> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Seahawks DT Byron Murphy II Closer to Breakout Season Than Rookie Stats Suggest - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seahawks-byron-murphy-closer-breakout-season-rookie-stats-suggest/ - Published: 2025-05-25T19:26:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:59:20.000Z - Author: Corbin Smith - Tags: Seahawks, Byron Murphy II [Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2188103236?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) With a record six quarterbacks being selected in the first 12 picks, the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft couldn’t have played out much better for John Schneider and the Seattle Seahawks, who hoped to land a marquee defensive talent for newly-hired coach Mike Macdonald. Thanks to that historic run on quarterbacks as well as three receivers and four offensive linemen going in the first 14 picks, the Seahawks had their top-rated defensive player - Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy - fall into their lap with the 16th overall pick. Making Schneider’s decision an easy one, the team rushed to turn in his name as their selection, and euphoria broke out in the team’s draft room following a stroke of great fortune. Boasting great versatility and elite athleticism at 300 pounds, Seattle expected Murphy to come in and immediately be a difference maker for Macdonald’s front line. Impressing early in OTAs and training camp, though he didn’t open his rookie season as a starter, he still played 78 snaps in the first two games and recorded six tackles and a partial sack, taking on a major role right away before suffering a hamstring injury in Week 3 that put him on the shelf for the next three games. By the conclusion of his first season in the Pacific Northwest, Murphy had started nine out of 14 games played, logging 457 defensive snaps at close to a 50 percent snap share. With that playing time, however, his stat line wasn’t overly impressive, as he finished the year with 36 combined tackles, half a sack, two tackles for loss, and one quarterback hit, lacking the impact production expected from a player of his talent level, particularly in the pass rushing department. Considering the lofty expectations Murphy brought with him from Austin, such underwhelming numbers may have left some fans concerned about the top-20 pick moving forward. But as is always the case, statistics require context and often don’t paint the entire picture, and digging deeper into his rookie season, there’s far more to be excited about for his future than meets the eye from a box score perspective. In terms of raw numbers, Murphy’s inability to generate a sack or a single quarterback hit over his final 11 games was far from ideal. With that said, he was far more disruptive rushing the passer than two two categories would hint, especially when compared to his rookie brethren. According to Pro Football Focus, Murphy finished third among rookie defensive tackles with a stellar 10 percent pass rush win rate, sitting behind only Michael Hall Jr. of the Browns and Braden Fiske of the Rams. League-wide, he ranked a rock solid 34th out of 120 qualified defensive tackles with at least 143 pass rushing snaps in that category, turning 220 fewer chances than Fiske had into 21 quarterback pressures, the fourth most by a rookie at the position. More impressively, per PFF charting, Murphy posted an outstanding 20.3 percent pass rush win rate on “true pass sets,” or pass blocking plays that exclude plays with less than four rushers, play action, screens, short drop backs, and throws that are released in under two seconds. He finished nearly three full percent ahead of the next rookie defensive tackle in that metric and his win rate on true pass sets ranked seventh in the entire NFL out of the 120 qualified players at his position, stacking up against the likes of Chiefs star Chris Jones and Colts star DeForest Buckner. That’s pretty good company to keep. Given Murphy’s efficiency turning pass rushing snaps into pressures, one may be left to wonder why he didn’t have more production actually getting to the quarterback. There are a few reasons behind this. For one, he did have a pair of missed tackles at the end of rushes, continuing a trend from his time with the Longhorns where he struggled to finish plays in the pocket. But more notably, he simply didn’t have many great chances to go after the quarterback to begin with, as PFF charted just 87 true pass sets on 244 pass rushing snaps for him, or just a 35.6 percent rate. For comparative context, Seahawks veterans Leonard Williams and Jarran Reed had 473 and 397 pass rushing snaps apiece respectively, with Williams rushing on 48 percent of those plays in true pass sets and Reed at nearly 46 percent in true pass sets. In other words, both of those players not only had at least 150 more pass rushing opportunities than Murphy, but those plays yielded a significantly higher percentage of plays where they actually had time to get to the quarterback compared to the rookie. What created this discrepancy? Sitting out three games and most of a fourth played a role with quite a few lost snaps due to injuries, but as Macdonald acknowledged speaking with reporters at the NFL combine in February, his stoutness as a nose tackle against the run and trying to balance 3-tech reps with Williams and Reed ultimately contributed to limiting his pass rushing reps more than the Seahawks would have liked. “He's such a good a gap player, especially at zero at nose,” Macdonald explained. “He's earned more pass rush reps than he has. That's the fact of the matter. And other guys have earned those reps too. So that's something we're going to be focused on. The cool thing about Byron is he can play both gaps. He can play all those different techniques and play on the move. I think he's a heck of a player… We'll figure out ways to get more opportunities because he's earned it.” A compact 6-1, 308 pounds, Murphy acclimated well against NFL competition rotating behind Johnathan Hankins as a viable nose tackle, and Seattle had a far better run defense when he was in the lineup as a result. Logging nearly 70 snaps as an A-gap player during his rookie season, he contributed 20 solo tackles - fifth most among rookie defensive tackles - with an average depth of tackle of 2.3 yards, finishing 37th out of 79 qualified players at the position. Unlike as a pass rusher, Murphy also didn’t leave plays on the field, finishing as one of only three qualified defensive tackles in the entire NFL without a single missed tackle last season defending the run. Per PFF’s advanced stats, his 7.6 percent stop rate ranked a respectable 24th overall and fourth among rookies, demonstrating his effectiveness as a stout A-gap player anchoring the middle of Seattle’s front line. As Macdonald indicated, Murphy’s fairly high percentage of nose tackle snaps (15 percent) as a means for boosting the Seahawks’ run defense cut down on his opportunities to truly pin his ears back and hunt after quarterbacks. While this would stand out as a good problem to have, it also didn’t help that Williams had arguably the best season of his career with 11 sacks and 15 quarterback hits and Reed remained effective as a pass rusher in his own right, making it tougher to open up 3-tech rushing chances for the rookie. Looking towards his sophomore season, Seattle plans to prioritize providing Murphy with more chances to utilize his athleticism and power as a pass rusher, which likely will have a greater impact on Reed’s snap distribution than Williams. Whether that plan comes to fruition, however, remains to be seen, as the team didn’t add any outside help at nose tackle through the draft and free agency and given his effectiveness there last season and in college, it may be easier said than done to cut down on his usage in that role, especially with Hankins entering his 13th NFL season. Regardless, for those who may have reservations about Murphy’s upside due to his poor sack and quarterback hit numbers from his rookie season, with proper context, those concerns should be squashed. If anything, his high pass rush win rate totals and solid pressure percentage seem destined to transform into far better statistics getting to the quarterback in 2025, setting the stage for a huge sophomore jump that would turn a great defense into an elite one.