With a 5-2 record after easily defeating the Tennessee Titans 31-13 on Sunday, the New England Patriots have already exceeded their win total from last season. Under new head coach Mike Vrabel, the six-time Super Bowl champion franchise appears to be undergoing a renaissance of sorts, after putting together only one winning season â and one playoff appearance â since 2019.
One area that has shown improvement under Vrabel â the pass rush. The Patriots have already recored 18 sacks in 2025, placing them in a three-way tie for sixth-most in the NFL. That’s a significant step up, considering the 2024 Patriots pass rushers managed only 28 in the entire season. That was dead last in the league.
The Patriots were not a whole lot better in 2023, when they ranked 27th in the league with 36 sacks.
Low-Risk, High-Reward Move
But Vrabel clearly believes they can always continue to improve, and to that end, on Monday he made a low-risk, potentially high reward move by adding one of his own former proteges from his days as Tennessee head coach â an edge rusher who in 2022 set â and still holds â an all-time NCAA record for sacking opposing quarterbacks. And most notably of all, the Patriots gave up nothing to get him.
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Chargers brought three-time All-Pro edge rusher Khalil Mack back from the injured reserve list. In a corresponding move, the Chargers waived third-year undrafted free agent Caleb Murphy.
Two days later, the Patriots claimed Murphy off the waiver wire. Presumably because there were no other claims for him preceding the one made by New England, the Patriots were awarded the claim.
Murphy played his college football for NCAA Division II school Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan.
During his senior year with the Bulldogs, Murphy recorded 24.5 sacks â an all-time NCAA record.
He broke the record of 24 set in 2002 by Terell Suggs of Arizona State.
Suggs went on to be drafted in the first round by Baltimore Ravens the following year. He played 17 years in the NFL, including 16 with Baltimore, finishing his probable Hall of Fame career with the Arizona Cardinals in 2019.
Signed by Vrabel Twice Now
Clearly due to the fact that he played in Division II against a lower-level of competition, Murphy did not find himself quite as highly sought after by NFL teams as Suggs had been. After he went undrafted in 2023, Vrabel’s Titans signed him to a free agent contract and gave him a place on the roster.
But the 6-foot-3, 254-pound Murphy got into only five games over two seasons for Tennessee before the Titans â then under coach Brian Callahan, waived him on October 26, 2024.
The Chargers quickly signed him, and played him in three games last season and six in 2025 before cutting Murphy prior to Sunday’s 38-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
That led to Murphy’s reunion with Vrabel, this time in New England, on Monday.
With both the Titans and Chargers, Murphy saw action primarily on special teams units. But he was credited with a half-sack in the Chargers’ September 28 three-point loss to the New York Giants.
The Patriots’ plans for Murphy were not entirely clear on Monday. The team’s outside linebacker group is headed by Harold Landry III â another former Tennessee Vrabel protege â and KâLavon Chaisson, a 2020 Jacksonville Jaguars first-round draft pick who was signed as a free agent by the Patriots in March.
New England also has three backups in Keion White, Elijah Ponder and Anfernee Jennings, so Murphy will likely once again see most of his snaps on special teams, unless a need arises at the edge rusher position.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Patriots Acquire Sack-Record Setting Edge Rusher Without Giving Up Anything appeared first on Heavy Sports.