Adam Trautman: Brian Murphy, TE, The Replacements
While Hollywood handles positions like linebacker and quarterback well, there are not a ton of options when it comes to the tight end spot. Makes it similar, in some ways, to this draft class. But I digress…
In “The Replacements,” Jimmy McGinty taps Brian Murphy from Gallaudet University, as the Washington Sentinels’ new tight end. As McGinty explains it to his assistant coaches, Murphy would have been a first-round selection in the league’s draft out of the small District of Columbia school if not for one reason: Murphy is deaf. Outside of that, Murphy is the complete package at the tight end position. He can be an inline blocker that is rare to find coming out of college, while still being a threat in the passing game. On the pivotal moment of the movie’s final game, it is Murphy who is the target for Shane Falco for the game-winning, and playoff-clinching, touchdown.
Adam Trautman, while not deaf, has a somewhat similar small school to big stage story. Trautman was an option quarterback for a school in northern Michigan, and given the offense he ran, not many big schools came calling. He enrolled at the University of Dayton as a quarterback originally, but put on some weight and moved to TE. There, he became a force. He set a number of school records, and by the time his senior year around, he was making plays like this against Valparaiso:
Like Murphy, Trautman is the all-purpose kind of tight end that does some of his best work as a blocker. Trautman made a point of telling the media both at the Senior Bowl and at the Combine that he loves nothing more than putting a man on his back on a running play. But it is Trautman’s ability to change directions and be a receiver that is going to get him drafted earlier than some expect. And who knows, if it were not for his own small school background, maybe he too would have been a first-round pick.