The Seattle Seahawks are 8-3, and a game out of first place. The team has missed the playoffs for the last couple of seasons, though they were the only one to win 10 games last season and not make the postseason. So far in 2025, things are trending in the right direction.
That not only holds true of the Seahawks overall, but specific players as well. Perhaps no player, not even Jaxon Smith-Njigba, has made a bigger improvement from last season to this one than defensive tackle Byron Murphy II. JSN was good in 2024, too, but Murphy was still finding his way.
Murphy was Seattle's first-round draft pick in 2024, and the hope was that he would help stop the run in his first season with his extreme quickness and good strength, and then develop his pass-rush skills to help in later years. Even as a rookie, though, the Texas product struggled against the run. He provided little in terms of pressuring quarterbacks.
Byron Murphy II taking a second-year leap in the Seattle Seahawks' defensive system
This season is quite different. Through 11 games, Murphy has six sacks and 38 total pressures. In two different games this year, he has seven total pressures, including Seattle's Week 12 victory against the Tennessee Titans. He has also only missed two tackles and been penalized once.
According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), the defensive lineman is the sixth-highest-graded pass rusher among interior defenders. While his run grade is nowhere near as good, PFF might simply be wrong. Murphy has 28 run stuffs while playing 70 percent of the Seahawks' defensive snaps.
Overall, Seattle is fourth in both yards allowed per rush (3.8) and rushing yards allowed per game (90.8), and obviously, Murphy is a big reason why. If he were not a good run defender, the entire defense would suffer, and that simply hasn't been the case.
Thankfully, while Byron Murphy II still has two years left on a rookie contract that pays him for four seasons and $16,083,122, the team also has a fifth-year option on him since he was taken in the first round. The Seahawks will almost certainly do that, but won't have to decide until 2027.
2025 might be just the beginning of how productive Byron Murphy II is. He could reach double-digit sacks this year and continue to do that for the foreseeable future. The Seattle Seahawks have a force in the middle of the defensive line, and Murphy is going to be a problem for the team's opponents for likely most of the next decade.