It didn't take long for Nick Emmanwori to go from promising rookie to an integral part of an elite defense. Head coach Mike Macdonald knew how special Emmanwori would be from the beginning. He knew the defensive back could learn his different roles quickly and excel at them.
Each week, the rookie appears to be better, and he was already brilliant before. In Week 15 against Philip Rivers and the Indianapolis Colts, Emmanwori had Seattle's only sack, had a couple of passes broken up, and two tackles for loss. He was also second on the team with seven tackles.
While he might not yet be the leader of the defense, he is trending toward that role, too. He and cornerback Devon Witherspoon are going to be longtime Seahawks, and will likely be the real leaders after players such as Leonard Williams are no longer with the team. Emmanwori is already talking the talk.
Nick Emmanwori has the perfect words to sum up the Seattle Seahawks Week 15 victory
After Seattle's closer-than-expected victory against the Colts, the rookie took seven words to perfectly sum up a Mike Macdonald-led team. He told reporters, "We don't really flinch as a team."
The Seahawks easily could have. The game was expected to be a blowout, and Seattle would have been right to expect that as well. The Colts were playing with Philip Rivers in his first game back from retirement in five years, and without cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward.
Yet, in the first half, Indianapolis stunned everyone watching by jumping out to a 13-3 lead. Had the Colts been able to score another touchdown, they would have won the game. They couldn't. Indy only scored three more points, and that came on a 60-yard field goal with 47 seconds remaining.
Was the game plan by Indianapolis for Rivers ultra-conservative? Absolutely, but that was partly because players such as Nick Emmanwori provide sticky coverage and brutal intensity. The rookie defensive back was tasked with covering fellow rookie Tyler Warren many times, and Warren managed just three catches on six targets for only 19 yards.
The defense is good enough to put the team in a position to compete for a championship. The offense needs to be consistently better, but Nick Emmanwori and his friends and likely going to make the Seattle Seahawks dangerous once in the playoffs. The postseason at this point seems like a certainty, and a win against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16 would cement that.