No matter what Byron Murphy does going forward for the Seahawks, and in life, nothing is going to be scarier than the week he just had.

Nothing is going to be more rewarding for him, either.

And it’s not just because the big defensive tackle had the game of his life Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He sacked Trevor Lawrence on the game’s first play, the first time he can ever remember doing that at any level of football, including pee wees in his native DeSoto, Texas. “First time,” he said, with a grin.

Seattle’s first-round pick last year had a career-high two sacks in all, two of the defense’s season-high seven sacks. Murphy also had seven pressures on Lawrence in the Seahawks’ 20-12 win.

That’s the most pressures of a quarterback Seattle’s had in five years.

“Byron had seven pressures? Or we did?” coach Mike Macdonald said after his team extended its franchise record with a ninth consecutive road win.

Macdonald has been saying since Murphy’s first NFL game in August 2024 his play has been better than his statistics, that sacks don’t begin to tell how impacting he’s been on Seattle’s defensive line that resumed dominating a game on Sunday.

“Byron had seven on his own? That’s pretty good,” Macdonald said.

“I’m going to claim that I was right on Byron, as I’ve been telling you for two years.”

Murphy did all that Sunday after spending most of the week at the hospital across the country.

His fiancee Maya delivered their first child, little Danee’ Azaria Murphy, back in the Seattle area before the Seahawks left for Florida. Baby Danee’ arrived three months premature. She weighed just 2 pounds, 5 ounces.

She was born Tuesday. Every moment Murphy wasn’t practicing or preparing to play the Jaguars, he was in the neonatal intensive-care unit at the hospital.

Nothing in football, few things in life, are as scary as seeing your newborn baby inside a clear, plastic incubator with wires and tubes coming in and out of her, with machines beeping alarms.

A 23-year-old first-time dad being inside a NICU. That’s even more harrowing.

“Dad strength,” which teammate Jarran Reed joked this past week Murphy now has?

“I guess I feel stronger,” Murphy said with a chuckle Sunday on his way out of Florida. “I don’t know.”

Oh, Murphy has more strength than most of his teammates will ever know.

The hospital. The NICU. His 2-pound baby girl. His concurrent concerns for his fiancee, two months before they are to marry.

Football doesn’t quite matter so much amid all that.

“It was hard,” Murphy said.

“It was hard getting a lot of sleep. I was at the hospital pretty much every day this past week. My daughter, she’s doin’ good. She’s in the NICU right now. She was three months early.

“But she’s breathing on her own, doing very well. She’s developing pretty fast.”

No ventilator, one of the biggest worries for babies in any NICU. That’s a win far bigger than the one Murphy and the Seahawks had in Jacksonville Sunday, or will have any other game day this season.

“Keep reminding myself I still have a job to do,” Murphy said. “Also, too, just checking on my baby girl to see if she’s good.

“I was able to balance that very well.”

And Mom? How’s she doing?

“Mom’s good,” Murphy said.

His grin lit up the bottom of Everbank Stadium, a smile so well-earned.

“Mom’s doin’ great!” Murphy said.

He shook his head affirmatively.

“Yeah, she’s doin’ good.”