The longest-tenured New York Giants on their current roster is WR, Sterling Shepard. He’s in his eighth season with the Giants but has not seen a ton of playing time this season. Through four games, he’s only played 31 offensive snaps. That is just 12 percent of the team’s entire offensive plays run this season. 

Shepard admitted to the media that it’s been tough to have to watch from the sidelines. However, he’s a true leader in that locker room and won’t question the coach’s game plan. Ahead of Week 5, Brian Daboll told the media that the team plans to use Shepard in the offense more moving forward.

Sterling Shepard has struggled to see playing time with the Giants early on in the 2023 season

Brian Daboll says that he expects to see Sterling Shepard “a little bit more” in the Giants’ offense pic.twitter.com/kq8nvDApqp

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) October 4, 2023

In the 2023 season, Sterling Shepard has only been targeted three times. He has two catches for a total of 10 yards. The veteran WR has had to deal with multiple season-ending injuries in the last few years. Shepard only played seven games in 2021 and just three games in 2022. He has not played a full season for the Giants since 2018.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Brian Daboll said that the team has certain WR packages they use on the field. He stated that Shepard is part of their game plan. However, the packages he’s a part of have not been used much in the first four weeks. Daboll noted how Shepard has an established connection on the field with Daniel Jones. The Giants will look to utilize that going forward with the lowest-scoring offense in the NFL this season.

The Giants have a lot to address. But let’s take care of an easy one: Stop using Adoree’ Jackson as the punt returner. Sterling Shepard hasn’t played an offensive snap tonight. He practices fielding punts every practice. No reason to risk CB1 on this role … again.

— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) October 3, 2023

Giants’ beat reporter for The Athletic, Dan Duggan had a great observation from Monday’s loss to the Seahawks. After rookie Eric Gray muffed a punt return, the Giants put Adoree Jackson in at punt returner. Daboll made this mistake last season and put his CB1 as the punt returner. Why not give Shepard a chance to return punts? That would be an easy way to get him on the field and utilize his talents. It will be interesting to see how much Shepard plays this week after not playing a single offensive snap in Week 4.