Defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd was inactive for the Jets in Week One and he’ll be missing many more games in the near future.
Shepherd told Tom Pelissero of NFL Media that he is facing a six-game suspension for multiple violations of the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
Unlike most players suspended for such violations, Shepherd has admitted to knowingly taking banned substances. He said he did it while trying to recover from multiple injuries this offseason.
“All that was going on, I was coming off of a subpar season and a new coaching staff, new playbook, new everything,” Shepherd said. “In my mindset, I didn’t feel very confident with how everything had gone thus far. In my mind, I was so prepared to come into this offseason and have a successful offseason and train very hard. I felt that because of these limitations, I wasn’t going to be able to do that. I made a rash decision, an unwise decision and a selfish decision to look to certain PEDs in order to help me with that recovery process so I would be ready to go.”
No official announcement of the suspension has taken place at this point, but it sounds like it should be coming soon.
UPDATE 3:49 p.m. ET: The Jets have indeed announced the suspension. It will open up a spot on their 53-man roster for the next six games.