The Chargers’ defense has had its ups and downs this season, as the unit has been battered by injuries.
Among the positional groups that has seen players go down is the linebackers. Drue Tranquill was placed on the IR after the first game of the season. Denzel Perryman and Kyzir White have both missed a few games.
However, the one member of the crop that has played and started every single game this season is Kenneth Murray.
Murray, who Los Angeles traded up for in the first-round to draft, experienced growing pains with an expanded role right off the bat, but he’s made consistent growth over time.
“Every week there’s a little bit of growth that I go through,” Murray said. “I see something faster, maybe quicker, and I think the beauty of it [is], I’ve always been the type of guy that if we play a team once, when we come back and play them a second time, you’re able to see things and see how they do things to be able to capitalize on those things. I think that’s been another thing to my benefit being able to play our division teams twice a year.”
Murray has been at his best when making plays in front of him and laterally, stopping ball carriers as they try to escape. The area that’s improving, but he will need to continue to get better at is in coverage.
However, he has been put in a tough spot with both safety Derwin James and linebacker Drue Tranquill, two of the team’s best coverage defenders, out with injuries.
Murray has one game left to play, and he’s already surpassed over 100 tackles, marking the sixth Chargers linebacker since 2000 to post at least 100 tackles in a regular season. The other five are Junior Seau, Donnie Edwards, Stephen Cooper, Takeo Spikes and Thomas Davis.
In total, Murray has 104 tackles, five tackles for loss, three passes defensed, and a sack.
All in all, given the circumstances of a short training camp and no preseason, Murray has played extremely well this season and it’s safe to say that he is just scratching the surface.