The reason the Philadelphia Eagles seem to just reload their roster every year is that they never take their foot off the gas.
Part of that comes with having an elite scouting department that’s going to dig up prospects you’ve never heard of and turn them into stars. And they think outside the box.
“What happened at UTSA’s Pro Day on Wednesday was insane, and I don’t see anyone talking about it: Kicker (!!) Jaffer Murphy was clocked as low as 4.47 in the 40-yard dash and made a 70-yard FG,” NFL reporter Arye Pulli wrote on his official X account. “He also made 12 of his 13 attempts. Murphy spoke with over a dozen teams, I’m told … Among the teams in attendance, per source: the Philadelphia Eagles.”
The Eagles have had the same kicker for the last decade in 2-time Super Bowl champion and NFL All-Pro Jake Elliott, but it might be a genius move to get both Murphy and Elliott on the roster.
Murphy’s specialty right now is kickoffs, which he could come in and do for the Eagles right away and save the 31-year-old Elliott’s leg for field-goal kicking, where he’s still among the NFL’s very best.
“Who got the most NFL attention after UTSA’s Pro Day?” Fox San Antonio’s Chuck Miketinac wrote on X. “Kick off specialist Jaffer Murphy, a former college soccer player, turned D-2 place kicker. Jaffer made 12 of his 13 FG’s through a heavy cross wind, including a 70-yarder that hit the back net. He also ran a 4.5!”
Tracking Jaffer Murphy’s Path to NFL Prospect
Murphy, 6-foot-1 and 183 pounds, starred in soccer and basketball at Marion (Iowa) High and wound up playing 2 sports for 5 different colleges.
He started off playing soccer at Drake for 2 seasons, where he was an All-Missouri Valley Conference Freshmen Team pick in 2020. Murphy also played soccer at Florida Gulf Coast before transferring to NCAA Division II Lake Erie (Ohio) College to play football.
At Lake Erie in 2024, Murphy made 13 field goals and was 17-of-17 on PATs. He kicked 4 field goals over 50 yards and set the school and conference record with a 60-yard field goal against Kentucky Wesleyan — the longest field goal for a Division II kicker that year.
Murphy transferred from Lake Erie to North Carolina, where he went through spring football before transferring to UTSA, where he was the kickoff specialist in 2025. IN his 1 FBS season, Murphy had 54 touchbacks on 88 kickoffs — both No. 2 on UTSA’s single-season records list.
Mother Planted Seed for Football Dreams
Murphy played high school football in his junior and senior years but said he “didn’t take it seriously” because he was focused on being a college soccer prospect.
After a disappointing soccer season at FGCU, Murphy told his mother, Maya, that he didn’t like how things had gone and wasn’t sure about his future — she responded by asking her son if he wanted to do something “crazy” and pursue a football career.
“At first I was kind of confused,” Murphy said in 2024, “… but I said, ‘You know what? Honestly, let’s go for it. Let’s see where this takes me,’ and so from there on I got into contact with different coaches, different training coaches and just put my best foot through the door and said, ‘Hey, let’s go do this football thing.’ “
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