Seahawks rookie first-round pick Byron Murphy II won't win Defensive Rookie of the Year, but he will cement himself as a foundational piece of Mike Macdonald's defense.
rookie class reported to training camp Wednesday for an early orientation before veterans arrive on July 23. Among the team’s rookies, one stands out: No. 16 overall pickOnly UCLA’s Laiatu Latu was picked before Murphy on that side of the ball, and only one selection earlier. The first 14 picks of the draft were all offensive players.
Even with those results, though, Witherspoon exceeded expectations as a rookie. Seattle has never had a DROY winner in its 48-year history. West Coast bias or not, that’d be a welcome change, especially when bringing in another top defensive prospect like Murphy. The last defensive tackle to win DROY? Aaron Donald in 2014. Before that? Ndamukong Suh in 2010. There have only been seven defensive tackles to win the award since its introduction in 1967. Five edge rushers were selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, and if one or two have more sacks than Murphy, the award is likely already decided — especially if they’re in a bigger market.
Carter was used predominantly as an interior pass rusher, playing just under 29 percent of his snaps in run defense, per Pro Football Focus. He generated an 11.7 percent pressure rate on 427 pass-rush snaps and recorded a pass-rush win rate of 17 percent — fifth among defensive tackles with at least 250 pass-rush snaps.
That’s against college players, of course, but Murphy’s 2023 numbers far exceed Carter’s metrics from his final season at Georgia . Carter’s figures are largely unchanged from college to the NFL, also. Murphy played just 21 snaps in his college career lining up over or outside the tackles, per PFF, and I would expect him to mostly be kept as a 3-tech in Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense. That said, who knows what Macdonald has cooked up for the rookie given his above-average athleticism at the position and the versatility of Seattle’s other defensive linemen.
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