Nick Emmanwori makes plays everywhere for Seahawks

It’s pronounced EE-manwori, accenting the E.

As in, “Everywhere.”

When the Seahawks traded up 17 spots to draft the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Nick Emmanwori this spring, coach Mike Macdonald immediately likened him to Kyle Hamilton. Hamilton is Baltimore’s do-it-all safety of about the same size. Macdonald as Ravens defensive coordinator a couple of years ago, turned Hamilton into a superstar by having him play all over the back seven of the Ravens defense.

But he hasn’t done what Emmanwori’s doing for Macdonald in Seattle.

Just over halfway through his rookie season with the Seahawks, Emmanwori is doing more than he did starring in college at South Carolina. He’s doing even more than the All-Pro Hamilton does in Baltimore.

“We didn’t really play Kyle on the line of scrimmage,” Macdonald said Monday of his 2022 and ‘23 season as Ravens defensive coordinator, “like we have with Nick.”

Yes, Emmanwori is now playing as a defensive lineman.

An overlooked factor to how the Seahawks’ defense is third in the NFL in points allowed, second against the run and just got only the fourth shutout across the entire league this season is how Emmanwori’s excellence everywhere — and we mean everywhere — is allowing Macdonald to be more varied and creative than he was in his first season coaching Seattle in 2024.

In the team’s shutout win over Minnesota 26-0 Sunday, the Seahawks’ first shutout in 10 years, Macdonald had the rookie safety Emmanwori at…defensive end.

Macdonald said in his 11 years of NFL coaching, one season as the college defensive coordinator at Michigan plus his first three years in college football as a quality-control assistant at Georgia, his alma mater, he’s never had a player like Emmanwori.

The rookie has already, in three months of NFL games, progressed from nickel safety to outside linebacker to, now, on the defensive line. All at 220 pounds.

“Learning different positions is pretty cool,” Emmanwori said, grinning. “I can do a lot of different things. So, just playing where I can make an impact, it’s pretty cool doing that, too.”

Of the 50 snaps Emmanwori played against the Vikings, The News Tribune charted him at end, on the line, seven times. Six were outside the tight end. One time, he was inside the tight end and on the outside shoulder of the tackle.

“We had him at nine technique and five technique,” Macdonald said, confirming the outside- and inside-end alignments for Emmanwori.

The Falcons (4-8), preparing to play the Seahawks (9-3) this weekend in Atlanta, then the Colts (8-4), and especially Seattle’s division-rival Rams (9-3) for their Dec. 18 rematch at Lumen Field, all now have more to study to combat Emmanwori everywhere.

“He’s playing the slot. We’re putting a lot on his plate,” Macdonald said. “Part of my message to him is that ‘You’ve got a lot on your plate and there’s a lot of expectations’ — and rightfully so; he’s earned that and those opportunities — ‘so go prepare your tail off to the best your ability, so you can go play the type of brand of ball that you want to play and then go let it rip.

“’If something happens throughout the game, we’ll put you out of that situation. But just go to the next one and keep rolling.’” Emmanwori shrugs at all Macdonald is throwing at him already. “Yeah, they’ve been giving me a little bit more, but I think it’s just trying to find what I do to the best of my abilities,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s, like, anything special.

“I think we’ve got a bunch of talented dudes on our defense, especially in the secondary.

“So I’ll give them a challenge they really haven’t seen before.”

Emmanwori likely would have been doing all this earlier this season. But he got a high-ankle sprain on his fourth NFL play, on the first defensive series of the opener Sept. 7 against San Francisco. Teammate DeMarcus Lawrence fell on his leg as Emmanwori was tackling 49ers star Christian McCaffrey for a loss.

Yes, Emmanwori’s first tackle was of an All-Pro, for lost yardage.

He missed the next three games, returning for week five at Arizona. He had five tackles and one for a loss in Seattle’s win over the Cardinals.

Against the Vikings, he again defied his listing as a safety. He aligned as an outside linebacker 27 times, including on a couple blitzes of debuting rookie quarterback Max Brosmer. Emmanwori lined up four times as an inside linebacker next to Ernest Jones. He was back as a safety on the third level of the defense 12 other times.

That included in the slot and outside, and even in man-to-man coverage on All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson. In the second quarter in man coverage on Jefferson out of right slot, the rookie ran stride for stride with the NFL’s best wide receiver. He actually ran Jefferson’s outside-breaking route to the sideline for him. He was inside and in front of Jefferson as Brosmer’s throw to him arrived. Emmanwori should have intercepted it. The pass went off his hands incomplete.

“That’s a great play,” Macdonald said. “I know he’s disappointed for not coming down with it, but you’ve got to be able to move on. You’ve got to be able to say, ‘Hey, that was a missed opp. That’s OK. I’m going to go reload and go play the next play.’

“And he’s going to learn from that. There’s a lot of great plays he put out there. And again, we’re asking him to do a lot. He helped us win that football game from some of the things that we’re asking him to do, skill-set wise.”

But guarding Jefferson one-on-one down the field?

“He’s shown the ability to do it,” the head coach and defensive guru said. “If you show the ability to do something, we’re going to let you go do it. It’s really that simple. “But it’s pretty cool. It allows us to do some things in the back end that we’ve really never been able to do.”

In the third quarter, Emmanwori was in man coverage again, this time aligned as deeper safety on Minnesota’s tight end. T.J. Hockinson beat Emmanwori inside on a seam route for a 29-yard pass from Brosmer.

It was the Vikings’ longest gain Sunday, and one of only two plays in 50 snaps that went for more than 13 yards against Macdonald’s defense.

Later in that period, Emmanwori was at outside linebacker when Jefferson caught a pass in the left flat. The rookie came up fast, grabbed Jefferson and pushed him back to stop his forward progress. Then Emmanwori slammed Jefferson to the turf, well after the play was over. That drew a 15-yard penalty.

Macdonald sees that as what he likes to call “the cost of doing business.”

Emmanwori rarely lined up in the same position more than two plays in a row against the Vikings. Macdonald said he and the defensive coaches are still, 12 games into the season, “working through” the right calls to efficiently and effectively move Emmanwori from one position to another from play to play. “Yeah, you have to have certain ways to make it easy for guys, so they know where to go and what to do,” Macdonald said. “There are ways for us to move him around, and we’re working through that.

“We’ve never really had a player like him.

“We are making it up as we go to a certain extent. I hate to admit that, but we kind of are.”

While every other Seahawk has his specific position coach, Emmanwori doesn’t have specific position. Safeties coach Jeff Howard is something of a personal customizer for Emmanwori, getting him from assignment to assignment. He goes from outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge, to defensive coordinator Aden Durde, to defensive backs coach Karl Scott, all to teach the precocious rookie his different spots.

“There’s extra time. This is, like, an all-hands-on deck (deal),” Macdonald said. “Jeff’s done such a great job with him, but Jeff is coaching a position too. So now you start coaching from different techniques on the front.

“Well, now CP, AD’s got him. He meets with Karl and some of the DB stuff. He’s with the DBs all the time. And then all the extra stuff for the line of scrimmage is with the some of the front guys, like (pass-rush moves) in pre-practice.” When they drafted him and compared him to Hamilton, Macdonald and his defensive staff, did they think they’d be having Emmanwori play end in his rookie season?

“No,” Macdonald said, “When you put the numbers on the board, you don’t rule it out. Down the line, you said, ‘Hey, maybe we can create some fronts where he’s on the line.’

“He’s just shown the ability to do it.”

So, no, the comparisons to Hamilton no longer apply. Emmanwori is doing more — and excelling at all.

“With Kyle, we started with him at safety, and then we moved him closer to the ball,” Macdonald said. “With Nick, we’ve really just started him at nickel and just let him go back between nickel and dime. We didn’t really play Kyle on the line of scrimmage like we have with Nick. That’s probably a little bit of a difference.

“Both are obviously tremendous players. I think there are a lot of similarities. But they also have some parts of their game that are pretty distinctly different that make their talents come to life a little bit more in different directions.

“But, all positive.”