Buccaneers: The Emerging Play of Russell Shepard

Here the Bucs line up third and three from their own 30 yard line. Jameis Winston is lined up in the shotgun, with Shepard lined up wide to the left, at the bottom of the screen. In the next picture, watch how the defender lines up pre-snap.

See how the defender is just one yard off of the line of scrimmage? That tells Winston and Shepard that he has man to man coverage. If he had dropped off the line it would be a zone. He’s one on one, and the guy is going to press.

Shepard is going to run an in-cut, following the red arrow.

We fast forward to the inside move by Shepard. Winston is releasing the ball on the break just like he should. Notice in the circle that the defender is all over him. It’s a very small window for Jameis and a tough catch to be made by Shepard.

It’s blurry as the camera moves with Shepard, but this is Russell making the catch. The defender is basically on his back, but Shep comes up with the ball and the conversion.

Now THAT’S a receiver that you can count on when they make a catch like that.

Let’s move ahead to our second play, the touchdown catch by Shepard.