Bengals coaches seek timely versatility from first-round pick Myles Murphy
It happens every year. Highly-ranked players will fall in the NFL Draft. You can run thousands of mock draft simulations and still not get what actually occurs in reality. The Cincinnati Bengals saw this last year with Dax Hill, one of their top players in the entire 2022 class, and didn't hesitate to take him. They […]
It happens every year. Highly-ranked players will fall in the NFL Draft. You can run thousands of mock draft simulations and still not get what actually occurs in reality. The Cincinnati Bengals saw this last year with Dax Hill, one of their top players in the entire 2022 class, and didn't hesitate to take him.
They exercised the same hustle to the phone when Clemson defensive end Myles Murphy was left unpicked three hours into the draft last night.
"Yeah, this wasn't a scenario we thought was gonna play out for us to be quite honest with you," head coach Zac Taylor said, mere minutes after taking Murphy with the 28th overall pick." You know, it's 'anything can happen,' but in all our discussions we had over the previous days I didn't think Myles Murphy was gonna be there."
Sure enough, he was, and the Bengals quickly added him to their already deep rotation of edge defenders. It's a pick that may not rack up many starts, if any, this season. The immediate impact will be felt within defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo's desire to get after the quarterback as creatively as possible.
And not just against any team on their schedule, but the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and any other AFC club set to face them in the playoffs for years to come. Even the best QBs can be nullified with a deep and diverse pass rush.
"You get the guy that brings position flex," Anarumo said of Murphy. "He's played both outside and inside can rush from different spots. The teams we have to play and when we have to play him, the more rushers we have on the field at one time, the better we'll be. He's a guy that will fit right back in that mode."
Murphy is the second-straight first-round pick to fill out Anarumo's defense as he enters year five on the job. His unit is directly responsible for how successful Cincinnati has been against the top offenses in the NFL. It's a fact not lost on Taylor, who manages the other side of the ball.
"Being an offensive play caller wearing that hat for a second, anytime the first thing you're looking at the depth chart typically is what's the rush look like?" Taylor explained. "So anytime you see a lot of depth there and guys that they can keep putting on the field that are gonna affect the passer, that's kind of the first thing. You got to have a protection plan, and then you build on from there. So you can never have enough enough of those guys that can play all three downs for you."
Murphy fits the bill as a three-down defender, even if he won't be tasked to handle that as a rookie. Injuries could change the status quo, but his presence alone will keep the Bengals' pass rush well stocked, allowing Anarumo to do what he does best.
"If we're generating a rush with just four, that allows us to cover with more, obviously," Anarumo said. "So this guy is just going to be able to do a bunch of different things, we like guys like that can we can fit in to different packages, different schemes. And with his athleticism, we'll be able to use them in a bunch of different ways."
Just another ingredient for the mad scientist to throw in his cauldron.
