JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sleep didn’t come easily for Seahawks defensive lineman Byron Murphy II this week.
On Tuesday, he became a father for the first time when his fiancee Maya Hurd delivered daughter Danee’ Azaria Murphy on Tuesday. She arrived three months earlier than expected with Murphy saying she weighed 2 pounds, 5 ounces at birth.
She remains in a neonatal intensive care unit.
“I was at the hospital pretty much every day,” Murphy said.
The good news is all has gone well so far.
“My daughter is doing good,” Murphy said. “She is breathing on her own, doing very well. She’s developing pretty fast.”
Hurd is also doing well, Murphy said. All of that made it easier for Murphy to think about football when he had to.
“Just kept reminding myself I’ve still got a job to do,” he said. “And I was able to balance that really well.”
Sunday proved it as Murphy had two sacks to give him five for the season and, via ESPN, had seven pressures, the most for a Seahawk since Carlos Dunlap had six against Chicago in 2021.
“Byron had seven on his own?” coach Mike Macdonald asked. “That’s pretty good.”
Teammate Jarran Reed joked earlier this week that Murphy now has dad strength helping him out on the field.
“I guess I feel stronger,” Murphy said with a smile.
What is sure is that Murphy is quickly becoming the player the Seahawks envisioned when taking him 16th overall in 2024 and as the second defensive player selected overall.
Macdonald has been increasingly asked about Murphy the last few weeks and greeted another question about his breakout this season with a smile of his own.
“I’m going to claim that I was right on Byron, as I’ve been telling you for two years,” Macdonald said.
Griffin gets call against former team
It wasn’t necessarily a surprise that veteran Shaquill Griffin got a chance to start Sunday after the Seahawks ruled out cornerback Riq Woolen with a concussion Saturday.
Still, it was news Griffin insisted he didn’t know until the team got to Jacksonville.
“Saturday,” he said with a laugh when asked when he found out he’d be starting.
It made sense since Griffin is the most experienced cornerback the Seahawks have and was signed in June for these situations. Macdonald revealed that Nehemiah Pritchett – who filled in last week when Woolen was injured and when Griffin was not on the active roster – is dealing with a hamstring injury.
“He’s been practicing really well,” Macdonald said of Griffin.
Griffin has been on and off the active roster and practice squad this year. He was on the practice squad the last few weeks and was not elevated last week so not able to play against the Bucs. But the team planned all week to elevate him if needed and Woolen ruled out forced him into duty.
It was good timing with the Seahawks playing the Jags, the team Griffin played for in 2021 and 2022, and a roughly four-hour drive from his native St. Petersburg.
Griffin noted he played against the Jags with Houston in 2023 “so it wasn’t weird. I’ve been here before.”
Griffin also said he prepares each week as if he may need to start “so I was already for it.”
Still, the game got off to a rocky start when Griffin and safety Nick Emmanwori had a miscommunication on a coverage as each covered a receiver in the flat, allowing Brian Thomas Jr. to break free down the sideline for an easy 21-yard TD.
“That was something between me and him,” Griffin said, saying he and Emmanwori were playing man and the rest of the defense was in zone. “Just miscommunication getting the call across the whole board, but we fixed it and made it so it don’t happen again.”
Griffin finished with seven tackles as the Seahawks held the Jags to just 4.0 yards per play.
“It felt good,” said Griffin, who had played just three defensive snaps this season before Sunday. “Hopefully I didn’t look too tired. Got some more reps than I was used to. Other than that it felt great. The defense welcomed me with open arms and knew I was going to do exactly what I needed to do and I just wanted to make sure I played my heart out for them.”
Defense picks up Macdonald
While Jacksonville cut the Seahawks’ lead to 20-12 with 13 minutes remaining on a 26-yard pass from Trevor Lawrence to Tim Patrick, it would have been worse had the Seahawks not stopped a run on a two-point play.
Making it more challenging is that the run came from the 1-yard line after the Seahawks were called for too many men on the field.
Macdonald took the blame for the penalty saying the Seahawks were trying to figure out Jacksonville’s personnel before setting their own personnel.
“They were doing a ‘hide-the-eligible (player) play’ and we had some confusion on who was eligible, who was in the game,” Macdonald said. “We had an extra guy on the field, tried to take a timeout. It was too late.”
With the ball at the 1, the Seahawks sent in a heavy personnel unit that included nose tackle Brandon Pili. The Jags played into that with a handoff over left guard to running back Bhayshul Tuten. The Seahawks clogged the line and linebacker Ernest Jones IV broke through to make the tackle short of the goal line.
“At that point you’re in goal-line situation on the one,” Macdonald said. “You’ve got to match them big and that’s what we did. We didn’t even align right in that play, frankly. I think Ernest made a tremendous play to stop them. Just a relentless mindset the guys had. That was an awesome play. That’s what they call picking up the coach.”