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New Orleans Saints announced that they have agreed to terms with free-agent defensive end
Nathan Shepherd on Friday, March 17, 2023. Check out Nathan in action with the New York
Jets during his NFL career.

John DeShazier | Senior Writer - NewOrleansSaints.com

Let's just say that Nathan Shepherd didn't take the traditional route.

The New Orleans Saints defensive tackle, an unrestricted free agent signee, grew up in Ajax, Ontario, and played youth football with the Ajax/Pickering Dolphins Football Club. He began his collegiate career at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

After a couple of years there, unable to pay tuition, he left and spent time working in a plant nursery, electrical construction, and a cardboard box factory. Then, he got an offer from Fort Hays State University, a Division II school in Hays, Kansas, and paid his first semester of tuition before being put on an athletic scholarship.

From there, he worked his way into becoming the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 and earned an invitation to the Senior Bowl in 2018.

The experience taught Shepherd, a 6-foot-4, 315-pounder who was a third-round pick (No. 72 overall) in 2018 and spent his first five NFL seasons with the New York Jets, that fulfillment may not be instantaneous.

"My biggest thing was just perseverance," Shepherd said. "Perseverance and delayed gratification. Those were two things that I knew, with my path, I would have to come to terms with on a daily basis.

Full Story - NewOrleansSaints.com

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