Dolphins edge rusher Derrick McLendon doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, which is unusual for players who have been year-long NFL employees.
What he does have, however, is more important: power and physicality as an edge rusher, which has been on display throughout training camp. McLendon has at least five sacks during the first three weeks of practice and produced a sack and two tackles for loss in Sunday’s 24-24 preseason tie against Chicago.
McLendon and second-year edge player Grayson Murphy have been among players who have given the Dolphins front office a lot to think about during training camp. McLendon, and to a lesser extent Murphy, have gone from roster long shots to players making a case to make the 53-man roster at a very deep position.
“I’ve been consistent getting to the quarterback,” McLendon said last week, with the team off Monday in preparation for a practice in Detroit on Tuesday. “I’m an edge setter and a quarterback go-getter. I’m deceptively powerful. I know I don’t look it. I’m 255 pounds.
“My ability to bend is something I predicate my game off of. Me being 6-3, my bend, I can get back to about 5-10, 5-11. Most tackles are 6-6 and above. Their bend is probably at about 6-3. The science behind it, I don’t feel like they can bend with me. My abruptness, I think, gets the offensive linemen off beat.”
McLendon played his first four seasons at Florida State, producing seven sacks, 61 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles in 34 games. He had 3.5 sacks and 29 quarterback pressures in 12 starts in his final year at FSU, but then left for Colorado as a grad transfer in part because David Kelly, a member of the Seminoles’ staff, left to join Deion Sanders’ Colorado staff.
He had 1.5 sacks and 14 tackles in limited playing time in his one year at Colorado, then entered the NFL 15 months ago as a rookie free agent with Carolina. The Panthers released him and he joined the Dolphins’ practice squad last September.
“I was not happy with the practice squad,” he said. “That was not satisfying to me.”
So he enlisted the help of a couple of players with NFL experience, including his cousin, Steve McLendon, a former nose tackle with 90 NFL starts. Together, they ‘trained things I need to improve on. I improved on my physicality in the run game.”
He said having a greater familiarity with the playbook has helped him in recent weeks.
“I came in the first week of the season last year; everything was going so fast and they already had gone through three or four installs,” he said. “To be able to go through OTAs and mini-camp and go through those installs, now the playbook is becoming a back of my hand type thing.”
The Dolphins’ outside linebacker room is loaded.
Barring injuries, McLendon, who is 6-4 and 250 pounds, is competing with Quinton Bell, Mo Kamara, Cameron Goode and Murphy for one or two jobs behind Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb and Chop Robinson. Inside linebacker Willie Gay Jr. also can play some on the outside.
Dolphins outside linebackers coach Ryan Crow “told us this was going to be the most competitive room maybe in the NFL,” McLendon said. He made clear that he’s not daunted by the competition.
“I welcome it coming from Tucker High School [in Georgia], Florida State, Colorado,” McLendon said. “A lot of those were very competitive environments as well. I felt like I was prepped for that task at hand…. I’m showing that I know my stuff, that I can make plays.”
He said setting the edge on running play is “something Ryan Crow has done a great job teaching me, changing my angle from a straight approach to a 45 degree angle in the run game.”
With that, McLendon thanked reporters for talking to him - yes, that’s unusual - and went about the rest of the day, with a spot on the 53 fueling him through simmering heat and long odds.
As for Murphy, the second-year outside linebacker from UCLA, showed promise as an edge rusher in training camp last season before sustaining a torn ACL in preseason against Atlanta.
He’s back and putting together a strong camp. Though not everything he put on tape against the Bears was great, he had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. He knows how to get to the quarterback, and that’s a prized commodity in the NFL.
Phillips calls Murphy “probably the best pure pass rusher on the team” - lofty praise on a team with Phillips, Chubb and emerging second-year player Robinson.
That compliment is “awesome coming from a guy like that,” Murphy said. “I’m really excited he said that about me.”
Murphy, who had five sacks each of his two seasons at UCLA after three years at Texas State, said his recovery from his knee injury had a creative wrinkle: He chased around his puppy.
“I got a dog and the puppy had the zoomies and I got my agility chasing her around with her velo and got the knee confident doing some cuts playing with the dog,” he said. “I’m feeling good off the injury, making plays in camp.”
(For those who aren’t dog owners, the zoomies are random bursts of energy in which dogs run frenetically, often in circles. The zoomies usually last a few minutes or less.)
Murphy has a twin brother Gabriel, who also was injured last season and is now trying to make the Minnesota Vikings.
“It’s nice going through an injury with your brother, your best friend.” Grayson Murphy said. “His determination rubs off on you.”