Murray fills Bolts’ speed need at LB
Tom Telesco has fallen hard for other linebackers, but never harder than he did Thursday night for Kenneth Murray. This was must-have infatuation.
To get Murray, a linebacker from Oklahoma, the Chargers’ talent man dealt two premium picks, something he’d never done in eight drafts. The ascent from 37 to 23 was also Telesco’s steepest yet.
Will the investment play out better than Telesco’s climbs to get Manti Te’o and Jerry Attaochu, and his first and second contracts to Denzel Perryman?
Here’s one reason why it should: Murray runs very fast for an inside linebacker, helping him to make all 42 starts in three years.
Te’o and Perryman, in contrast, were inside linebackers who brought borderline speed to the NFL after Telesco took them in the second round.
Murray sprints faster than some NFL receivers. He matched running back Melvin Gordon’s 4.52second clocking in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, despite outweighing him by 27 pounds.
Te’o ran a 4.82 in 2013 before Telesco, in his first draft, dealt second- and fourth-round picks to take
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the former Notre Dame star 38th.
Perryman’s 4.78 clocking didn’t dissuade Telesco from taking the former Miami thumper 48th in 2015.
Doubling down on the often-injured Perryman, the GM gave him a two-year, $12 million contract in March 2019.
Linebackers have to play fast, not only run fast. But the NFL game has changed in this respect: Defenses can’t hide slow linebackers.
Perhaps Telesco was late to the speed party, but he has drafted a fast linebacker unit. Drue Tranquill ran a 4.57 at the 2019 combine. The year before, linebacker Kyzir White ran a handtimed 4.58 as a 218-pound converted safety. (A knee injury has held White back since a promising start to his rookie season.)
Murray weighed 242 at the combine but was a sideline-to-sideline player in the free-wheeling Big 12. He finished with 335 tackles, including 37 for loss.
To get Murray at No. 23, the payment to the Patriots was the fifth pick of the second round and the seventh pick of the third round. It was the first time Telesco dealt picks from two of the top-3 rounds.
Murray could become a Pro Bowl player, a huge payoff at a position that’s become harder to fill.
However, filling two holes on a team that went 5-11 last year made more sense.
Colts help Rivers
Philip Rivers may need to pinch himself.
He figures to have a strong ground game to lean on.
The Colts climbed three spots to draft former Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor, who overcame not having a reliable passing game to scare defenses.
Taylor, selected 41st, joins a Colts ground game that was 11th in yards per carry and second in first downs.
In their 2019 opener, the Colts showed Rivers what a powerful ground game looks like. Needing a two-point conversion to force overtime at Carson, head coach Frank Reich ordered a trap run. Marlon Mack followed the block of two standouts, guard Quenton Nelson and center Ryan Kelly, to shove the ball into the end zone. It didn’t matter that the Chargers D expected a run.
Now the explosive Taylor — who was better at rushing in tight quarters than 2015 first-round draftee Gordon was with Wisconsin — joins Mack in the rotation.
In addition, Colts GM Chris Ballard provided Rivers a powerful receiver in Michael Pittman Jr. Similar in size to Vincent Jackson, a former Rivers teammate in San Diego, Pittman (6-4, 225) had 19 touchdowns with the Trojans in his 48-game USC career.
Pittman’s father, a Mira Mesa High alum playing in Mission Valley, ran for more than 100 yards in Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl victory 18 years ago.
Teach them to play?
Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway had little patience for receivers who dropped his strikes. With the 46th pick, Elway drafted a receiver whose drop rate of 16.9 percent last season was ghastly. Can Broncos coaches teach KJ Hamler to catch the ball? Elway was seduced by the 178-pounder’s speed. In two years at Penn State, Hamler had 98 catches and 13 touchdowns. He averaged 16.9 yards per catch.
Bill Belichick wagered the 37th pick that safety Kyle Dugger can make the jump from Division II to the NFL. A one-year starter in high school, Dugger played for Lenoir-rhyne University in Hickory, N.C. Dugger, 24, spent six years at the private college, redshirting as a freshman and getting a medical exemption to regain a lost season. The 217-pounder ran the 40 in 4.48 seconds and performed well in the Senior Bowl.
SD Super Bowl connection
Rams draftee Van Jefferson is the son of Shawn Jefferson, the receiver who set up the first Super Bowl touchdown scored by the San Diego Chargers.
Shawn Jefferson, slender and smooth, caught 43 passes for the 1994 Chargers; in the Super Bowl, he caused 49ers Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders to interfere with him in the end zone, leading to Natrone Means’ 1-yard TD run.
Van, a receiver who had 175 catches in 48 games with Florida, went to the Rams at 57. At 6-11⁄2 and 200 pounds, he is huskier than his father, a longtime NFL receivers coach now with the Jets. A sharp route-runner, Van is a candidate to replace Brandin Cooks, traded this month to the Texans.
Chiefs find speed-size ILB
A credit to coach Andy Reid, the Chiefs got to and won the recent Super Bowl with help from a few players whose behavioral detours in college lowered their draft stock among several NFL clubs.
Similarly, Kansas City used the 63rd pick to claim a former SEC inside linebacker in Willie Gay whose sizespeed mix (243 pounds, 4.47) is similar to Kenneth Murray’s.
Character questions likely dropped him in the draft. He missed nine games with Mississippi State because of academic fraud and fought with a teammate days before a bowl game. To be clear, Gay was far less productive than Chargers draftee Murray.
In 2016, the Chiefs struck second-round gold in Mississippi State alum Chris Jones, a defensive tackle who had a big Super Bowl in February.