When Byron Murphy II thinks about the Seahawks’ past game against the Steelers, he is reminded of his second game of his senior year at Texas. That season, Murphy and the Longhorns defeated Alabama and snapped the Crimson Tide’s 21-game home win streak. Outside of the win, that game is one Murphy said he felt everything click for him.
“I just put in my mind, it’s time to roll, it’s time to go, and my main focus was just really just being consistent and being that dominant player I know I can be week in and week out. That’s what I did that last year, my last year of college. So just seeing myself have that game against the Steelers, I’m like, ‘How do I build off this? How can I keep going and keep having this type of success?’ That was my main thing from the game. So just really trying to stay consistent each and every day and just make strides, continue to make those type of strides so I can have those type of games.”
Against the Steelers, Murphy recorded 1.5 sacks, tying his regular season number from his rookie year. Throughout the entire offseason, teammates and coaches have raved about the sort of player Murphy is.
During training camp, Jarran Reed went on to call Murphy, “strong as sh*t” multiple times in one press conference. This week, Leonard Williams said Murphy can, “play a double team better than me,” and head coach Mike Macdonald is just happy that there are now stats to back up how well Murphy has been playing.
“The tape tells a similar story of how well he’s playing,” Macdonald said. “But production does matter, obviously, especially individually, so I’m happy that he was able to get the production he got on Sunday.”