{"id":859939,"date":"2026-04-08T00:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859939\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:42:24","slug":"weapon-x-wins-defensive-rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859939\/","title":{"rendered":"Weapon X Wins Defensive Rookie of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seattle Seahawks are\u00a0coming off just their second Super Bowl-winning season<\/a>\u00a0in franchise history and first since the 2013-14 campaign.<\/p>\n

Heading into the season, the Seahawks’ roster was given little credit for its status as a rising contender. They shocked the entire league and will enter 2026 as\u00a0the likely favorite to repeat<\/a>\u00a0as champions.<\/p>\n

With the 2025 season far in the rearview mirror, it’s time to take a look at some of the key players who contributed to the Super Bowl LX victory, as recognized with team awards. This week, we will hand out eight awards that help summarize the Seahawks’ outstanding campaign.<\/p>\n

Awards List (in order of release)Most Improved Player<\/a>\u00a0(MIP)Comeback Player of the Year<\/a>\u00a0(CPOY)Special Teams Player of the Year<\/a> (STPOY)Defensive Rookie of the Year (DROY)Offensive Rookie of the Year (OROY)Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY)Offensive Player of the Year (OPOY)Most Valuable Player (MVP)Defensive Rookie of the YearDB\/LB Nick Emmanwori\"Seattle<\/p>\n

Feb 8, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon (21) and Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) celebrate a stop against the New England Patriots in the first half in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This was a runaway award for Emmanwori, who was the only major rookie contributor for the Seahawks in 2025. He wasn’t a small piece either, as Emmanwori emerged as exactly the kind of difference maker that Mike Macdonald hoped he would be when they picked him in the second round.<\/p>\n

A physical freak, Emmanwori was drafted as a safety but ended up moving into a big nickel role that had him line up as both a defensive back and linebacker. Even though he missed three games, Emmanwori totaled 81 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 11 pass deflections, 2.5 sacks and one interception.<\/p>\n

Emmanwori had an excellent postseason as well, finishing with 13 tackles, four pass deflections and a fumble recovery in three playoff games. He finished second in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting leaguewide.<\/p>\n

There’s a good chance that Emmanwori will be recognized as one of the best defensive players in the league in just the next few years, and he’s already one of the best on the Seahawks’ roster.<\/p>\n

Honorable mentionDL Rylie Mills\"Seattle<\/p>\n

Feb 8, 2026; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Rylie Mills (98) reacts after sacking New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) during the second quarter in Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This is more ceremonial than anything. Mills suffered a season-ending knee injury in December 2024 while still at Notre Dame, and he didn’t make his season debut with the Seahawks until Week 15. Even then, Mills wasn’t playing much. He showed out in the Super Bowl LX victory, however, logging his first career sack in the biggest game of his life.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Enjoy free coverage of the Super Bowl champions from Seattle Seahawks On SI<\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

Sign Up For the Seahawks Daily Digest – OnSI\u2019s Free Seattle Seahawks Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seattle Seahawks are\u00a0coming off just their second Super Bowl-winning season\u00a0in franchise history and first since the 2013-14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-859939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116366315706903050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}