Bengals defensive end Myles Murphy didn’t make a big splash during his rookie season and the 2023 first-round pick thinks he knows why that was the case.
Like most aspiring NFL players, Murphy devoted much of his training to put up a strong performance at the Scouting Combine and in other pre-draft workouts after wrapping up his time at Clemson. That helped him land in Cincinnati as the 28th overall pick in the draft, but it left him short of the kind of condition he needed to be in to thrive on the field.
Murphy had 20 tackles and three sacks in 305 defensive snaps and he believes he’s on track for better things after changing how he prepared for the season.
“There’s a difference between combine condition and football condition,” Murphy said, via Bengals radio announcer Dan Hoard. “I was in great combine condition last year, but not in good football condition. Now I’m in really good football condition.”
The Bengals have Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard back, so there won’t be an undue amount of pressure on Murphy’s shoulders come the fall but the Bengals defense would be a lot tougher to tangle with if he can turn better conditioning into improved production.
