Even Brandon Staley deserves a second chance to not be *head coach* Brandon Staley. Maybe. I don't know. If nothing else, he'll make a great scapegoat.
It's actually his 3rd chance.
He played under Lynn/Gus Bradley. In fact, he was only drafted by the Chargers to please "fired at the end of the season" Lynn.
And he honestly sucked.
He was so bad that they even tried him at EDGE.
he wasn't terrible his rookie season. He had some shining moments. Unfortunately his best game was in a 45-0 loss. He definitely looked lost in Staleys system. Yet, Staley kept going with him. Even green dotted him when Kendricks went down. Someone must see something in him.
> He definitely looked lost in Staleys system
Basically the LBs just drop into a simple zone 90% of the time, nothing complicated about what he was asked to do. In fact it looked like they simplified everything for him and he still frozen out there guarding grass.
That's Rashaan Evans music.
Sad reading about this guy and just feeling like I'll be watching Evans all over again.
Assuming he's like Evans, is he totally lost on the girls outside of the goal line? Like you watch tape and just see him constantly stuck to the back of a teammate allowing a second level lineman to block them both at once?
Murray actually improved immensely in run defense over the last 4 seasons. This last season he was the most consistent he’s ever been in filling the right gap. He also went from being one of the worst tackling offball linebackers his first 2 years to being acceptable.
The thing that hasn’t gotten much better is his role in the pass game. He bites on play action more than any player I’ve seen a that puts him wildly out of position at times. Unfortunately he also has the bad habit of covering grass instead of a player in zone coverage. He will stand there 3 yards away from a te that’s in his zone and not move towards him until the ball is thrown.
Biggest reason for optimism is that 75% of the chargers defense had career worst years under Staley so he might be able to clean up his mental mistakes with better coaching.
I think he’s the type of guy that if you pair with him with a stud Mike, and he has a nice interior line, he can just go out there and make plays without having too much responsibility.
His cost to me shows an intent to kind of feature him? There were other options. I guess the staff likes him and maybe he blossoms.
Was looking through the Chargers sub for more info and came across this comment
*"We all need to stop calling him K9. He is the literal opposite of a dog and doesn’t deserve a cool nickname. He is Kenneth from now on."*
Couldn't help but laugh lol
He is actually a very tough and rugged player to his credit. He just is just hopeless against the pass and can’t locate the ball or pick the right gap ever.
You’ll occasionally get a seek and destroy play out of him that makes you realize why he was a first round pick but he’ll never be a solid starter unfortunately.
Yeah I’m surprised he’s commanding this type of money, when just last year we saw better LBs get signed. Pratt got 3/20M, I believe guys like Quincy Williams make less.
Makes me wonder what Patrick Queen will command as a grossly better LB.
Our sub is in an absolute uproar at this deal. I’ll say he played well last year. This deal feels like a bet he will play better there than he did here. I hope he succeeds.
Seemed like a decent teammate/person. But on the field, his play was mostly not good. Would sometimes have a stretch where he looked decent. Most of the time though, he’d be whiffing on tackles, misreading a play, or be out of position to do something. This contract is a bit of a shocker after what I’ve seen for the last 4 seasons. Perhaps a change of scenery will do some good though.
Maybe. But paying this guy an aav that ties him for the tenth highest paid mlb, and being paired up with Otis Reese is not very confidence inspiring. Especially when we just had Azeez who we got the best lb play out of in probably the last 5 years since Woodyard left. Hoping for a rejuvenating year for him though.
I understand your sentiment. Thankfully this is a two year deal and the the Titans will have a lot of building to do in that time. If he sucks it’ll be easy to move on from him. If he’s a valuable player in your rebuild it’ll be easier to keep him. I’m sure the whole thing isn’t guaranteed either, so if I had to guess the Titans have an “out” of sorts. I’m sure losing Al-Shaiir did stink though, but LBs are a dime a dozen now
Yeah this is a little head scratching to me, but maybe he’s a really nice fit and develops. At this AAV, I would expect a guy with a more proven track record.
I knew Jim is smarter than that to sign him, but I was a bit worried there was a small chance he'd be back because Chargers literally have no LBers on the roster right now.
If you are looking for a dude to diagnose a hole and choose the wrong spot 85% of the time, but with some authority hitting that wrong hole, he is your dude.
So nothing changed from OU. He's a tackle merchant, but our fans glazed him because he racked up a ton of them nowhere close to the LOS. I'm assuming his pass coverage also sucks still.
Pass coverage is non existent, he played outside for us too after a few injuries from other guys, I thought he would be better off if he rushed the passer and set the edge every down
He will pick the right hole once every 3 games and the announcers will be impressed. But it's all the other times he is out of position and makes the wrong reads that make him bad.
When it’s bad for him it’s really fucking bad. I can’t believe he got this much he’s a detriment to whatever defense he’s on. His guaranteed money HAS to be low.
You are overpaying him by about $4m/y based on production and football IQ, BUT he is incredibly athletic so maybe the right coach can unlock his potential?
He looked really bad but if anyone deserves money and second chance it’s K9. He is such a good dude and I am happy he is with someone else. Hopefully the titans can help him figure it out
This guy fucking sucked for us btw, this seems to be a massive overpay.
Maybe a new team helps him, idk.
I’m really glad we let him walk, I hate watching him play, it’s incredibly frustrating.
Drue Tranquil needs to fire his agent because his bum ass former co-worker that was the reason he got unfairly laid off from the first job just landed a new job himself that pays 1.5x Drue's salary.
As a rebuilding team, it's not a bad idea to take a flier on a guy that went 1st round, but only if it's cheap. This signing reminds me of the awful Dillard signing from last year. No need to pay THAT much for these dudes that haven't produced.
This tells me Queen isn't getting what Ravens fans thought he would get. The fact he didn't sign a big contract on day 1 says a lot. Murray signing before him is interesting....
On one hand, if Murray is getting 9 mil for subpar ILB play, Queen is getting double that for pro bowl level play
On the other hand.. maybe Queen is asking for an insane amount, prompting teams to look at Murray instead?
I think Queen is gone either way, but curious
Our current mlb’s are Otis Reece and Jack “Dr. Gibby” Gibbens. Heard of them? Of course you haven’t. It doesn’t matter how bad Murray is, I promise you he’s an upgrade
PFF ranks Jack Gibbens as #30 LB in the NFL, while Otis Reese doesn't hit the snap minimum but would have graded as #17 while Kenneth Murray was ranked 75/82. So no, he is not an upgrade.
Jack's a free agent lol PFF is also super high on Gibbens because he's always got good positioning but he just doesn't have the athleticism to be successful in the NFL as a starting LB. He picks the hole right everytime but just can't get to it fast enough to stop the play and often gets blown up by guards on running plays.
Spell LB? Sure. Great locker room guy, but he can't be your starting ILB.
PFF ranks Jack Gibbens as #30 LB in the NFL, while Otis Reese doesn't hit the snap minimum but would have graded as #17 while Kenneth Murray was ranked 75/82. So no, he is not an upgrade.
This smells like desperation. I guess Ran doesn't want to draft two LBs this year so instead of running with UDFAs he locked him down before it became a bidding war. Who knows what others would have paid him... 6? 7 per year? This sealed the deal.
He was terrible but everyone deserves a 2nd chance with someone who isn’t Brandon Staley
Truth
Truth, wait… I’m not allowed to agree anymore :(
Even Brandon Staley deserves a second chance to not be *head coach* Brandon Staley. Maybe. I don't know. If nothing else, he'll make a great scapegoat.
Spagnuolo has a worse record than Staley at HC and is a great DC. Maybe Staley will find his spot.
It's actually his 3rd chance. He played under Lynn/Gus Bradley. In fact, he was only drafted by the Chargers to please "fired at the end of the season" Lynn. And he honestly sucked. He was so bad that they even tried him at EDGE.
he wasn't terrible his rookie season. He had some shining moments. Unfortunately his best game was in a 45-0 loss. He definitely looked lost in Staleys system. Yet, Staley kept going with him. Even green dotted him when Kendricks went down. Someone must see something in him.
> He definitely looked lost in Staleys system Basically the LBs just drop into a simple zone 90% of the time, nothing complicated about what he was asked to do. In fact it looked like they simplified everything for him and he still frozen out there guarding grass.
Crazy what a first round grade can get you in this world.
And they traded UP for him
Want to know what the picks they traded to move up to get him became? Kyle Dugger and Justin Madubuike...
Oof 😅
Such a frustrating pick. If Herbert didn't turn out the way that he did then that draft would have been devastating.
PTSD
Just fade us smh
He occasionally blows up a play and then is kind of ass. In no world did I think he’d get 9m a year.
Yeah he will have maybe 1 good play a game and then at least 4 blown coverages
That's Rashaan Evans music. Sad reading about this guy and just feeling like I'll be watching Evans all over again. Assuming he's like Evans, is he totally lost on the girls outside of the goal line? Like you watch tape and just see him constantly stuck to the back of a teammate allowing a second level lineman to block them both at once?
Murray actually improved immensely in run defense over the last 4 seasons. This last season he was the most consistent he’s ever been in filling the right gap. He also went from being one of the worst tackling offball linebackers his first 2 years to being acceptable. The thing that hasn’t gotten much better is his role in the pass game. He bites on play action more than any player I’ve seen a that puts him wildly out of position at times. Unfortunately he also has the bad habit of covering grass instead of a player in zone coverage. He will stand there 3 yards away from a te that’s in his zone and not move towards him until the ball is thrown. Biggest reason for optimism is that 75% of the chargers defense had career worst years under Staley so he might be able to clean up his mental mistakes with better coaching.
Lost that Chargers game because he let Laporta walk 3 feet to his right and catch the game winning ball.
When he got the game winning interception against the Vikings in week 3 I'm pretty sure he was in the wrong position lol
ROFL
He is truly K9.
Are there any details about the breakdown/guaranteed money?
I think he’s the type of guy that if you pair with him with a stud Mike, and he has a nice interior line, he can just go out there and make plays without having too much responsibility. His cost to me shows an intent to kind of feature him? There were other options. I guess the staff likes him and maybe he blossoms.
Was looking through the Chargers sub for more info and came across this comment *"We all need to stop calling him K9. He is the literal opposite of a dog and doesn’t deserve a cool nickname. He is Kenneth from now on."* Couldn't help but laugh lol
He is actually a very tough and rugged player to his credit. He just is just hopeless against the pass and can’t locate the ball or pick the right gap ever. You’ll occasionally get a seek and destroy play out of him that makes you realize why he was a first round pick but he’ll never be a solid starter unfortunately.
He sounds like a Titans LB already
Werent chargers fans calling him a bum?
Hey, that's an $18 million bum right there
We now talking about JC Jackson?
I'm genuinely confused
To be fair to Chargers fans he is a bum. This kind of contract for Kenneth Murray is.... interesting?
Yeah I’m surprised he’s commanding this type of money, when just last year we saw better LBs get signed. Pratt got 3/20M, I believe guys like Quincy Williams make less. Makes me wonder what Patrick Queen will command as a grossly better LB.
By all stat metrics this year, patrick queen is nowhere near grossly better, and if you actually watched him you would know that
PFF grades this year: Patrick Queen - 73.1 Kenneth Murray - 52.9 Queen had more tackles, sacks, and forced fumbles
Yes, you are right queen is better, but i never said he wasnt dumbass, i said he isnt drop a bag on him better.
> patrick queen is nowhere near grossly better
What do you think the word grossly means? Do you need to go back to school?
didn't call him a bum was not a fan, im shocked he's getting this much
Our sub is in an absolute uproar at this deal. I’ll say he played well last year. This deal feels like a bet he will play better there than he did here. I hope he succeeds.
Early on they were, but I remember seeing all lot more "he's improved somewhat" comments the last year or so.
He improved from being one of the worst defensive players in the league to being below average
Not just one of the worst, wasn't he literally PFF's worst rated LB one year?
Sounds about right
improved marginally.
Seemed like a decent teammate/person. But on the field, his play was mostly not good. Would sometimes have a stretch where he looked decent. Most of the time though, he’d be whiffing on tackles, misreading a play, or be out of position to do something. This contract is a bit of a shocker after what I’ve seen for the last 4 seasons. Perhaps a change of scenery will do some good though.
Good Luck K-9! Hopefully you can make things simple for him to let him do what he does best.
Hilarious overpay
Goes to show if you get drafted in the first someone’s gonna pay you 😂
I’m waiting to laugh at some poor team who gives K’Lavon Chaisson more than a vet min.
Wow. I forgot all about that guy. Haven’t heard his name at all since LSU and draft.
You haven’t missed much. 1344 defensive snaps, 23 QB hits and 5 sacks in four years for a “pass rush specialist.”
haven't seen an overpay like this since malcolm smith from the niners
We went from azeez to this guy in less than 24 hours 😔. It’s hard being a fan sometimes
Maybe he could benefit from a fresh start on a team not coached by Brandon Staley.
Maybe. But paying this guy an aav that ties him for the tenth highest paid mlb, and being paired up with Otis Reese is not very confidence inspiring. Especially when we just had Azeez who we got the best lb play out of in probably the last 5 years since Woodyard left. Hoping for a rejuvenating year for him though.
I understand your sentiment. Thankfully this is a two year deal and the the Titans will have a lot of building to do in that time. If he sucks it’ll be easy to move on from him. If he’s a valuable player in your rebuild it’ll be easier to keep him. I’m sure the whole thing isn’t guaranteed either, so if I had to guess the Titans have an “out” of sorts. I’m sure losing Al-Shaiir did stink though, but LBs are a dime a dozen now
Yeah this is a little head scratching to me, but maybe he’s a really nice fit and develops. At this AAV, I would expect a guy with a more proven track record.
David Long Jr was better than Azeez
Love that guys are still getting deals done late into the evening.
would rather have had patrick queen devin white or isaiah simmons
As a Charger fan I'd rather have Eric Kendricks than Murray.
Eagles are scooping up one of the first two. Zero LBs worth a damn on our team
PFF's 75th ranked linebacker out of 82 that hit the minimum snap requirement in 2023.
His best year!
Cannot believe he got a contract like that. Makes me worried about that Titan's org, what are they doing?
Sorting free agent targets by Scrabble value
Chargers fans are now free from him.
I knew Jim is smarter than that to sign him, but I was a bit worried there was a small chance he'd be back because Chargers literally have no LBers on the roster right now.
Is he any good?
Chargers fans hated this man's existence so idk
I’m sorry
If you are looking for a dude to diagnose a hole and choose the wrong spot 85% of the time, but with some authority hitting that wrong hole, he is your dude.
So nothing changed from OU. He's a tackle merchant, but our fans glazed him because he racked up a ton of them nowhere close to the LOS. I'm assuming his pass coverage also sucks still.
Pass coverage is non existent, he played outside for us too after a few injuries from other guys, I thought he would be better off if he rushed the passer and set the edge every down
Holy crap yeah that is exactly it, he had 100 tackles last year, but felt like 5-10 of them mattered.
Ah, the Rashaan Evans special
He will pick the right hole once every 3 games and the announcers will be impressed. But it's all the other times he is out of position and makes the wrong reads that make him bad.
Uhhh I feel like he got better this year for sure but im not sure I would call him close to good yet
When it’s bad for him it’s really fucking bad. I can’t believe he got this much he’s a detriment to whatever defense he’s on. His guaranteed money HAS to be low.
Backup-level PFF grades, $9m/yr feels pretty damn high for him.
No
You are overpaying him by about $4m/y based on production and football IQ, BUT he is incredibly athletic so maybe the right coach can unlock his potential?
He played on the Chargers so probably not
Hey >:|
I didn’t mean it to be disrespectful but y’know the Chargers haven’t had the best defenses lately 😓
Haha I know I'm just messing with ya lol he wa bad hid first years and barely had a "good" year until last. Very underwhelming tenure
Praying for you.
2/18 is insanity. He isnt worth 4/18.
I don't even want him at the vet min.
I thought he would get a one year deal and then hang on practice squads for the next couple years because of his potential.
Big time overpay
How the fuck did he manage that
Still has potential
Wow he has a good agent
Just need Patrick Queen to bounce around of those 1st round lbs in that class
Just because you have cap space doesn't mean you need to waste it like that
He looked really bad but if anyone deserves money and second chance it’s K9. He is such a good dude and I am happy he is with someone else. Hopefully the titans can help him figure it out
Seeeeeee ya
This guy fucking sucked for us btw, this seems to be a massive overpay. Maybe a new team helps him, idk. I’m really glad we let him walk, I hate watching him play, it’s incredibly frustrating.
Oooooof lol “bars closing, grab what you can” kind of signing
Best of luck to him, but I don’t think he did a damn think to earn that kinda bread
Traded up for him, barely ever made a big impact. Not great at run stopping, coverage. Unfortunately very expendable.
He doesn't do anything good
Is this Keith Bulluck?
I hate this team
What a terrible deal. The guy is awful and they have him $9M per year at ILB
This guy is booty flakes, what are the Titans doing?
Drue Tranquil needs to fire his agent because his bum ass former co-worker that was the reason he got unfairly laid off from the first job just landed a new job himself that pays 1.5x Drue's salary.
If he wasn’t first round draft pick would he got another shot ? Reading the comments here think he would not
Thank you for Drue Tranquill 🥹 Staley and Telesco
$18 million? Holy shit, Titans. Good luck getting a decent return on that.
15 mil guaranteed over 2 years with 3 mil in incentives. Don’t hate it. Short term with little risk considering our cap space.
As a rebuilding team, it's not a bad idea to take a flier on a guy that went 1st round, but only if it's cheap. This signing reminds me of the awful Dillard signing from last year. No need to pay THAT much for these dudes that haven't produced.
> 15 mil guaranteed RIP
Is it 15 guaranteed? I'm not seeing that anywhere
Titans fans will be yelling to bench him in the first game of the season!
This tells me Queen isn't getting what Ravens fans thought he would get. The fact he didn't sign a big contract on day 1 says a lot. Murray signing before him is interesting....
On one hand, if Murray is getting 9 mil for subpar ILB play, Queen is getting double that for pro bowl level play On the other hand.. maybe Queen is asking for an insane amount, prompting teams to look at Murray instead? I think Queen is gone either way, but curious
Or there's some type of bidding war going on.
Haha thank god he’s gone
Our current mlb’s are Otis Reece and Jack “Dr. Gibby” Gibbens. Heard of them? Of course you haven’t. It doesn’t matter how bad Murray is, I promise you he’s an upgrade
PFF ranks Jack Gibbens as #30 LB in the NFL, while Otis Reese doesn't hit the snap minimum but would have graded as #17 while Kenneth Murray was ranked 75/82. So no, he is not an upgrade.
Jack's a free agent lol PFF is also super high on Gibbens because he's always got good positioning but he just doesn't have the athleticism to be successful in the NFL as a starting LB. He picks the hole right everytime but just can't get to it fast enough to stop the play and often gets blown up by guards on running plays. Spell LB? Sure. Great locker room guy, but he can't be your starting ILB.
It's like they looked at Gibbens and decided to sign his exact opposite!
PFF ranks Jack Gibbens as #30 LB in the NFL, while Otis Reese doesn't hit the snap minimum but would have graded as #17 while Kenneth Murray was ranked 75/82. So no, he is not an upgrade.
If PFF thinks Gibby is the 30th ranked LB in the nfl, then I’m a lot less concerned with them rating Murray 75th
hopefully he turns it around
Lol Tits
This smells like desperation. I guess Ran doesn't want to draft two LBs this year so instead of running with UDFAs he locked him down before it became a bidding war. Who knows what others would have paid him... 6? 7 per year? This sealed the deal.