All summer, Nick Emmanwori has been almost everywhere in the Seahawks’ defense.
The rookie second-round draft choice has been a “big nickel,” third safety. Coach Mike Macdonald had the 220-pound force from South Carolina as an outside linebacker in training-camp practices. In preseason games Macdonald had him in the slot as a coverage safety. Now that the season is beginning, the new guy does position drills with starters Ernest Jones, Tyrice Knight and the inside linebackers.
Where is Emmanwori going to be Sunday for his first NFL game, Seattle’s opener against San Francisco at Lumen Field?
Over the moon.
“Gotta be cool with it. You know, try to be relaxed…But at the same time, I can’t really hold in the excitement for this,” Emmanwori said at his locker following practice Friday. “This is my first, real NFL game. You see stuff like that on the TV. Now I’m actually going to be playing this game!
“I’m really excited.”
Isn’t he, shouldn’t he, temper that excitement some to play clear-headed Sunday?
“I mean, that’s kind of hard, especially for me. This is my first game, as a rookie,” Emmanwori said.
“I got a lot of big dreams and aspirations about what I want to do, how I want to start off my career.”
From the night the Seahawks traded up 17 spots to the top of round two to draft Emmanwori in May, Macdonald has said his vision for using him is like he used Kyle Hamilton in Baltimore. Macdonald turned the Ravens’ 220-pound safety into a do-it-all All-Pro in the couple years before Seattle hired him to be a first-time head coach in February 2024.
This week, Emmanwori is listed as a second-stringer on the “depth chart” behind Pro Bowl safety Julian Love. That’s as meaningless as it is unofficial.
“He’s locked in,” defensive coordinator Aden Durde said of Emmawori.
He has been that for a while. Durde said that at the start of training camp, 6 1/2 weeks ago.
“Yeah, I think Coach Mike done a great job, especially with the game plan and stuff. Early in the preseason, we got a lot of stuff in,” Emmanwori said. “I think even from the first preseason game to now, I’ve grown a lot as far as my mental capacity and what I can take on, and what I know going into the game.”
Emmanwori likes that Macdonald’s play calls and changes at the snap are short, one or two words. For instance, the coach calls the big-nickel package that is Emmanwori’s when the Seahawks go to five defensive backs and expect the offense to perhaps run the ball in a passing situation “Irish.”
“He definitely made the call real short, real easy, real simple for me and other guys,” the rookie said. “We can play fast, and go out there and ball.
“I think I’m an impact player on the field at all times. So like, if it’s (playing on) first, second, third down, I think I can make give an impact to the defense,” he said. San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan is likely to scheme All-Pro tight end George Kittle, his team’s biggest receiving weapon, onto Emmanwori one-on-one in pass plays when Seattle’s rookie is on the field Sunday. A game within the game will be how often Macdonald leaves Emmanwori in coverage on Kittle when that happens, versus how much the Seahawks coach moves Emmanwori out of a man-coverage role in those situations and into perhaps pass-rush mode.
“There are a lot of things we’re going to ask of him,” Macdonald said.
“But his spirit about it and attitude (is) ‘I’m going to go do this drill today? Great. I’m going to do this drill? Awesome.’ Keep building those skills and keep training yourself to be the best player you can, and then it’s up to us as a coaching staff to keep putting him in positions where he can do stuff that he does well.”
Emmanwori has watched Kittle for years in games on his TV. He knows Kittle lining up across from him is going to happen in his first NFL game.
“It’s going to be a cool moment,” he said, “but at the same time we got a game to play. Whatever matchups we got, that’s what that’s what’s going to be like.
“You know, that’s where you’ve got to earn my respect, too. All those guys over there (they have) my respect.
“Just from watching them on TV to being in there, in person, it don’t matter what I see on TV,” Emmanwori said. “I’m out here playing. I don’t know. I don’t know what Christian McCaffrey runs like. I don’t know how George Kittle runs his routes. I don’t know how whoever’s over there catches the ball or feels like to tackle. So I don’t know. So I gotta find out: ‘OK, that’s what he does. He’s good at this.’
“So they got to earn my respect to on Sunday. You know, just as like I’m trying to (earn theirs).”
Rookie days
As Emmanwori talked Friday with reporters around his locker, his veteran teammates shouted playful vibes from across the locker room.
Because of his skill and his easy, Irmo, South Carolina, demeanor, Emmanwori was already popular with his teammates.
Then the Seahawks had a rookie talent show late last month.
They had it a team-dinner outing on the day in Green Bay between their joint practice at the Packers and their final preseason game in Lambeau Field.
Emmanwori brought the house down with his impressions of defensive backs coach Karl Scott.
“Yeah, I did K-Scott,” he said. “A lot of dudes laughed.”
“Man, they’ll be having me (do things) like tell jokes, out of nowhere,” he said. “Sing songs, out of nowhere. Whenever they want a song, whenever they want a joke, you gotta say a joke.
“They’ve been making sure I’m getting all the snacks, off Amazon. So I’ve been ordering snacks on the go. Every day, a new package of snacks. Whatever they want.
“I make sure my guys are gooooood.”
Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams told the story Thursday of Emmanwori coming up to him immediately after darn near the entire team, including veteran starters resting and wearing bucket hats, ran off the sideline onto the field into the end zone to celebrate cornerback Josh Jobe’s interception in the first half of the first preseason game. That was Aug. 7, against Las Vegas.
Emmanwori said to Williams, marveling: “Wow, we have got something special here!”
The percocious rookie reiterated that two days before his first NFL game.
“You can tell, like, everybody’s got a feeling in the locker room that we can go have a good, deep playoff run, wherever that takes us,” Emmanwori said. “But I think we’re pretty confident in our squad. You know, I think Coach Mike did a great job this offseason. We’re bonded as a team, 12 as one. We got all the mottos, everything we need.
“It’s us against them. It’s us against whoever.”
