Big Board ranking: #44

Positional ranking: #2

 

Overview

Position: DL

College: Texas

Class: Junior

Age: 21

 

Measurables

Height: 6’0 1/2″

Weight: 297 lbs.

Arm length: 32 3/8”

Hand size: 10 1/4″

 

Athletic testing

40-yard dash: 4.87 sec.

10-yard split: 1.69 sec.

Vertical jump: 33.0”

Broad jump: 111.0”

Bench press: 28 reps

3-cone drill: N/A

Short shuttle: N/A

 

Strengths

Compact build that creates easy leverage on the interior. Tremendous overall athleticism. Great strength for his size. Outstanding first-step quickness and change-of-direction skills. Powerful hands. Extremely effective power rush. Gets both hands on the chest of opponents and moves his feet to drive them backwards. Outstanding rip move. Terrific closing speed with a shot at the quarterback. Good on stunts. Very effective slanting and splitting gaps. Terrific eyes and play recognition. Will get extremely low and torpedo through blockers to make a tackle. Digs in with one-legged knee bend technique to hold his ground. Physical bringing down opponents. Exceptional ability to shed and move down the line to make a tackle. Strong and effective shedding in general. Excellent pursuit to the edge. Extremely quick getting back to his feet when he goes down and is able to recover to make the play. Works his way into the backfield in short-yardage situations. Often played nose tackle and held up despite size.

 

Weaknesses

Undersized in terms of height and length. Will get into the backfield but miss some tackles/sacks with opponents escaping his reach. Doesn’t get blown off the ball but will be steered off the spot. Sometimes loses balance/footing and ends up on the ground or can’t make the play despite initial win. Will have his feet slide and get too far apart. Would like to see a full sprint in pursuit considering he played in a rotation. Doesn’t seem to have the elite twitch/quickness that many top undersized defensive linemen do.

 

NFL comparison

Grady Jarrett

 

Conclusion

Overall, Murphy is a stout and athletic defensive lineman with tremendous strength that stays low to win with leverage. The question will be if he has the pure twitch to become a top-tier defender at his size.