Byron Murphy II On The Monday Night Matchup vs. Bears "It's Going To Be A Battle"

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

All right, how's it going?

Byron Murphy II (0:01)

Good.

SPEAKER_3 (0:02)

All right, we've been asking everybody about Quentin Nelson all week long.

You can see his technique up close. How many problems can he create for a defensive lineman just based on his technique?

Byron Murphy II (0:13)

I feel like he can cause a lot of problems.

You know, I mean, his resume speaks for itself. Like, you know, eight-time all-perl, he's been doing it for a long time, so he's been doing it at the highest level. So just having a guy like that, I feel like, you know, he can help us win a lot of games, obviously, make everybody around him better, you know.

Just even, like, just perfecting, you know, just helping run game-wise in the passing game. But as far as seeing it up close, like, even going against him last year, like, it was a time where he gave me problems. You know, we went back and forth, had our battles and everything. He's a great player. I mean, he can do it all. He can do it in there. He can maul you in the run game. He can pass protect, you know, or no matter what, you know, alignment you're in, if you're in the 2-2 or the 3-3, he know how to block from any alignment or defense alignment is in. So having a guy like that is very helpful.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

How can he make you better technique-wise?

Byron Murphy II (1:13)

Yeah, really just, you know, just competing with him every day, you know, and trying to give him the best look as possible of him and him doing that vice versa.

So I really just, you know, just going back and forth to feeding off each other. And far as like also to like to ask him questions, you know, what do you see in this rush? Or how can I do this better on this rush? Like what technique should I use? Like just stuff like that. So just asking him questions, just picking his brain.

SPEAKER_4 (1:41)

When you were playing the Colts last year, when you studied filming him, what did you take away of, oh, here's where I maybe can win? Or what was your objective in that game?

Byron Murphy II (1:51)

My objective was really, I know he's very physical in the right game, so really just get my hands on him before you get them on me. And really just trying to be the most physical, the most physical player out of both of us when we was out there. So that's really what I took the most, really just getting my hands on them, beating them to the stands and just trying to win quick, work edges on them and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_5 (2:17)

What does it do for the locker room when John's able to bring in players like this at midseason? He's done it every year for the last four years, bringing in impact players. Now Quenton gets to join that mix.

Byron Murphy II (2:28)

I feel like it uplifted everybody, just knowing we got to tell them the guy just added another piece to the puzzle that's going to help this team even better, help us, just help us better our success. I feel like that's how the locker room sees it.

SPEAKER_6 (2:42)

Mike, Donald was telling us last week, he told you guys you're facing the league's leading rusher. This week you're facing the team that leads the league in rushing it. It's a defense that takes a lot of pride in their own game. How much do you like these challenges?

Byron Murphy II (2:53)

I love them. I love them. I feel like that's what you should want. You should want the best team, whoever the best at what they say they do, you should want that weekend, week out. So I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a battle.

They do a lot of great things up front, obviously. They got a good old line. They physical, they try to do a great job running the ball. So we just got to go out there and be better than them and play great team defense and stop the run.

SPEAKER_1 (3:25)

Byron, what is it about their run game that kind of stands out to you? Obviously, last week, Kansas City, it's K-9 doing his thing, but they kind of do it a little bit more collectively, it seems like. What kind of stands out about their?

Byron Murphy II (3:35)

They just, first, they work together. For one, they move guys, they do.

I've seen them take, they move guys out the ball very well when they play with great technique and stuff like that. And they're a physical group up front, so I feel like that's what helped them establish a run game. And also, too, they got a great back. Swift, he's a back, he can do it all, downhill, perimeter. So we just got to lock in on that, hold on to the little details going into the game. How can we take our ops and what can we do to win or to play in a backfield? So we just got to, like I said, go out there and just be us for real.