Nick Emmanwori was the 17th defensive player chosen in the 2025 NFL Draft. When his first season ended, he finished second in the voting for defensive rookie of the year – behind only Carson Schwesinger, the 16th defender selected. That’s pretty good return on investment.
Emmanwori seemed such an ideal fit with Seattle’s Mike Macdonald that I thought it would have been reasonable to choose him in the first round. But GM John Schneider was able to wheel and deal and get both the guard he wanted – Grey Zabel – in Round 1, and Emmanwori at the beginning of Round 2. That’s why Schneider is the 2025 NFL executive of the year.
It was easy to see that Macdonald would be the ideal coach to take advantage of Emmanwori’s unique skill set. He entered the league with the size, speed, and toughness to mimic the versatile role that All-Pro Kyle Hamilton played under Macdonald in Baltimore.
Macdonald coached Hamilton to his first All-Pro season when he was the defensive coordinator of the Ravens in 2023. In his rookie season, Emmanwori appeared to be on a similar trajectory.
Nick Emmanwori’s role continues to evolve with the Seattle Seahawks
Emmanwori is still on that trajectory. But it’s fair to say he may have hit a small hiccup at the beginning of 2026. It is nothing to be concerned about. Indeed, in the long run, the growing pains that are taking place now may pay dividends in the long run.
In a sense, we are watching Macdonald, along with defensive coordinator Aden Durde, experiment to see where the edges of their second-year star’s immense talents lie.
Emmanwori has not been bad by any means in 2026. He continues to be one of the Seahawks' most versatile and active defenders. He was slowed by an injury that kept him out of Week1 and limited his snaps in Weeks 2 and 3. By Week 4, he was back at full strength.
It’s certainly possible that his slightly diminished play is attributable to that injury. But something else has been going on that bears watching.
Macdonald has been employing him differently in the first part of 2026. In his rookie year, Emmanwori lined up in the slot on about 50% of his snaps. Another third came in the box, playing the role of a linebacker or hybrid safety.
But he was so explosive that Macdonald had him at a traditional defensive position on roughly 12% of those snaps. The remaining handful of snaps saw him in a standard deep safety role or lined up outside as a perimeter cornerback.
Emmanwori is versatile enough to do it all, and that versatility kept opposing offenses off balance. They never knew where he would line up, and they never knew what he would do once the ball was snapped.
In general, Emmanwori is better at this stage of his career moving forward than moving back. Therefore, having him attack from a position near the line makes sense. And Macdonald has had him on or near the line more often than last year.
Through six weeks, his snaps at edge rusher, slot corner, and box safety have been roughly split into thirds. He has rarely lined up at deep safety or perimeter corner.
That makes sense, but it is possible they are overdoing those snaps at edge rusher. Through the first five weeks -- which, due to injury, really amount to about three-and-a-half games -- Emmanwori logged 47 snaps on the edge. That peaked in Week 5 against the 49ers when 18 of his 56 total snaps came as an edge rusher. He only had 88 snaps on the edge in the entire 2025 season.
Emmanwori is a phenomenal athlete, but he still only weighs 220 pounds. He can stun an offensive tackle who might outweigh him by 100 pounds with his speed and agility, but that can only work so many times. Eventually, that tackle is going to figure out how to counter Emmanwori’s burst.
His play continues to be quite good, but it is off a bit from last season. He is indeed generating more pass pressure because he is rushing the passer far more. But all of his other key stats – tackles, passes defended, and surprisingly, tackles-for-loss are off last year’s pace. His missed tackle rate is up a bit as well, which is not surprising given his increased line play.
If you place any stock in Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grades, the drop-off is even more stark than it appears to my eye. His pass rush grade is indeed better, but his overall grade has dropped from 71.0 last year to 57.6 this year. The biggest culprit is his run defense.
There was some indication that Macdonald may be dialing back his edge snaps in Week 6. He dropped back to 13 snaps – out of 58 – on the edge while his box and slot alignments increased. The overall spread looked more like last season. Unsurprisingly, he recorded his highest game grade of the year.
There are several possible reasons why the second-year player’s usage has changed this year. The best-case scenario is that Macdonald and his staff are simply experimenting to see what Emmanwori’s limits are. They should be pushing him early in the season to see exactly what he can and can’t do so that they know when the games are more meaningful down the stretch.
The other reason is more troubling. Boye Mafe is gone. Uchenna Nwosu and Demarcus Lawrence still play at a high level, but Derick Hall has yet to step up into a bigger role alongside them. And there is no fourth edge as there was last season.
Dante Fowler has not performed very well, and Connor O’Toole has barely seen the field. So a team that relied on a potent four-man edge rotation last year is struggling to find talent. It makes sense to see if Emmanwori can fill the gap.
But even if he can, that doesn’t mean he should. If he ends up sacrificing other areas of his game, it isn’t worth the gamble. Nick Emmawori is an explosive downhill player. You want him in the middle of things. But given his size, he is probably best suited to attack from a bit off the line, where oversized linemen will have a harder time getting their mitts on him.
I do not doubt that Macdonald will figure all of this out. He is not about to remove Emmanwori from the occasional edge rush where he can wreak havoc on an offensive line’s assignments. But the coach is not likely to leave his player on that edge long enough for offenses to figure him out.
That is not his strength, and this staff knows how to play to its strengths as well as any group of coaches in the league.
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