Redskins' "puppy" Trent Murphy in Gruden's sights

After the Redskins inked outside linebacker Ryan Kerrigan to a well-funded extension, the focus turned to the opposite side of the field.

Trent Murphy started at right outside backer in 2014, his rookie season. In eight starts, he tallied 32 tackles and forced two fumbles before breaking a bone in his right hand and missing the last game of the year.

But he's been getting positive attention this offseason after a good showing at OTAs and minicamp. 

"Bigger, faster, stronger" has been the refrain for the Stanford product as he looks to lock down the starting nod at his position, and be potentially the breakout story for the Redskins this season.

And as training camp opened on Thursday, the right people are starting to take notice.

"Trent Murphy has done a really excellent job," head coach Jay Gruden said in his meeting with reporters before the team's first practice in Richmond.

"In OTAs, he probably had about 15 sacks -- would've been sacks if we let the whistle blow. He's really put on some weight. He's stronger. He looks a little quicker. And he's got great knowledge of the system."

Gruden took special notice of Murphy's work ethic.

"He's like a puppy," he said. "He just gets in the weight room and he's just gonna get stronger and stronger and he's gonna become an angry dog here before too long."

Technically, the job is open to competition between Murphy and Preston Smith, the Redskins' second-round selection in the 2015 draft. But Gruden said it would take a serious showing for anyone to take Murphy out of that job as it stands today.

"Trent's gonna be a tough guy to get out of that lineup," he said. 

"He plays hard, he's a physical guy, he's long, and he can move around quite a bit. Preston, we're excited about what he can do, and we got some young guys that played a lot last year that had to play when [Brian] Orakpo got hurt and Trent got hurt, so those guys will also compete, too."