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Shepherd earned the honor after blocking a 48-yard field goal attempt by Carolina Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald in 17-7 win.<\/p>\n
The National Football League announced today that New Orleans Saints defensive tackle\u00a0Nathan Shepherd has been named the Week 10 NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. It is the first conference player of the week honor for Shepherd in his eight-year NFL career.<\/p>\n
Shepherd, 6-4, 315, was originally a third round selection (72nd overall) in the 2018 NFL Draft by the New York Jets out of Fort Hays State, joining the Black and Gold as an unrestricted free agent in 2023. He earned the special teams honor after blocking a 48-yard field goal attempt by Carolina Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald in the third quarter of the contest, with the\u00a0Saints holding onto a 10-7 edge in Sunday\u2019s 17-7 win at Bank of America Stadium. In addition to his heroics on special teams, Shepherd enjoyed a productive afternoon on defense, recording two solo stops and one sack, playing a pivotal role in a run-stopping effort where the Saints defense allowed only 73 yards rushing on 23 attempts (3.2 avg.).<\/p>\n
Shepherd is enjoying a productive season in his third campaign in New Orleans. In ten games with six starts, he has posted 29 tackles, including two sacks for a loss of 21 yards and his first career blocked field goal. His tackle and sack totals lead the Saints front line.<\/p>\n
In his eight-year career, Shepherd has played in 116 games with 48 starts and recorded 227 tackles (115 solo), 12.5 sacks, 22 stops for a loss and one blocked field goal. This is the second conference player of the week honor by a Saint this season, with cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry earning Week Five NFC Defensive Player of the Week, and the third straight campaign a Saint has earned league weekly Special Teams honors.<\/p>\n
A shockwave was sent through the Australian Test squad when a pair of seamers limped from a Sheffield Shield clash.<\/p>\n
Josh Hazlewood has been cleared of a hamstring strain with Australia confident the seamer will be fit for the first Ashes Test after a nightmare day at the SCG.<\/p>\n
Hazlewood and fellow Test squad member Sean Abbott both left the SCG for scans during NSW\u2019s 300-run Sheffield Shield loss to Victoria, after feeling tightness while bowling.<\/p>\n
The news was somewhat good for Hazlewood, who will fly to Perth and train as normal.<\/p>\n
But Abbott\u2019s chances of debuting this summer have taken a significant hit with a \u201cmoderate-grade\u201d injury.<\/p>\n
Australia had wanted their full bowling attack of Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon to feature at the SCG this week, before the Ashes begin next Friday in Perth.<\/p>\n
With captain and pace ace\u00a0Pat Cummins already missing\u00a0the start of the series with a back injury, the last thing Australia needed were further injuries this week.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s stand-in captain\u00a0Steve Smith\u00a0admitted he began to fear the worst after Hazlewood told him he was feeling tightness at the end of his fourth over on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like: \u2018Get off the field, disappear, you\u2019re done, go and figure it out\u2019,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen it was what do we do with Starc? Do we just put him on ice completely?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard when you\u2019re playing in a game and you want to try and do well for your state as well. Then you\u2019ve got an eye on, obviously next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, Boland, you can bowl one spell (for Victoria) and be done as well, that\u2019ll be good. But he got through by the looks of things nicely, so that\u2019s ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n
An injury-enforced Hazlewood omission would be a significant blow for Australia, who haven\u2019t played without two of their \u2018Big Three\u2019 fast bowlers since December 2022.<\/p>\n
If Hazlewood is a late scratching from the first Test it would likely result in a debut for Brendan Doggett.<\/p>\n
Doggett has taken two five-wicket hauls since returning from a hamstring injury for South Australia and is one of the form bowlers in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been bowling really well the last couple of games from what I\u2019ve seen,\u201d Cummins said of Doggett at a Cricket Australia NRMA sponsorship extension on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really well placed to be vying for a spot in that first Test. It\u2019s always nice to have a squad full of people in form and he\u2019s certainly one of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Cummins said he was feeling well after bowling at 90 per cent on Tuesday in the SCG nets.<\/p>\n
He is a chance of playing in the second Test\u00a0at the Gabba on December 4, but the third Test in Adelaide on December 17 could be more realistic.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The Gabba) is what we\u2019re building towards,\u201d Cummins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully by Perth I\u2019m up there near 100 per cent, and then see where we\u2019re at.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still pretty aggressive, going from nothing to trying to get ready for a Test match in four weeks. But we\u2019re going to give it a good shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The injury scares could also place more importance on Cameron Green\u2019s fitness for the first Test, and whether Beau Webster remains in the side as a second allrounder.<\/p>\n
Green sent down eight overs in the first innings in Perth on Tuesday at good pace in what was his biggest bowling output in a match since back surgery last summer.<\/p>\n
Webster also took eight wickets for the match in Tasmania\u2019s Sheffield Shield loss to South Australia this week.<\/p>\n
But he is fighting to keep his spot in the Test side as selectors consider going with specialist opener Jake Weatherald.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have the options there if we feel we need to go down that path at all,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got Greeny, who bowled well from what I\u2019ve heard in their game. And Slug (Webster), who took five as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shepherd earned the honor after blocking a 48-yard field goal attempt by Carolina Panthers kicker Ryan Fitzgerald in 17-7 win. The National Football League announced today that New Orleans Saints defensive tackle\u00a0Nathan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t