Can Gabriel Murphy Be the Next Ivan Pace Jr.?

It appears the Minnesota Vikings brought in another stellar undrafted free-agent class this year after a standout showing from UDFA Ivan Pace Jr. in 2023. Like Pace and Andre Carter II last year, the Vikings brought in two of the consensus top UDFAs, Gabriel Murphy and Dwight McGlothern.

Murphy stands out because you can't look at a list of top UDFAs without finding him. Murphy was the 111th-ranked player on Arif Hasan's consensus board, suggesting he should have been picked around the spot the Vikings took Khyree Jackson. Instead, he fell out of the draft entirely.

When a player as highly rated as Murphy goes undrafted, it's fair to ask why. The biggest reason for Murphy seems relatively obvious: He has very short arms for an edge rusher (30 1/2"). That's the shortest arm length that MockDraftable's database has on record for an edge rusher. Arm length matters for line players because longer arms allow you to make contact with your opponent sooner, which in turn helps you control the engagement and puts you in better position to disengage as a defender.

In addition to Murphy's short arms, he measured in as shorter and lighter than most players at the edge rusher position, increasing his size questions. Despite that, he dominated the combine's athletic testing, with impressive results in all five timed tests, particularly his 39 1/2" vertical jump and 10'3" broad jump:

It's easier to play off the ball with short arms because you have more space before you have to potentially take on a block from an offensive lineman. That allows off-ball linebackers with shorter arms to sidestep opponents entirely; obviously, due to their coverage responsibilities, they will not have to take on blocks every snap. Pace and his new teammate, Blake Cashman, are great examples of LBs who have succeeded despite having short arms. Murphy seems to have the athletic profile needed to play off the ball, with better testing than Pace and excellent size for an LB:

However, there's an issue with treating Murphy as an off-ball LB candidate like Pace: He's never really played off the ball. While Pace played closer to the line of scrimmage than most LBs and blitzed far more often, he was still primarily a true linebacker in Cincinnati's system, dropping back in coverage 267 times in 2022. Murphy has extremely limited experience off the ball, dropping back into coverage only 29 times in two years at UCLA while rushing the passer on 624 snaps, per PFF.

With that in mind, it makes sense to treat Murphy more like an Andrew Van Ginkel protégé, as an undersized edge player who is a great athlete for the position:

I went to the tape to see what I could learn about Murphy's game. I was able to watch six games in total: against Arizona in 2022 and 2023, against Washington in 2022, and against Oregon State, USC, and Washington State in 2023.

pass rush

Pass-rush ability was Gabriel Murphy's strength at UCLA. He recorded 61 pressures in 2023, which was ninth among all FBS edge rushers and just one behind his teammate, Laiatu Latu, who was the first defender taken in the draft. PFF also has Murphy's win rate at 18.4%, which was tied for 24th out of 471 eligible players.

What made Murphy so effective as a rusher in college? It starts with his get-off from the line of scrimmage, where he accelerates quickly and can stress the edge on opposing tackles. On the play below, he gets off the line well and quickly uses his hands to dismiss the LT's block and get a QB hit:

Murphy also showed the ability to get upfield that quickly from the inside, like on the below play where he's lined up at three-technique:

As a player who will time the snap when rushing, Murphy has examples where he does a great job getting off the line before anyone else, like on the play below, where he ends up a full yard past the rest of the DL:

Murphy's quickness allows him to close the gap with opposing tackles. When he gets into his opponent's chest, he combines good hand usage with nice bend, like on the play below, which allows him to turn the corner at eight yards and get a win.

"Juice" is the word I'd use to describe Murphy's game as a pass rusher. He beats his opponents to their spot, sometimes so quickly that his opponent can't even get a hand on him. If the blocker engages, Murphy then uses his quick hands, usually a swipe or club-rip move, to dismiss their block attempt and get around them and after the QB.

Here's a compilation of pass-rush wins:

It isn't all perfect for Murphy as a pass rusher. His athleticism is a great asset, and it helped him win reps consistently in college, but it's more of a requirement than an asset in the NFL. Some tackles and many interior offensive linemen struggled to keep up with Murphy's burst in college. However, when he went up against an NFL-caliber player in Jordan Morgan, the Green Bay Packers selected in the first round this year, he really struggled to make anything happen after the tackle was able to get depth to match his speed:

This problem was more consistent than I would liked to have seen. If a tackle erased his angle, he consistently ended up too far upfield, often removing himself from the play entirely:

In these scenarios, Murphy will need to develop an inside move. He has the quickness to cross his opponents' face, as you can see in the wins above, particularly against interior linemen. However, he needs to learn to recognize when he's not going to win the edge and weaponize that quickness with an inside move. Hopefully, that's something he can learn from Van Ginkel.

Until he adds a counter, Murphy's lack of length will make it difficult for him to win around the edge, An average NFL tackle should be able to set against Murphy's speed and use his hands to control the rep, but if Murphy develops an inside counter, he will be able to unlock his quickness once again, which could help him make a greater impact than he did on the plays below:

Right now, Murphy's best reps as a rusher come on the interior against guards and centers, where he can use his quickness to beat them on the rep and impact the QB. In the NFL, that skill set is only really useful in obvious passing situations, like second- and third-and-long. There's clearly a role for that ability on the Vikings, and Brian Flores isn't afraid to reduce rushers down inside even in more balanced situations. However, his tendency to play light has come back to bite Flores in the past, like in the Philadelphia Eagles game last year. Flores may not be willing to use Murphy in that way unless Murphy can show significant impact against the run.

run defense

Unfortunately, Murphy's lack of size shows up in run defense. Against double teams, he really struggles to hold the point of attack, and opponents can effectively drive him off the ball.

Murphy's lack of length also works against him in the run game. Because of his size, he gets driven back by single blockers and is often unable to use his hands to dismiss and get off the blocks. At this point, when teams put him in a position where he has to take on blocks at the point of attack, he's going to struggle.

Murphy also doesn't appear to naturally set the edge. Like on pass plays where he lost against tackles, he tended to get too far upfield against the run and leave wide gaps for the RB to hit in the run game.

[video width=1920" height="1080" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Murphy-poor-edge-setting.mp4]

The last three videos paint a pretty negative picture of who Murphy is as a run defender, but it's not a lost cause. His impressive quickness also regularly shows up against the run. Take a look at the play below, where he is lined up inside:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804950973615374771

Murphy has a ton of plays in the run game where he beats opponents with quickness. To me, he was particularly impressive against USC, where he lined up on the interior for most of the game and consistently eluded blocks from their linemen to impact the run.

Here's a compilation of great plays:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804955346173039094

It should also be noted that Murphy understands his responsibilities in run defense, even if he struggled with stronger opponents. On the play below, his job is to squeeze the lane between the TE and RT to prevent a cutback into that gap by overpowering the TE. He does just that, knocking the TE into the RT and shutting off a potential cutback lane.

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804954888520061260

Murphy also had the rep below, where he showed great hands and strength to control the opposing guard and disengage for a stop. He may never do this at an elite level in the NFL, and his lack of length will limit his upside. Still, if he can get stronger as a player, we may see plays like the one below more consistently:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804954591504830758

From a technical perspective, Murphy also showed flashes against double teams, like this play against Arizona:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804956106080637252

As a tackler, Murphy was disappointing. I ended up seeing about six missed tackles on tape, which, in my opinion, is too high for the sample I watched. A couple of the plays below are very difficult, but ones I would have loved to see him make. Overall, his missed tackle rate was 25% in 2023 per PFF, which is crazy high. Notably, he had much better tackle rates in 2021 and 2022, hovering around 10%, and ended with a 15.6% missed tackle rate for his career, which is about middle of the pack for college edge rushers, so it could have been a blip. But Murphy's short arms could also be a contributing factor to the struggles:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1805313427508019474

As a run defender, Murphy has work to do before he can become an every-down player in the NFL. His lack of length and strength too often leads to him being controlled by blockers and unable to disengage as he's pushed downfield. That will be an issue on base downs in Brian Flores' scheme, where in a 5-1, he asks five down linemen to hold their gaps and keep an LB like Pace free to make a play on the ball carrier. Murphy has a base level to his technique but sorely needs to increase his play strength against the run.

However, when asked to play a more slashing style, Murphy could excel in run defense. His quickness allows him to cross the face of blockers and penetrate the backfield to make plays. In sub packages, opportunities exist in Flores' defense for Murphy to make plays against the run because of his great agility. Still, he will need to shore up his tackling to even have that impact.

odds and ends

There are a couple of other items to discuss with Murphy. As I mentioned above, Murphy was rarely asked to drop in coverage at UCLA, so I have a limited sample of coverage reps to evaluate. In those cases, he was asked to do little more than standard zone drops on sim pressures from the defense, like the play below:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804959182862549396

Murphy played coverage significantly more often in 2021 at North Texas, but I don't have access to that tape. Notably, they also occasionally asked him to be a spy. On the play below, I think he does a good job, but the QB makes a crazy play to escape all of the rushers:

https://twitter.com/FriesFootball/status/1804960294869090753

Finally, and I want to be careful about this one, I have a slight concern about Murphy's effort on extended plays. I don't know Murphy, and it's hard to say anything without being in the room, but I wanted to see more hustle on tape. You don't really see him making plays downfield chasing down ball carriers. The play below is a good example. He is on the back side of the play, and while he may be furthest away, he's also the last person to accelerate to try to chase the WR on a big play after a broken tackle. He ends up only in front of a big DT. At a minimum, he needs to get down the field to be ready for the next play, and the lack of interest in this play would likely get him chewed out in the film room:

[video width=1920" height="1080" mp4="https://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Dogs-it-on-big-play.mp4]

I wish I'd seen more examples of great effort from Murphy on tape. It's certainly possible they exist, and I just didn't have access to plays where he has his hair on fire.

Summary

Despite being undersized with short arms for the position, Murphy is an incredible athlete for an edge rusher. His burst and quickness led to immediate wins in both the run and pass game. When he gets opponents out of position, he can use his quick hands to dismiss block attempts as a pass rusher and slashing run stopper and can use great bend to turn the corner on opposing tackles.

However, if an opponent can match him athletically with a good initial position, he lacks the technical prowess to win extended engagements. He needs to develop an inside move as an edge rusher to beat better tackles. Hopefully, can also gain strength to potentially develop a bull rush and work through opponents. In the run game, he shows technique to overcome opponents in some cases but too often gets controlled by opponents due to his lack of size and length. He also needs to be wary of overrunning plays when trying to set the edge, where he often gives up too much space. As a tackler, Murphy needs to shore up his ability to wrap opponents and bring them to the ground.

Can he make the Vikings' roster?

Murphy doesn't have the experience in coverage to profile as a true off-ball linebacker, so he will not be able to take the same path that Ivan Pace Jr. did last year. However, while Pace's size was disqualifyingly small to become an edge rusher at the NFL level, Murphy is merely undersized for the position. He has the athleticism and quickness to be immediately impactful as a spinner over the center in passing situations if the Vikings want to use him that way.

Murphy has a path to the Vikings' roster. Jonathan Greenard, Dallas Turner, and Andrew Van Ginkel are locks. Pat Jones played a significant role last year, and has a different skillset than Murphy as someone who has the length to play reduced down inside against the run in certain scenarios. He and Jihad Ward are likely fighting for one roster spot for a player with that skill set.

Minnesota could take both, but if one of them is cut and the Vikings keep a fifth edge like they did last year, Murphy has weak competition for the spot. Incumbent Andre Carter is a developmental project but did not show much growth in his first season. Other than that, Murphy is competing against fellow UDFAs in Bo Richter and Owen Porter, so he could easily earn a roster spot if the Vikings think he is their best developmental option.

Murphy needs to grow in strength to become a player who can hold up in the run game against NFL tackles and must hone his technique to win consistently as a pass rusher on the edge. That sounds concerning, but his impressive tools mean that he has the upside of becoming a high-impact player if he's able to improve in those areas. If he can clear the first hurdle of making Minnesota's roster, that would be a great sign.