Carson Schwesinger is probably going to win the 2025 defensive rookie of the year in the NFL. It will be well-deserved. The Browns' linebacker has been a tackling machine this season. But Schwesinger has not been the most transformative rookie defender. That honor goes to Seattle Seahawks’ Nick Emmanwori.
In the battle for top seed in the NFC on Saturday night, the Seahawks went into the hostile environs of Levi’s Stadium and thoroughly dominated a red-hot 49ers team. They battered Brock Purdy and kept a lid on Christian McCaffrey all night long. They held a Kyle Shanahan offense to its lowest point total since 2017 – Shanahan’s very first game as a head coach.
Certainly, it wasn’t all due to Nick Emmanwori. John Schneider and Mike Macdonald have built a defense with plus talent at every position group. Byron Murphy was a beast in the middle. All four edges made plays. Ernest Jones IV and Drake Thomas were in complete control. And the secondary rarely allowed 49ers’ receivers any breathing room.
But Emmanwori? He has become the magic key that that activates this juggernaut.
Nick Emmanwori shows exactly why the Seattle Seahawks traded up to draft him
As he has done with increasing frequency throughout his rookie season, Emmanwori filled up the stat sheet. He was Seattle’s leading tackler with seven. That number is not so impressive in a vacuum because the Seahawks’ defense was so dominant that San Francisco only ran 42 total plays.
He had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. He was all over George Kittle for most of the night. Kittle did catch passes when the Hawks’ rookie was in coverage, but Emmanwori was always in position to tackle him immediately. Apart from one deep out early in the fourth quarter, the 49ers' star had no room all night.
When John Schnieder packaged a couple of picks to move up to the top of Round Two and select the South Carolina defender last April, his size and speed immediately made Seahawks’ fans think of Kam Chancellor. But if you watched Mike Macdonald’s Baltimore Ravens’ defenses from a few years ago, you saw the new Kyle Hamilton.
Macdonald runs one of the most complicated schemes in the NFL. It requires versatility and speed at every position. No one plays for this Seahawks’ defense if they are one-dimensional. Hamilton is the poster child for that type of defender.
Emmanwori, at 6’3”, 220 pounds, and possessing 4.38 40 speed, can and does line up at every position apart from the interior of the defensive line. He blitzes and drops into coverage. He is in the middle of a lot of tackles.
He is most impressive in the flat. As he has gained experience and confidence throughout the year, his exceptional closing speed has allowed him to shut down dangerous players like McCaffrey and Kittle for minimal yards-after-catches. Not many players have the agility to stay with McCaffrey or the strength to handle Kittle. Nick Emmanwori has both.
It would be unfair to compare the rookie to the Ravens’ Hamilton at this point. Whether Hamilton is the best safety in the league misses the point. He doesn’t really play safety very much. He plays all over the field. Emmanwori is showing more and more comfort doing the same as the year goes on. Against the 49ers, he was usually near the ball and was rarely out of position.
This is what Macdonald must have envisioned when he first saw the rookie, but I doubt that even the Seahawks’ defensive mastermind thought the evolution from raw rookie to star would come this fast.
And that’s the scariest thing for the rest of the league. Nick Emmanwori was among the best players on the field on Saturday night. And he is only scratching the surface of his potential. He is in the ideal situation – with a brilliant coach and elite teammates – to reach that potential. Who knows … maybe he’ll take a few snaps at nose tackle next game.