One of the Tennessee Titans’ more underrated additions of the offseason was bringing in a talented veteran cornerback in Sean Murphy-Bunting.
The former Buccaneers cornerback had an up-and-down career in Tampa, with arguably his best moments coming during the team’s Super Bowl run back in 2020.
Murphy-Bunting now joins a Titans pass defense that is coming off a season in which they allowed more passing yards per game than any other team in the league (274.8 yards per game).
However, Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus is at least providing some hope that better days may be ahead.
In what may be a controversial take, Monson has SMB ranked as the No. 19 cornerback in the NFL, and that ranking puts him as the eighth-best cornerback in the AFC as we head into the 2023 campaign.
.@PFF_Sam ranked the Top-32 CBs in the NFL…
Here is his Top-10 in the AFC 👀 pic.twitter.com/DpBEmBbh93
— PFF (@PFF) June 4, 2023
Here’s what Monson had to say about Murphy-Bunting:
The player typically tasked with manning the slot over the past few seasons in Tampa Bay, Murphy-Bunting is another cornerback limited by injury in 2022. He played in 10 games and was on the field for fewer than 500 defensive snaps but earned a 74.5 PFF coverage grade in that time.
The Central Michigan product is even ranked ahead of cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey of the Baltimore Ravens, and D.J. Reed of the New York Jets to round out the top 10 in the conference.
It’s obvious that PFF was largely impressed with Murphy-Bunting’s 2022 season, which by the numbers was very good when he was on the field.
According to PFF’s data, SMB finished the year with a strong coverage grade of 80.9 after he tallied two interceptions, while only allowing approximately 55 percent of his targets to be completed.
Let’s hope Murphy-Bunting can replicate or even surpass that type of production in Tennessee.
