Needless to say, players from small schools whose teams won just a single game can be easily overlooked during the pre-draft process. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers found Sean Murphy-Bunting despite those obstacles, though, and his awesome single-game performance against a rare power-five opponent is apparently the biggest reason why.
In a story by The Athletic's Greg Auman detailing the selection process of of Murphy-Bunting, Tampa Bay executives explain that it was his play against Michigan State that led them to take the Central Michigan product with the No. 39 overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft.
“These kids at the lower level of competition, you want to see them dominate the lower level of competition,” said John Spytek, Tampa's director of player personnel. “But if they do get an opportunity to play against the Power 5 schools, you want to see them do well. Personally, I thought it was his best game of the year. He had a pick in that game, competed, didn’t back down from anybody. Another checked box, so to speak.”
Cory Hall, Murphy-Bunting secondary coach in college, got into the specifics that made the Bucs' newest cornerback pop against the Spartans.
“You watch one series (against Michigan State), and you see the light bulb that turned on,” he said of Murphy-Bunting. “He gets penalized for being tangled up with a receiver, and anybody else would cry and (have his) hands palms up. But you see the competitor come out. When Sean did for the next few plays was an NFL mentality. You see that he has the ability to play with all these intangibles.”
Murphy-Bunting had 37 tackles, three tackles for loss, two interceptions, and two forced fumbles in 12 games last season en route to winning CMU's Defensive Player of the Year award. His draft stock took off after the NFL Combine, where he tested among the best athletes in the 2019 draft class, running a 4.42 40-yard-dash, leaping 41 and-a-half inches in the vertical jump, and reaching 126 inches in the broad jump.
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