Part 5, DL: Tale of two very different Texas big men
Part 5, DL: Tale of two very different Texas big men
One draws Justin Madubuike comparisons from an NFL scout. One was completely taken off of a team's board. Byron Murphy and T’Vondre Sweat could both dominate but what a contrast.
This is the 40th year that Bob McGinn has written his NFL Draft Series. Previously, it appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette (1985-’91), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-’17), BobMcGinnFootball.com (2018-’19), The Athletic (2020-’21) and GoLongTD.com (2022-’24). Until 2014, many personnel people were quoted by name. The series reluctantly adopted an all-anonymous format in 2015 at the request of most scouts.
By Bob McGinn
The University of Texas has a rich tradition of defensive tackles. Sixteen have been selected in the first three rounds since the NFL common draft originated in 1967, including four in the first.
On Thursday, there’s a chance that Byron Murphy will be the first player on defense to be picked. His Longhorns teammate inside for the last three years, T’Vondre Sweat, is a wild card with high-round ability.
The combination of Murphy, the hard-charging 3-technique, and the massive, talented, troubled Sweat is reminiscent of a generation ago when Texas produced its last pair of defensive tackles to land in the first two rounds.
That was 2001, when Casey Hampton went in the first (No. 19) to the Pittsburgh Steelers before Shaun Rogers was chosen late in the second (No. 61) by the Detroit Lions.
Hampton would go on to make five Pro Bowls, more than any other UT defensive tackle, and Rogers would make three. Hampton has been on the fringes of making the Hall of Fame for several years.
What links the Murphy-Sweat duo with Hampton & Rogers is the similarities in the two relationships.
Murphy, who graduated in three years, found it difficult playing with Sweat, who was forever overweight and out of shape as he bounced from party to party. Their relationship was strained, to say the least.
From 1997-’00, Hampton and Rogers were a tag team at Texas. An overachiever who always played hard, Hampton found dealing with Rogers more than just a slight challenge.
“Rogers has a weight problem and is a lazy ass,” an executive in personnel for an NFC team told me not long before the draft in 2001. “Not that he’s a bad kid. You just got to kick him in the ass a lot. Hampton kicked him in the ass.”
Hampton rubbed some people the wrong way with what scouts suggested was his cocky, overbearing approach. Murphy isn’t said to exhibit those qualities.
Rogers’ senior season in Austin was ruined by the high-ankle sprain that he suffered in late September. He played hurt, underwent surgery when tests showed the bones weren’t aligned properly and showed up at the combine in a wheelchair.
“There’s times it’s like a man playing with kids, he can dominate that much,” said Billy Devaney, the San Diego Chargers’ personnel director. “But his reputation is that he’s not a hard worker.”
Paid subscribers can access Bob McGinn’s nine-part draft series in full, in addition to all player profiles, all team deep dives, everything at Go Long. Scouts across the NFL supply their unfiltered analysis on this year’s group of defensive linemen in Part 5.
Part 1, WR/TE: Hall of Fame talent at the top, then (many) questions
Part 2, OL: Can this 'long-armed Tyrannosaurus Rex' brawl?
Part 3, QB: Gap between Caleb Williams & Jayden Daniels? Closer than you think...
Part 4, RB: Like father, like son?