{"id":772646,"date":"2026-02-24T07:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/772646\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T07:05:20","slug":"nathan-shepherd-turned-in-career-best-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/772646\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Shepherd turned in career-best year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 23, 2026, 4:55 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

When Kellen Moore was first hired as new coach of the New Orleans Saints<\/a> last offseason, one of the first things he did was hire Brandon Staley as his defensive coordinator. There was no question of Staley’s track record as a defensive coach. However, there were some concerns about him switching to more 3-4 looks out of the primary 4-3 scheme the Saints had used for years. Most of the players responded to the scheme changes with good years.<\/p>\n

One of those players was Nathan Shepherd, a veteran defensive lineman. Shepherd was originally a third round choice in the 2018 NFL draft out of Fort Hays State by the New York Jets. He spent five years with the Jets before being signed as a free agent by the New Orleans Saints during the 2023 offseason. Over his first two seasons in New Orleans, Shepherd had 5 sacks and 7 tackles for loss with 20 pressures and 14 QB hits. Here’s a look at what Shepherd did in Brandon Staley’s defense.<\/p>\n

Nathan Shepherd Year in ReviewPosition: Defensive tackleAge: 32Height: 6-feet, 4 inchesWeight: 315 poundsNFL experience: 8 years (3 with Saints)2025 season: 16 games (8 starts)<\/p>\n

As expected, Shepherd was one of the down lineman starters when the Saints opened the regular season. His production was quiet to start the year, as he had 6 pressures but no sacks and just 1 tackle for loss in the first seven weeks. Shepherd got his first sack of the year in a Week 8 loss to Tampa Bay, a game he was also in on several big short yardage stops.<\/p>\n

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Like most of the rest of the New Orleans players, Shepherd turned it on over the last half of the season. Over the last nine games he’d have 3 sacks, 8 pressures, 3 of his 4 tackles for loss, and 7 QB hits. On the year, Shepherd played a career-high 696 defensive snaps, a career-best 67% of that unit’s total. While he finished with just 3 sacks and 4 stops for loss, his 13 QB hits were third on the team and 14 pressures the highest of his career.<\/p>\n

Last offseason, Shepherd signed a one-year contract extension that carries through the end of this year. He’ll count a little under $6.9 million against the salary cap, a relative bargain for a defensive lineman who can play multiple roles across the front. However, a still-building New Orleans defensive line needs more production from Shepherd, especially as they are expected to add more pieces to the position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 23, 2026, 4:55 p.m. CT When Kellen Moore was first hired as new coach of the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[95878,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,15505,96128,95882,97766,95896,96129,95888,95895,95906,95902,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-772646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints","16":"tag-sstssportsnflsaints","17":"tag-sstsnsaints","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagnathan-shepherd","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116124341155384189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}