***2023 NFL Draft Thread***

[CJD]

From Dane Brugler's Beast:

Quote:STRENGTHS: Outstanding size, length and build … fires upfield as a pass rusher with get-off burst and arc speed … plays balanced on his feet to knife through gaps or drive on the quarterback when stunts create rush lanes … gets the tackle twisted when he widens and times his long-arm move correctly … big, powerful hands to snatch blockers or create knockback … weight-room numbers (405-pound max bench press, 345-pound max power clean) translate to the field … aggressive run defender with the strength to hold the point of attack and spill outside runs … not intimidated by double teams … has the chase effort to close and make tackles away from the line of scrimmage … physical tackler with the strength in his hands to dislodge the football (six forced fumbles) or ground ball carriers with his fingertips … owns a grounded personality and doesn’t want to disappoint his coaches … played in 38 straight games before opting out of the bowl game … dependable backfield production with 37.0 tackles for loss in 38 career games.

WEAKNESSES: Undeveloped rush setup … doesn’t show an array of moves or counters, relying more on burst and power … shows off an aggressive bull rush and longarm move but struggles to work off of that … finds himself too far upfield and not a natural hip flipper at the top of his rush … inconsistent eyes and tends to overthink once engaged, leaving him late to react … gets upright in the run game and can be moved by angle blocks … reserved by nature and must develop more of a killer instinct … mediocre pressure and sack numbers relative to his talent (finished third on the team with 34 pressures in 2022) … sidelined for the combine with a left hamstring injury (March 2023).

SUMMARY: A three-year starter at Clemson, Murphy lined up at right defensive end in defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin’s multiple fronts but lined up everywhere from 4i or three-technique all the way out to wide nine-technique. A former top 10 high school recruit nationally, he made an immediate impact with the Tigers and posted double-digit tackles for loss each of his three seasons in college. Straight out of central casting with his frame, length and low body fat (13.5 percent in 2022), Murphy fires upfield and quickly gets on blocks, but there is more hesitation than you want to see once he’s engaged. Although he currently lacks diversity in his passrush moves/counters, his natural combination of burst, strength and violent hands will overwhelm blockers and allow him to affect the backfield rhythm in different ways. Overall, Murphy lacks efficient move-to-move transitions as a pass rusher, but he is naturally gifted with the explosive traits, play speed and length to be a disruptive leverage-power rusher in the NFL. He projects as a base end in a four-man front with the floor of an NFL starter.

He was the #5 edge defender, #21 overall.

If you played Paul Dehner Jr and Jay Morrison's mock draft games, you would not have been allowed to pick Myles Murphy because he was rated too highly on the board.

Brugler had him going #12 to Houston in his most recent mock draft.

On top of all that, he just sounds like a Lou defensive end. 6'5" 270lb, high effort, vicious against the run with extreme power in his pass rush. If there's one thing I trust, it's Lou and Marion Hobby to teach him pass rush moves, which was his biggest weakness by far.

For all the talk about his lack of production, he has more TFL (37), more sacks (17.5), more forced fumbles (6) and more PDs (6) in fewer games (38 GP/27 GS) than Tyree Wilson (32, 17, 1, 1, 43/28 respectively) and Nolan Smith (21, 11.5, 3, 4, 46/23) and he had more stats than Lukas Van Ness on a per game basis for everything but sacks (19.5, 13.5, 0, 1, 27/0 respectively. LVN's sacks would have been 19 had he theoretically played 38 games). That's 3 of the 6 other DEs drafted in the first round that he outproduced in college. He was more productive than BJ Ojulari and Keion White, and Derick Hall as well.

The only players that outproduced him that were considered first round talents were Will Anderson Jr, Will McDonald and Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who they could have taken but chose Murphy over (and essentially every mock draft and prospect list agrees with them on that as well).

I know this wasn't the pick we were all expecting. My personal top 10 for who I thought would be there were:
1. Darnell Wright
2. Calijah Kancey
3. Deonte Banks
4. Emmanuel Forbes
5. Michael Mayer
6. Dalton Kincaid
7. Anton Harrison
8. Bijan Robinson
9. Jahmyr Gibbs
10. Zay Flowers

This was slightly before Wright's stock took off like a rocket.

I did not list Nolan Smith or Myles Murphy in this list because there was no mock draft or prospect list that made me think we had a shot at getting either of them.

So my list was decimated anyway. Only 1 player remains for me on that list and, honestly, I only put him there out of peer pressure haha. I don't think tight end is a value pick in the first round, whereas DE definitely is.

I know a lot of people wanted the home town kid and TE is technically a need for this team, but there are a lot of tight ends in day 2 that will upgrade our roster, but there likely wasn't going to be an impact DE at 60. The best case was Isaiah Foskey and he isn't nearly as athletic or bendy as Murphy is.

Once the shock wears off, I think people will be very happy with this pick.

And, for those curious, Brett Kollman had Myles Murphy ranked as a Tier 1 edge rusher in this class, along with Anderson, Wilson and Smith.
https://youtu.be/7GY9mlEUQYI?t=725

He expected him to be gone within the top 15 picks. He said:

Quote:[disclaimer about how his 2021 season was better than his 2022 season]

He's a 6’5” 270 pound Edge rusher that plays the run like a freaking Maniac. He's really hard to dig out on the line of scrimmage and his first step and bend are really underrated to me. He's a better football player than tester you know I think his testing numbers were really underwhelming but again if you go back and you watch him on tape I think his first step is better than a 31 inch vertical suggests I think his bend is better than a 7.21 3 cone suggests so you're kind of trusting the tape over the numbers on this one and I know that scares a lot of people and it's probably why he's going to be the fourth out of these tier one Edge rushers selected but again if we're just looking at the tape he was an overwhelming Edge rusher for most of that 2021 season. The speed to power was damn near unblockable. He had really great hand fighting skills in terms of like how he would neutralize a tackles punch and kind of you know clear his chest to shorten the corner he was very good technically as a pass rusher he was great on stunts and especially kind of using that power to set up Loopers behind him. Like I mentioned dominant against the run pretty much the only thing he can't and won't do is drop into coverage because he's 6’5” 270, but other than that I mean he was a dominant player that year. I fully do acknowledge that this is a much riskier pick than everyone else in tier one and honestly it's riskier than a lot of the guys in tier 2 as well but if we're swinging for the fences and we're trying to get a big defensive end whose tape looks like Maxx Crosby at least in 2021 it did Miles Murphy's the guy that we're going for whether you personally would take Murphy you know super high in the draft it just depends on how risky or safe you want to be but again I cannot stress this enough there are teams out there right now that are ready to risk it all for Miles Murphy they see him as potentially a superstar and I totally understand why now I think it's pretty obvious that all the names in tier one are probably going to go in the top 15-ish picks if not higher than that they could all even be top 10 picks I wouldn't be surprised.