Nathan Shepherd is a career quality starter — a pass rusher whose body of work places Shepherd in the top half of all players at the position historically. The Knox model values sustained contribution over flash, and Shepherd's career arc reflects exactly that kind of reliable professional-grade performance.

DENO#93ACT

Nathan Shepherd

Top 39% all-time pass rushersReliable Starter📈 Late Developer · 2023

Height6'4"

Weight315 lb

BornOct 9, 1993

Age32

CollegeFort Hays; Simon Fraser See College Stats

ConferenceMid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Rookie yr2018

Draft2018 · Rd 3, Pick 72 · NYJ

Archetype Intelligence

Reliable StarterExplore archetypes →

A edge rusher with a above-average career — the kind of consistent contributor every roster needs. Solid availability (exceptional availability — almost never missed time) added to their value.

Career Value · VORP

VORP 24 · #2939 · Role Player

Worth 24 points of value above a freely-available replacement edge rusher — top 64% of all 4,642 ranked at the position. 4 of 8 seasons cleared the replacement bar, by +6 on average.See board →

Seasons above replacement

4 cleared

4 replaced

Beat replacement (adds to VORP) Below it — adds 0, never a debit

Replacement

the KC-H bar

→

Seasons over

cleared the bar

Avg surplus

peak +8

4 seasons × ~6 surplus ≈ VORP 24

Combined Season Grid

The full season-by-season grids, joined on one timeline. Every selected stat family stays visible at once—no tab hopping.

3 grids split in one view

Season	Age	Team	G	GS	Defense													Snap Counts						Advanced Defense & Coverage (2018+)
Season	Age	Team	G	GS	Tkl	Solo	Ast	TFL	QBHits	Sk	Dis	Int	PD	FF	FR	TD	Sfty	Off	Off%	Def	Def%	ST	ST%	Tgt	Cmp	Cmp%	RateAll	ADOT	Prss	Hrry	QBKD	Bltz	MissTkl	Miss%
2018	—	NYJ	12	—	15	5	10	1	5	0.0	6.0	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	343	30.7%	5	5.7%	0	0	—	—	—	5	1	4	0	3	0.2
2019	—	NYJ	7	—	11	6	5	5	6	2.0	13.0	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	232	39.2%	48	18.0%	1	1	1.0	79.2	-1.0	6	0	4	0	0	0.0
2020	—	NYJ	9	—	15	6	9	3	8	2.5	13.5	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	335	33.4%	123	32.1%	0	0	—	—	—	9	1	5	0	1	0.1
2021	—	NYJ	15	—	23	12	11	0	8	0.0	8.0	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	495	41.2%	138	30.1%	3	3	1.0	87.5	2.0	12	4	8	0	3	0.1
2022	—	NYJ	13	—	27	10	17	4	6	1.5	11.5	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	417	36.8%	136	29.8%	1	1	1.0	116.7	0.0	7	1	4	0	3	0.1
2023	—	NO	16	—	43	19	24	3	8	3.0	14.0	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	594	53.6%	68	14.7%	0	0	—	—	—	11	4	3	0	3	0.1
2024	—	NO	16	—	36	15	21	3	6	1.5	10.5	0	0	0	—	0	0	—	0.0%	568	51.5%	76	17.3%	0	0	—	—	—	9	4	3	0	2	0.1
2025	—	NO	16	—	46	22	24	4	13	3.0	20.0	0	0	1	—	0	0	—	0.0%	696	67.1%	76	18.8%	2	1	0.5	62.5	-3.0	14	3	8	0	2	0.0
Career		—	104	—	216	95	121	23	60	13.5	96.5	0	0	1	—	0	0	—	0.0%	3,680	44.2%	670	20.8%	7	6	—	—	—	73	18	39	0	17	—

Defense

Season	Age	Team	G	GS	Tkl	Solo	Ast	TFL	QBHits	Sk	Dis	FF	FR	VAL
2018	25	NYJ	12	0*	15	5	10	1	5	0.0	6.0	0	—	4.2
2019	26	NYJ	7	0*	11	6	5	5	6	2.0	13.0	0	—	5.2
2020	27	NYJ	9	0*	15	6	9	3	8	2.5	13.5	0	—	6.2
2021	28	NYJ	15	0*	23	12	11	0	8	0.0	8.0	0	—	5.5
2022	29	NYJ	13	0*	27	10	17	4	6	1.5	11.5	0	—	6.8
2023	30	NO	16	9*	43	19	24	3	8	3.0	14.0	0	—	8.6
2024	31	NO	16	8*	36	15	21	3	6	1.5	10.5	0	—	7.4
2025	32	NO	16	11*	46	22	24	4	13	3.0	20.0	1	—	10.5
Career			104	28*	216	95	121	23	60	—	—	1	—	54.4

* GS not available from free sources — SG* estimated from snap share (nflverse 2012+)

Snap Counts

Season	Age	Team	G	GS	Off	Off%	Def	Def%	ST	ST%
2018	25	NYJ	16	0*	—	0.0%	343	30.7%	5	5.7%
2019	26	NYJ	9	0*	—	0.0%	232	39.2%	48	18.0%
2020	27	NYJ	14	0*	—	0.0%	335	33.4%	123	32.1%
2021	28	NYJ	17	0*	—	0.0%	495	41.2%	138	30.1%
2022	29	NYJ	17	0*	—	0.0%	417	36.8%	136	29.8%
2023	30	NO	17	9*	—	0.0%	594	53.6%	68	14.7%
2024	31	NO	16	8*	—	0.0%	568	51.5%	76	17.3%
2025	32	NO	16	11*	—	0.0%	696	67.1%	76	18.8%
Career			122	28*	—	—	3,680	—	670	—

* GS not available from free sources — SG* estimated from snap share (nflverse 2012+)

Advanced Defense & Coverage (2018+)

Season	Age	Team	G	GS	Tgt	Cmp	Cmp%	RateAll	ADOT	Prss	Hrry	QBKD	MissTkl	Miss%
2018	25	NYJ	16	0*	0	0	—	—	—	5	1	4	3	0.2
2019	26	NYJ	9	0*	1	1	1.0	79.2	-1.0	6	0	4	0	0.0
2020	27	NYJ	14	0*	0	0	—	—	—	9	1	5	1	0.1
2021	28	NYJ	17	0*	3	3	1.0	87.5	2.0	12	4	8	3	0.1
2022	29	NYJ	17	0*	1	1	1.0	116.7	0.0	7	1	4	3	0.1
2023	30	NO	17	9*	0	0	—	—	—	11	4	3	3	0.1
2024	31	NO	16	8*	0	0	—	—	—	9	4	3	2	0.1
2025	32	NO	16	11*	2	1	0.5	62.5	-3.0	14	3	8	2	0.0
Career			122	28*	7	6	—	—	—	73	18	39	17	—

* GS not available from free sources — SG* estimated from snap share (nflverse 2012+)

KV-H Anatomy

KV-H 55 · Strong Starter

A strong starter career by KV-H: a well-rounded profile that scores 55 of 100, era-normalized against sacks/g peers across 8 scored seasons.

Sustained

career value

×.6

Peak

best 3 seasons

×.4

×1

Longevity

career length

Blend 54.6 × longevity 1 = KV-H 55· confidence 99%

What builds the career mark of 53

On-field 36.6

Availability 16.4

On-field production Staying available

Season-by-season quality (era-relative sacks/g)

2018bestavg 532025

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 7% of the all-time Sacks leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

7% of the all-time Sacks leader7

0 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader0

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leaderat this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 93%.

Per-Snap Impact

Edge Rushers · proprietary · 2012+

Rotational

SIS

Disruption / 100 snaps:2.649See leaderboard →

Disruption/1002.649Snap share44.2%Def snaps3,680VolatileCV 0.44

Production per snap — the box score normalized by opportunity. SIS is z-scored within edge rushers, shrinkage-regularized so small samples don't spike, over the NFL snap-count era (2012+).

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average edge rushers aging curve. Group peak age: 25. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).

Combine · 2018

Percentiles compare each raw measurement against position peers, the full combine pool, and the same draft class where enough samples exist.

EDGE · 2018 class

5.09s

40-Yard

Low · 6th pct

Pos 6thAll 16thClass Pos 7thClass All 16th

31"

Vertical

Low · 22th pct

Pos 22thAll 28thClass Pos 24thClass All 29th

112"

Broad Jump

Below avg · 29th pct

Pos 29thAll 31thClass Pos 20thClass All 27th

7.50s

3-Cone

Low · 21th pct

Pos 21thAll 24thClass Pos 15thClass All 23th

4.53s

Shuttle

Low · 19th pct

Pos 19thAll 25thClass Pos 18thClass All 23th

College Stats

Fort Hays; Simon FraserCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Fort Hays; Simon Fraser), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

2018 Draft Class· this player went #72

#64Tyquan LewisDE #65Brandon ParkerOT #66Lorenzo CarterLB #67Chad ThomasDE #68Justin ReidS #69B.J. HillDE #70Fred WarnerMLB #71Royce FreemanRB #73Jerome BakerOLB #74Geron ChristianOT #75Derrick NnadiNT #76Mason RudolphQB #77Sam HubbardDE #78Malik JeffersonLB #79Rasheem GreenDE #80Martinas RankinOT

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Nathan inherited the New York Jets DL room from Foley Fatukasi (2018–2021), and handed it to Quinnen Williams (2019–2025).

Jeff Lageman 1989–1994Marvin Washington 1989–1996Hugh Douglas 1995–1997Bobby Hamilton 1996–2006Ernie Logan 1997–2000Rick Lyle

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

2025final season
Last recorded season with NO
2023team change
Joined NO (from NYJ)
2018draft
Drafted by NYJ — Round 3, Pick 72

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'4" / 315 lb

Frame

315 lb at 5.09s

Size-speed

31" vert / 112" broad

Explosion

Injury History

From nflverse weekly injury reports · coverage begins 2009.

Season	Team	Designations
2024	NO	W17Questionable· Eye
2021	NYJ	W5Questionable· KneeW11Questionable· KneeW12Questionable· Elbow
2020	NYJ	W9Questionable· Back
2019	NYJ	W15Questionable· Ankle

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 8-season peers. See all →

peak 57

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

C2018

C2019

C+2020

C2021

C+2022

C+2023

C+2024

C+2025

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 8 seasons.

92%

Era Translator

Sacks translated to the 2025NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual Sacks	Sacks/G	→ 2025 Sacks	→ 2025 /G
2018	0	0	0	0
2019	2	0.3	5+3	0.3
2020	2.5	0.3	5+2.5	0.3
2021	0	0	0	0
2022	1.5	0.1	2+0.5	0.1
2023	3	0.2	3	0.2
2024	1.5	0.1	2+0.5	0.1
2025	3	0.2	3	0.2

Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats_def, nflverse:snap_counts, nflverse:combine, nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:injuries · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 6/18/2026

Career Value · VORP

24 career value over replacement — #2939 all-time of 4,642. 3/season above a replacement-level EDGE.

Draft OutcomeValue ↑

Pick #72 (Rd 3) · NYJ · 2018 · +14.1 vs expected KV-H

55actual

40.9 expected · Δ+14.1

Fan Rating

Rate Nathan Shepherd — All-Time

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Archetype Intelligence

Career Value · VORP

Combined Season Grid

Defense

Snap Counts

Advanced Defense & Coverage (2018+)

KV-H Anatomy

All-Time Standing

Per-Snap Impact

Career Aging Trajectory

Combine · 2018

College Stats

Reference Graph

Top Teammates

2018 Draft Class· this player went #72

Franchise Succession

Similar Players

Movementderived from season history

Athletic & Unique Profile

Injury History

Knox

Era Translator