Matt Waldman studies offensive draft prospects every year. He is a guru, especially when it comes to skill players. He just wrote a piece taking a look at some rookie unknowns to monitor in Training Camp.
Russell Shepard made the list. Here are some of the comments on Shepard.
Talents: The most fascinating player I’ve seen at the Senior Bowl in five years I’ve been attending the college all-start game might have been Shepard. On the third day of South practices, Shepard joined the team as a late addition and they began the practice with drills to emphasize routes and attacking the football. During that 20-minute span, Shepard was the most impressive player I saw and that included Terrance Williams, Tavarres King, and Quinton Patton.
He was smooth, precise, and explosive changing direction and did an excellent job catching the football. It wasn’t even close how much better he looked compared to his teammates in the first 3-5 drills they did that afternoon. As the team got deeper in to the practice period, Shepard’s consistency took a nosedive and with every rep he struggled with something. I thought he looked tired and considering that at LSU he was largely a player without a position, I could see how this might happen.
While I chose not to write much about Shepard, I tucked away that sparkling 20 minutes into my memory. The former prize recruit as a quarterback is now earning praise from the Eagles coaches in OTAs for is ability to pick up the system as a receiver.
Go to the piece to read the rest of Matt’s thoughts on the Eagles rookie.
