Just as there are surprise performers in every Super Bowl, there are players who find their performances trending up drastically as exactly the right time. One such player in this pre-Super Bowl rush is second-year cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, selected in the second round of the 2019 draft out of Central Michigan.
“With Bunting, what we liked about him: first of all, a superb kid, locker room guy and teammate,” general manager Jason Licht said after the pick. “We compared our meetings with him to those with [linebacker] Devin [White] in terms of just his infectious personality, and I think he’s got a lot of leadership qualities in him. He can play outside, he can play inside, he’s a tough guy. He’s very smart. He’ll get his opportunities at all of those places.”
Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was more succinct, but more specific in terms of Murphy-Bunting’s on-field attributes.
“Press ability, man coverage and he’s a ball-hawk.”
Murphy-Bunting has been a ball-hawk throughout his young career — he’s already got seven interceptions, including one in each of Tampa Bay’s three postseason wins leading up to the Super Bowl. But it’s his coverage efficiency that has really improved in the postseason, and this is what makes him a fascinating chess piece for Bowles in this game.
When we talk about how you stop the Chiefs, there are several possibilities, and as we have seen, most of them are wrong. One idea is to throw as many defensive backs as you can at Patrick Mahomes and his barrage of targets. This is not something the Buccaneers are likely to do. Per Sports Info Solutions, the Bucs have played exactly eight snaps of dime defense all season — the fourth-lowest total in the league — and they’ve played nickel on 518, the league’s fourth-highest. This makes sense, of course. When you have the NFL’s best linebacker duo in Lavonte David and Devin White, the last thing you want to do is to take either of them off the field.
So, let’s go back to what Bowles said about Murphy-Bunting: “Press ability, man coverage and he’s a ball-hawk.” These attributes showed up in all three picks, and in the improvements he’s made against Washington, the Saints, and the Packers in the playoffs. In the 2020 regular season, Murphy-Bunting allowed 65 receptions on 83 targets for 804 yards, 361 yards after the catch, six touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 126.1.
The postseason has been an altogether different story. That’s where he’s allowed 14 receptions on 21 targets for 128 yards, 49 yards after the catch, one touchdown, three interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 59.3.
What’s the difference? Based on the tape, Murphy-Bunting is far better as a press defender who can get his hands on a receiver, work his landmarks aggressively, and follow through the route. At 6-foot-0 and 195 pounds, he’s more likely to struggle with quicker stuff or moving receivers, which is common among bigger, longer pass defenders. So, Bowles and his staff just let him stick and stay on a receiver and make the play.
We can see this clearly in Murphy-Bunting’s interception of Aaron Rodgers in the conference championship game. Here, he takes receiver Allen Lazard on the quick slant, gets inside position, gets his landmark (with a little jersey grab, yes), and gets the ball. More importantly, he prevents Lazard from having a chance.
On Murphy-Bunting’s pick of Drew Brees in the divisional round, this isn’t subtle — he’s in Michael Thomas’ face from the snap, mirroring him as much as possible, and banging through the route. Once again, you can see that Murphy-Bunting’s aggressiveness — and ability to stick and stay through the route — makes him a tough go for any bigger receiver who wants to get a quick reception out of the gate.
And on his pick of Taylor Heinicke in the Bucs’ wild-card win, Murphy-Bunting is reading the slot receivers, and has the wherewithal to break off and get the interception outside.
How does this all relate to the Super Bowl? Well, someone’s going to have to stop Travis Kelce. In Week 12, Kelce had eight catches on eight targets for 82 yards against the Bucs, but that had more to do with the fact that Tampa Bay — for whatever reason — decided to line cornerback Carlton Davis up against Tyreek Hill, over and over, with no safety help. Patrick Mahomes knew where to go with that. Hill caught 13 passes on 15 targets for 269 yards and three touchdowns, and Davis had his worst day ever.
Why Buccaneers CB Carlton Davis needs a lot more help against Tyreek Hill in Super Bowl LV
So, let’s assume the Bucs’ strategy is different this time around. Obviously. Devin White and Lavonte David are smart and athletic enough to cover most tight ends, but Travis Kelce isn’t most tight ends. His ability to get off the line of scrimmage and do pretty much whatever he wants presents obvious problems. The best way to at least minimize the damage without putting two guys on him all the time (thus further complicating the math problems with Hill), is to bang him off the line, re-route him as much as possible, stick and stay through the route, and disrupt his ability to get free to the ball.
It isn’t done well by most, but Bills cornerback Taron Johnson had a really nice red-zone rep in the AFC Championship game that showed the paradigm. Watch him mirror Kelce on the out from the slot, and shut it down.
It doesn’t mean that you need to be as big as Kelce is to make this happen — Johnson is 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds. Johnson did what he needed to to in order to stop Kansas City’s biggest red-zone threat. Based on his postseason work, Sean Murphy-Bunting might be in position to do the same, to free up his linebackers, and to give the Bucs a slight edge they might not have shown before against the NFL’s most dangerous passing game.