This is how awards conversations get interesting: not when they orbit the obvious edge-rusher names, but when they start circling an interior defender who has forced his way into the picture. Byron Murphy II is now being mentioned as a possible Defensive Player of the Year vote-getter in 2026, and that alone tells you how far his stock has risen. For a Seattle Seahawks defense that was not built around one oversized star last year, that is no small thing.
The bar, of course, is brutal. Recent history is not kind to interior defenders or off-ball linebackers, which is exactly why the award still so often belongs to hyper-elite pass rushers. Over the last 30 years, only 8 Defensive Player of the Year winners have come from that kind of conversation, and the list of exceptions is short enough to make the point for itself. Dana Stubblefield did it in 1997. Warren Sapp did it in 1999. Brian Urlacher did it in 2005. Luke Kuechly did it in 2013. That is the scale of the task facing Murphy now.
The Seattle case for Byron Murphy II
Last year, the Seahawks did not have a realistic Defensive Player of the Year candidate. That is what makes Murphy’s emergence so notable. He nearly matched Leonard Williams as a pass rusher and was the tip of the spear of the league’s best run defense, which is exactly the sort of two-way defensive impact that starts changing national conversations. It is not flashy in the usual way. It is disruptive. It wins downs. It tilts game plans. And if you are going to drag an interior lineman into award territory, that is the sort of profile you need.
But let’s not pretend the path is simple. The award still tends to lean toward players piling up highlight-reel sacks, and the number that keeps coming up for a reason is 11. That is the sort of threshold that makes voters stop and look twice. Anything less and the conversation gets harder very quickly, especially when the competition usually includes players with Myles Garrett-type reputations and the kind of sack totals that dominate the argument before anyone even starts debating nuance.
That is what makes Murphy such a fascinating candidate. The Seahawks are not asking him to be a one-man show, and that is part of the appeal. The defense is deep and balanced rather than dependent on one star, which is usually a sign of quality. The problem, if you can call it one, is that award voters rarely reward balance as much as they reward chaos. Murphy may have the run-game backbone and enough pressure production to enter the discussion, but he will likely need a genuinely eye-catching sack total to turn “might get votes” into something more serious.
So yes, Byron Murphy II belongs in the early DPOY conversation. But the 11-sack benchmark is the catch, and it is a very real one. If he hits that level while continuing to anchor a top-tier run defense, then Seattle suddenly has a defender worth talking about on a national stage. If he falls short, the respect will still be there. The votes probably will not.
