Byron Murphy will be good test for Rams receiving corps

With the No. 33 pick in the second round, the Arizona Cardinals selected Washington’s Byron Murphy to give the Los Angeles Rams a good test on offense moving forward.

Just when the Los Angeles Rams were hopeful that Washington’s Byron Murphy would potentially slip to No. 45 in the second round to help fill a need at cornerback, it looks like the NFC champions will be facing him twice a year instead.

After most of the talk from the first round was focused on the Arizona Cardinals selecting Kyler Murray with the top overall pick, Kliff Kingsbury and company kicked off the second round on a high note as well by going with Murphy.

As soon as the first round came to an end without Murphy ending up on a team, it seemed pretty obvious that it wouldn’t be long on Friday before the rookie cornerback found out which team he would begin his NFL career with.

Arizona may have been one of the biggest laughing stocks in the league during the 2018 season, but at least with Murphy part of the mix, the Cardinals are moving in the right direction on defense after focusing on offense with Murray Thursday night.

From Arizona’s perspective, the team is smart enough to know that in order to compete in the NFC West, they’re going to need to be strong enough on the defensive side of the football to keep the high-powered offense of the Rams in check.

Murphy obviously isn’t going to solve all of the problems for the Cardinals, and could take a little time to adjust to playing at the NFL level, but at least this selection should have the Rams receiving corps on alert.

Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, and Cooper Kupp provide Los Angeles with one of the most dangerous trios the NFL has to offer at receiver.

And as long as Kupp’s recover from a torn ACL continues to go well, there’s every reason to believe they will help the Rams’ offense be one of the best in the league once again in 2019.

Between the addition of Murphy along with already having Patrick Peterson, this Rams receiving corps will face a much tougher challenge during both meetings with the Cardinals next season.

Thanks to Murphy falling out of the first round, Arizona was able to earn a major steal in the second round right away, and it will be fun to see what kind of problems, if any at all, this causes Los Angeles on offense with their elite group of receivers.