Arizona Cardinals rookie film room: 5 plays that define Byron Murphy

Play 5: Pac-12 championship, 4th quarter, 4:40 remaining, 2nd & 6

What the offense is running: Spread concept out of five-wide shotgun. Vertical stemming with an outside receiver running a deep in and the slot running a pseudo-wheel concept; both on Murphy’s side.

What the defense is running: Cover 4 zone. The outside cornerbacks and safeties are each responsible for 1/4 zones.

What Murphy is tasked to do: Cover his 1/4 of the field, vertically.

What happens: Utah runs a well-designed play here. The deep in is meant to bring Murphy closer to the inside in order to let the slot run that sort-of wheel route/go route near the sideline. Essentially, Murphy has to account for that second receiver, and the in route is meant for him to do the opposite of that.

But that doesn’t happen. Yes, the throw was bad, but Murphy ultimately plays his zone perfectly. He switches off from in cutting receiver right where his zone ends horizontally and then shifts back to the outside to alter the receivers catch point. Ultimately, Murphy is able to do this because he’s doing two things; watching the quarterback’s eyes, and accounting for where the receiver moves his hips.

Murphy is playing bail coverage here, meaning his hips are flipped inward in order to focus on the quarterback’s eyes and see where the route concepts are. It also allows him to flip directions easier. This is a visible indicator of zone coverage.

I’ve stated that he may be best suited in a shallow zone, but he won’t be restricted to that. Murphy, as you can see above, can play these deeper, more responsibility laden zones well due to his general awareness, instincts, and short area quickness.

Takeaways:

• Murphy was my favorite cornerback in this draft class because of that awareness shown in the video above. Zone coverage is often relied upon via the corner reading the quarterback’s eyes, but there is so much more equated to success there including film study, instincts, understanding of spacing, and ability to read hip movements. These are all some of his best traits.
• Murphy plays a lot of bail coverage, and he’s good at it. He has the loose hips and football IQ to take advantage of looking at the entire field and ultimately accounting it for his next move.
• Obvious, but you have to love him taking advantage of the out of bounds. He’s regularly using it to his advantage, and this clip reaffirms that.