Red
Murdock.
Red
Murdock.
Buffalo· 6'2"· 232 lb· 4.79s 40
R7 · #257 · Denver Broncos"A relentless downhill stack linebacker whose hands are a weapon on the ballcarrier, in the mold of a punch-first thumper like Nick Bellore who survives on instincts, tackling volume and takeaway production rather than testing numbers."Pre-draft read
This off-ball linebacker aligns over the guard in even fronts, excelling downhill in a two-gap-read stack role. His primary trait is diagnosis; he keys guard hips and backfield flow, triggers before the block arrives, and hits the gap square. The secondary trait is ball disruption: the tackle attempt and punch occur simultaneously, with the near hand attacking the ballcarrier armpit. Footwork is efficient and compact, eyes remain in the backfield, and he wraps low through contact.
Against the pass, he is a zone-drop, spot-and-rally defender. He performs best as a delayed A-gap blitzer, stacking slower guards and constricting the pocket. While his athletic ceiling is modest, his separator is the precise strike timing on the football, which contributes to creating turnovers.
Fangio two-high schemes value inside linebackers who can diagnose and fill gaps in a box; Murdoch's diagnostic trigger and downhill style fit this mold, often deployed as the first man into the hole.
Initially a core special teams player and early-down depth, he can develop into a starting stack linebacker in a two-high defense given his diagnostic ability and tackling reliability.
A weakside linebacker in a wide-9 attacking front due to his limited straight-line speed and length, which severely restricts his ability to scrape and pursue sideline to sideline.
Murdoch's elite diagnostic and ball-dislodging traits offer a unique skillset that can be maximized in a scheme valuing downhill, early-filling linebackers over sideline-to-sideline speed.
Red Murdock | BULL | Linebacker | Buffalo | 2026 NFL Draft Target
Cut-up of run fits, downhill triggers and forced-fumble punches from his senior tape at Buffalo.
Red Murdock Highlights
Season highlight reel showing tackling volume, delayed A-gap blitzes and takeaway production.
Buffalo linebacker Red Murdock receives NFL Scouting Combine invitation
Local broadcast segment on his combine invite, with game footage and background on his recruitment.
This player projects as a downhill stack linebacker and turnover creator whose primary value is generated by disciplined gap assignments and an uncommon knack for forcing fumbles. A team is investing in a proven playmaker who can contribute immediately on special teams and provide early-down depth, leveraging his diagnostic skills and tackling reliability despite a 4.79-second forty-yard dash that limits his range.
A four-year starter at Buffalo, he set the NCAA all-time record for forced fumbles with 17, surpassing Khalil Mack's mark. He earned back-to-back first-team All-MAC selections, with seasons of 156 and 142 tackles, plus 30.0 combined tackles for loss. His Bahamas Bowl Defensive MVP performance against Liberty, featuring 13 tackles, three for loss, and a pick-six, highlighted his ability to perform in key moments.
Scouting boards generally clustered him in the sixth-round to priority-free-agent range due to athletic limitations like his forty time and 31-inch arms. He was selected by Denver as the last pick of the draft, projected as a core special teams contributor and early-down depth behind starters, with the expectation to overcome these athletic question marks through instinct and technique.
- 01
Ball-dislodging genius
Seventeen career forced fumbles, an NCAA record, with the punch arriving at the ballcarrier's armpit on contact, not after the tackle.
- 02
Diagnostic trigger
Reads guard hips and backfield flow a beat early, then attacks downhill through the correct gap rather than shuffling laterally.
- 03
Volume tackler
Back-to-back 140-plus tackle seasons with 30.0 combined tackles for loss, reflecting snap durability and willingness to fill against interior gap schemes.
- 04
Blitz timing
Five sacks as a senior came mostly on delayed A-gap pressures where he stacked a slow-footed guard and squeezed the pocket.
- 05
Tackling reliability
Wraps through contact with a low pad level and rarely lunges, allowing a defense to play him on early downs without fearing surrendered yardage.
- 01
Straight-line speed
A 4.79-second forty with a 1.63 ten-yard split places him in the bottom tier athletically, limiting his range on wide-zone runs.
- 02
Coverage depth
Rarely asked to carry vertical routes, and his drops are choppy enough that tight ends can stack him on second-phase crossers.
- 03
Length limits
Thirty-one-inch arms and a 6-foot-5 wingspan mean he must win with leverage; longer offensive linemen latch onto his frame and steer him.
- 04
Block deconstruction
Once engaged, he lacks the violent hand reset to shed and reroute, too often running the arc around trash instead of stacking.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.79sp50
- Vertical
- 31.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 114inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 22repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Buffalo | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | Buffalo | 12 | 60 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2024 | Buffalo | 13 | 156 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2025 | Buffalo | 12 | 142 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Career | — | 42 | 364 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 17 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Honors
- Two-time first-team All-MAC (2024, 2025)
- NCAA all-time career forced fumbles record holder (17)
- NCAA single-season forced fumbles leader in 2024 (7)
- Second nationally in total tackles in 2024 (156)
- 2025 Bahamas Bowl Defensive MVP
- Allstate AFCA Good Works Team nominee (2025)
Instinct-driven stack linebacker with modest testing who carves out a rotational early-down role and heavy kick-coverage usage.
Undersized-athleticism linebacker who built a long career on special teams value, situational early-down snaps and unfailing tackling technique.
Productive Group of Five tackler whose testing profile confined him to practice squads and pure special teams roster spots.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Nobody recruited him. One scholarship offer came out of Fork Union Military Academy, the post-graduate year he took after Hopewell High School in Virginia produced no Division I interest, and it came from Buffalo — the same program that once took a chance on Khalil Mack. Four seasons later, Murdock walked off campus owning the NCAA record Mack had set, 17 career forced fumbles, with a psychology degree already in hand and a second one under way. That arc is the evaluation. The tape is not built on explosion or length. It is built on a linebacker who watches the guard, trusts what he sees, and arrives at the football with his hands already working.
The strike is genuinely uncommon. Most linebackers tackle first and reach for the ball second; Murdock does both in one motion, driving the near hand up through the armpit as he wraps, and it produced seven takeaways in 2024 alone. Behind a Buffalo front that generated a front-seven havoc rate of 10.0 percent, he was the finisher rather than the disruptor, converting other people's pressure into loose footballs. The Bahamas Bowl against Liberty was the proof-of-concept game — 13 tackles, three behind the line, an interception returned for a score — and it was the one national television window scouts kept returning to.
What he cannot do is run. A 4.79 forty at 232 pounds is the number that pushed him to the very last pick of the draft, and it shows up on perimeter runs and on any coverage assignment beyond a shallow hook drop. Thirty-one-inch arms compound the problem once a guard gets hands inside. Denver is not asking him to solve those problems. The Broncos took him as Mr. Irrelevant because his tackling reliability and ball-punch translate directly to the four core special teams units, where his instincts matter more than his split times. If he sticks — and every Mr. Irrelevant faces that qualifier — it will be as a kick-coverage staple who earns early-down defensive snaps in short-yardage packages, not as a three-down starter. The floor is a practice squad. The realistic outcome is a decade of value in the phase most of the roster ignores.