Reports have come out that Washington pass rusher Trent Murphy will be joining the Buffalo Bills. There are conflicting reports on the money. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the deal is 3-years for $21 million while NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport says it’s a 3-year deal worth up to $30 million. It appears that it’s a base salary of $21 million with the chance to rise up to $30 million if certain incentives are met.
Murphy was connected to the San Francisco 49ers, albeit briefly when free agency began to get going, but there really wasn’t anything outside of initial interest. Matt Barrows reports that the 49ers were in for roughly half the salary offered by the Bills.
The 49ers have a severe need for a pass rusher, almost desperate now that Elvis Dumervil has been released. Murphy could have come into fill that void, but he also would have come with question marks. He was suspended for the use of performance enhancing drugs and also tore his ACL and MCL in a 2017 preseason game. All of this is behind him and he’s good to go for Week 1 of 2018, but it’s still a concern with the money he’s going to be due.
The 49ers will need to go back to the drawing board for a pass rusher and given the moves in free agency so far, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility to think they’d be giving serious thought to drafting one with that 9th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.