Seahawks Prospect Predicted for ‘Big Leap Forward’ in Breakout 2025 Season

After parting ways with veteran players Geno Smith, DK Metcalf, and Tyler Lockett this offseason, the Seattle Seahawks have quickly become one of the youngest teams in the league entering the 2025 NFL season.

Well, one NFL writer believes one Seahawks’ prospect is primed for a breakout year in 2025.

Seahawks DT Byron Murphy II Named Breakout Candidate for 2025

Chris Trapasso of CBS Sports identified a handful of players entering their second season who could breakout in 2025. Fortunately for the Seahawks, Trapasso named Seattle DT Byron Murphy II as one of those players.

Trapasso wrote, “Murphy has a 10-sack season in his skill set. He’s lightning-quick off the snap, anchors against the run like a nose tackle — dropping to one knee to fend off blockers became his trademark capability during the pre-draft process in 2024. The former first-round pick didn’t exactly pop in Year 1 of Mike Macdonald’s system. That’s fine. Not every quality pass rusher in the NFL spent time in the Defensive Rookie of the Year race in their inaugural season as a professional.”

Murphy’s final stat line of 36 total tackles and 0.5 sacks doesn’t exactly scream an impending breakout season is on the horizon, but interior defensive lineman don’t normally have gaudy statistics their rookie year.

Murphy’s role next to Jarran Reed and Leonard Williams along the Seattle front was to situationally rotate in, which likely limited his impact. The addition of Demarcus Lawrence could muddy the waters a bit more, but Murphy’s upside occasionally flashed in 2024.

Trapasso added, “Despite what probably felt like a disappointing rookie year for a first-round pick, Murphy did register a pressure rate of 8.6%. Hardly terrible. In fact, close to that magical 10% pressure-rate threshold on the interior. Now, with presumably more power to his game, Murphy will take a big leap forward within Macdonald’s system in 2025. That’s all he had to do, build strength.”

Was Byron Murphy a Disappointment in 2024?

To give you an idea of how high the Seahawks were on Murphy coming out of the University of Texas, Seattle made him the second defensive player selected in the entire 2024 NFL Draft.

Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic shed some light on the poor numbers we saw from Murphy in 2024 by writing, “Murphy was the Seahawks’ No. 3 defensive tackle behind Williams and Jarran Reed, two very productive, veteran players. The third defensive tackle on any team will rarely post great numbers in any year, let alone his first in the league at age 22.”

Murphy should see his role expand this upcoming season in year two in Mike Macdonald’s defense.

Dugar added, “Defensive tackles in Macdonald’s scheme do a lot of the dirty work along the interior, taking on double-teams and creating opportunities for teammates at the second level to make plays in the run game. Their disruption is difficult to quantify, but Murphy did solid work there. He recorded a tackle for loss or no gain on 4.1 percent of his run snaps, which ranked 48th leaguewide.”

Murphy has all the physical tools to be an impact player for years to come in Seattle, which makes him a strong bet to make significant strides in 2025.