Former Super Bowl Champion already enjoys playing for Mike Vrabel, Titans
Tennessee Titans cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting discusses joining new team and how much he already enjoys playing for Mike Vrabel.
Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Super Bowl Champion defensive back Sean Murphy-Bunting landed a free agent contract with Tennessee Titans this offseason, and the 25-year-old veteran is already fitting right in.
Murphy-Bunting spoke to Titans media for the first time on Tuesday afternoon about playing for Mike Vrabel and how much he has enjoyed coming to work as a Titan.
"I've enjoyed it," Murphy-Bunting said about playing for Vrabel, despite the hard work that is required. "We come out here, we work hard every day. We do a lot of things that other teams in the league aren't doing at this time. We're pushing sleds on Mondays. We're doing things that's different, but at the end of the day, it's enjoyable. You come out here and it feels like you're working for something. It doesn't feel like you're just coming to a nine to five or coming to a job where you just show up, you get to work and you leave. It's like you want to be around. You want to be here."
Following Tuesday's press conference and players referencing Vrabel having the team push sleds on a Monday, the Titans' social media team released a video that perfectly captures the energy in Tennessee right now.
Even in May OTA's, the Titans are going full tilt on the practice field. Treylon Burks, Chig Okonkwo, Roger McCreary, and even Ryan Tannehill were among the players seen in the video getting in on the action.
Murphy-Bunting knows what winning looks like in the NFL. In four years with the Buccaneers, he played in six playoff games. In the 2020 playoffs, Murphy-Bunting had three interceptions and 19 tackles, helping Tampa Bay to a victory in Super Bowl LV, a game in which he played 97 percent of the defensive snaps.
Having been around a winning culture, Murphy-Bunting has learned to appreciate and enjoy the grind of a difficult practice and the process of working towards a collective goal.
"I wake up every day with a smile on my face. I enjoy coming to work every day. There's days where you complain, but it's more of a fun complaint than anything because everybody's going through it with you," said Murphy-Bunting.
"There's days where I would train last year and the year before where it's like 'oh, that wasn't bad', but every day you come here it's work every day. So it's like Azeez [Al-Shaair] says all the time where he's like 'that was hard, but we got through it.' As a team, you get through things like that and then when you deal with diversity as a team, it builds more character. It builds more people that want to work for each other want to work for the team."
Vrabel has been outspoken about needing his team to "become a callus" in their training regiment to avoid injuries. Pushing hard in the offseason is one approach to doing that.
At the very least, hard work is bonding the Titans together. For a team with a lot of turnover and new faces in 2023, that's crucial. Murphy-Bunting is just one example of a new player stepping into a leadership role and already feeling at home in Tennessee.
