‘It Feels Like Family Right Now’

After starting the game as a 6-year-old competing against older kids and “dominating” as he recalls it, Murphy established himself as a standout running back and linebacker heading into DeSoto High School, Murphy was eventually approached about a position switch. He was hesitant at first, but agreed to make the move to the defensive line that ultimately led to him becoming a first-round pick.

“It was like my 10th grade year, I was playing middle linebacker, and we had a little play where I got to go to nose (tackle),” he explained. “So I ended up going to nose, I ended up making a TFL (tackle for loss) in the backfield, so the next day my coach came up to me, he said, ‘Have you ever thought about moving to D-tackle?’ I looked at him like he was crazy because I never seen myself being a defensive tackle. I’m telling him, ‘I’m a skill guy, I am not about to play in those trenches. I’m not ready for that.’ But I ended up saying yeah for some reason, I don’t know why, I ended up saying yeah, then when I told my parents, my parents went off on me. They were mad and everything. But I was telling them, it’s going to be OK. I’m going to do good at that position. When I first started off, obviously had to learn a lot, but I started learning — like I grasped it fast, quickly. As I was learning, I’m like, man, this stuff is really simple, and man, I got it down right away. It’s been on ever since then.”

And though Murphy hasn’t been a linebacker or running back since early in high school, some of skills that helped him at those spots still shows up in his play at defensive tackle.

“Movement ability, working edges, things like that,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “Just has a natural feel for playing blocks, working the soft part of the pass set. Yeah, you can see some linebacker ability in there.”

That rare combination of size and movement ability is a big part of why Murphy became a first-round pick after a standout career at Texas, and it’s why Schneider was so hesitant to make direct contact with Murphy throughout the draft process, instead trusting in his player personnel department’s ability to complete a thorough evaluation. And on draft day, everything worked out for the Seahawks to land their top defensive player, and for Murphy to join the franchise he cheered for growing up.

“It was kind of like a game of Plinko on ‘The Price is Right,’ just trying to have everything slot out to work our way,” Macdonald said of…