiving yards. They paid out all four as a new $500k bonus as a gesture for his hard work when other WRs were injured.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTony Adame<\/a> covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, and the entire NFC East Division. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Sterling Shepard. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants wide receiver…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-400833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}