Myles Murphy was the steal of the first round
It’s okay if you didn’t expect the Bengals to draft Myles Murphy.
Not many did. And that is partly due to the fact that he probably should’ve gone earlier. Like, a lot earlier.
Bleacher Report’s NFL scouting department gave the Clemson edge rusher a grade of 9.1 and ranked him as the third-best prospect in the entire Draft.
Want to feel good about Myles Murphy? #3 overall player on the Bleacher Report board and a top-10 prospect for them.https://t.co/3TuQSgeN56 — Jake Liscow (@JakeLiscow) April 28, 2023
The site’s experts compared him to Jason Pierre-Paul, who is up to almost 100 career sacks despite a horrifying fireworks accident in 2015. Sports Illustrated’s Mike Santagata sees the similarities as well:
I think I'm rolling with Jason Pierre-Paul as my comp for Myles Murphy.
One of the only edge rushers in this class to have the potential to threaten everything to the OT (inside, outside, and bull)
Has to develop his pass rush moves and feel for the OL to reach his ceiling. — mike (@bengals_sans) April 28, 2023
And for those of you who appreciate a good athletic profile, Murphy is about as good as it gets:
Myles Murphy was drafted with pick 28 of round 1 in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 9.71 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 48 out of 1634 DE from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/dzxNEOSOSK pic.twitter.com/91G6BYneGK — Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 28, 2023
And of course, the consensus NFL Draft rankings show that Murphy at 28 was easily one of, if not the biggest steal in Round 1.
First round picks according to value vs mock draft and big board consensus (lower-left bad).
Jack Campbell the biggest reach by both. Nolan Smith the biggest value by mock consensus, Myles Murphy by big boards pic.twitter.com/ZO6pODR6lH — Kevin Cole (@KevinCole___) April 28, 2023
With the first round complete, here is how pick compared to their consensus big board ranking
"reach" = player was taken earlier than their big board rank, "steal" = player was taken later than their big board rank. pic.twitter.com/Ce07Nsbo0y — Anthony Reinhard (@reinhardNFL) April 28, 2023
So wait, why did he fall to the end of the first round? In short, his production didn’t line up with his ability.
Will he reach his ceiling in Cincinnati? A to Z Sports’ John Sheeran breaks it all down for us:
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Source: Cincy Jungle
