CB Sean Murphy-Bunting – 6-0, 195 – 23 years old – 3rd season

Murphy-Bunting is the youngest of the Bucs trio of corners, as he won’t turn 23 until June 19. Like Dean, Murphy-Bunting blew up the Combine with his size, length (31 3/4 arms) and athleticism (4.42 40, 41.5-inch vertical, 10’6 broad), rocketing up boards to become the 39th overall pick in the 2019 draft – 55 spots before the team selected Dean.

A long and lanky cornerback, Murphy-Bunting played outside for the Bucs in 2019, until the team went to their nickel package, moving SMB to the slot. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles told us in a conference call last week that usage will likely continue for Murphy-Bunting in 2020, which will keep him in a different role than the Central Michigan corner played in college.

Year 1 was more good than bad for SMB, who is still clearly learning how to play man coverage in the slot and react to the speed of the NFL game. I thought he struggled the most of the Bucs’ top three corners, mainly due to a lack of anticipation and feel for quicker developing routes in man or even zone coverage.

That’s something that could get better with experience, as Murphy-Bunting often looked like he was thinking a little too much, making him a beat slow to react to passes that he could have challenged with better anticipation. He’s probably the most explosive of the Bucs cornerbacks when coming downhill, but his read-and-react timing needs to be faster this season.

Part of the reason that Murphy-Bunting gave up too much separation this past season is that he was conceding ground before he had to. Staying square and trusting your technique against vertical releases is an important part of not getting beat at the top of in and out-breaking routes.

SMB is backing up basically the entire rep, even executing a half turn to get vertical faster. Yes, he might not get beat deep, but he’s opening up the whole rest of the route tree to his opponent, including comebacks, curls, digs and back-shoulder throws. He has 4.42 speed! He needs to trust it and not give so much ground on vertical releases.

Again, SMB is early to flip his hips and get downfield, this time in the slot, where he has safety help over the top. He can afford to stay square on this and drive on the route break. Instead he gives up a ton of separation on the out-breaking route, although the ball goes to another target (nice tackle by SMB by the way, something he’s very good at).

On the other hand, while SMB surrendered plenty of catches in the short game last season, he didn’t give up many big plays either. His speed and length are tough to get on top of in the vertical game.

I’m still not sure about Murphy-Bunting in the slot. He’s more fluid and twitchy than Dean or Davis, so I get why he’s there, but I think it’s a role he could still struggle in this season. He’s not a typical slot corner, at least in the ability to match the movement skills of short-area separators like Danny Amendola.

I’ll give SMB this though. Later in the game he was able to recognize the same pattern from Amendola and jump it for a pick-six.

That’s a big-time play (his other two interceptions were more opportunistic), and it shows why Bowles wants him in the slot. Murphy-Bunting is smart, a sure tackler and a good communicator. Those are all important traits for a nickel corner, and on a roster without a natural fit at the position, SMB offers enough to make him the best choice there. If he can learn to consistently read-and-react as he does in the play above, his best football will be ahead of him after recording eight passes defensed and a team-high three interceptions as a rookie.

There is certainly no reason to doubt that Murphy-Bunting will be a good player in the NFL, but he didn’t show the consistent high-end stretches of play in 2019 that Dean and Davis did. If SMB’s footwork, ball skills and processing speed improve this season, he should hang on to the starting role, but Dean certainly looked like the better player last year. And I say that as a guy who had Murphy-Bunting ranked a good bit higher on my pre-draft board. It should be fun to watch the battle play out in camp, but either way SMB will see the field plenty in 2020.