The Pittsburgh Steelers will likely host several more players for pre-draft visits this coming week and it looks like Washington cornerback Byron Murphy and Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker will both be included in Monday’s group.
According to a Sunday night posts on Instagram by both Murphy and Baker, they are now in Pittsburgh and that likely means they’ll be listed as Steelers pre-draft visitors on Monday.
Murphy, an underclassman cornerback who measured in at this year’s scouting combine at 5106, 190-pounds with 30 1/8-inch arms and 8 7/8-inch hands, ran his 40-yard-dash in Indianapolis in 4.55-seconds. He also did 14 reps on the bench at the combine and posted a vertical jump of 36.5-inches to go along with a 10’0″ broad jump.
In his two seasons at Washington, Murphy recorded 74 total tackles, 7 interceptions, 20 total pass breakups and 2 forced fumbles. In college, Murphy played a lot of zone coverage in addition to press-man and he also showed he has some desire to help out against the run. He primarily played on the outside and on the left and thus he should be expected to play in the slot much of any at the NFL level.
As far as we can tell, neither Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert nor head coach Mike Tomlin attended the Washington pro day this year. However, it’s probably worth noting that new Steelers defensive assistant Teryl Austin was spotted at the Washington pro day.
The last time the Steelers drafted a player out of Washington was in 2016 when edge-rusher Travis Feeney was selected in the sixth-round. In 2012, the Steelers selected defensive tackle Alameda Ta’amu out of Washington with their fourth-round selection that year.
As for Baker, who measured in at the combine at 5110, 193-pounds with 32-inch arms and 9-inch hands, he ran the 40-yard-dash in Indianapolis in 4.52-seconds and did 14 reps on the bench. He also registered a 9’10” broad jump at the combine. Baker reportedly had a better showing at his pro day and that includes a slightly better 40-yard-dash time. The Steelers had defensive coordinator Keith Butler at that Georgia pro day.
Baker registered 116 total tackles in the 51 games he played at Georgia to go along with 7 interceptions, 24 pass breakups and 2 forced fumbles. He was also PFF’s highest-graded SEC cornerback in 2018 on his way to a 40.2 passer rating against him when targeted in coverage.
