The Seattle Seahawks’ defense is off to an absurd start to the 2025 season, and it’s mostly thanks to the play of the big guys up front. Mike Macdonald’s squad is putting more pressure on quarterbacks than any other team in the league while blitzing less than most other defenses.
Of course, Seattle’s pass rush is only just starting to get its flowers. Outside of veterans Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence, the rest of the NFL seems to disregard the youth of the defensive front.
But one of the team’s first-round picks is starting to come into his own. Defensive tackle Byron Murphy came into the season with some hype that he may be ready for a breakout season, and so far, he’s delivering.
Byron Murphy is already having the breakout season every Seahawks fan hoped for
Murphy is dominating early this season, sharing the league lead in pressures with seven. He also leads all interior defensive linemen with 11 total tackles, seven stops (a newer stat that basically narrows TFLs down to the run game, though it counts for any tackle that designates a run play as a fail), and 1.5 sacks.
Of course, it’s early in the season, but it’s no doubt exciting to see Murphy start to come into his own in his second season. As a rookie, Murphy only recorded a half sack and was otherwise limited in the stat sheet, mostly due to his position. Last year, Murphy primarily played nose tackle; this year, his responsibilities are opening up a bit more.
Ahead of the season, fellow defensive tackle Jarran Reed said his expectations for Murphy in Year 2 were in the Defensive Player of the Year range. In discussing such expectations, I made note that to be in that conversation as a defensive tackle, you have to put up Aaron Donald-type numbers. Well, Murphy is on track to do that.
In Donald’s first DPOY season, 2017, he had 11 sacks, 27 TFLs and 41 total tackles. Pressures weren’t a recorded stat by Pro Football Reference in 2017, but Donald averaged 48 per season from 2018 through the end of his career. Murphy is on track to hit most of those numbers, again projecting his averages through just two games.
Naturally, this season the DPOY conversation is going to center around Micah Parsons, and if Green Bay’s defense keeps doing what it’s doing, it’ll be hard to unseat him as the favorite. Still, that doesn’t discount the step Murphy has taken in his second season.
Whether he’s able to climb to All-Pro status or has to settle for a Pro Bowl nod, with the numbers he’s putting up, Seattle could soon have the face of its defense, bringing more respect to one of the best pass-rushing units in the NFL.