Film Breakdown: How Nick Emmanwori Allows Seahawks to Break the Rules
Over the past several decades, as offenses have evolved into more complex, pass-oriented attacks, NFL defenses have been in survival mode trying to adapt on the opposite side of the football.
Thanks to Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and others orchestrating record-setting aerial assaults, thus making the ground-and-pound run games of earlier eras obsolete, teams have undergone dramatic personnel shifts since the turn of the century. Once 250-plus pound heavy hitters, linebackers have continued to get lighter and faster in an effort to counter the proliferation of running backs and tight ends being deployed as pass catching weapons. Many of the big-bodied defensive ends who once dominated the sport have been fazed out in favor of speedier EDGE defenders who can pin their ears back and hunt quarterbacks.
Even with those changes, most defensive coordinators have to still mix and match personnel groupings over the course of a game. In obvious passing situations, an extra defensive back or two - or in some cases three - sub in for nickel, dime, and bandit sub-packages, sending a defensive lineman and/or a linebacker off the field to maximize coverage capabilities. In short yardage, however, teams still have to have the brutes to be able to rotate in against heavier offensive sets, substitutions that can be difficult to execute, especially against offenses that utilize no huddle tempo on a regular basis.
In other words, at least for most of the NFL, clear limitations remain for how often they can employ nickel and dime packages. Smart offenses can dictate the personnel they see through their own schematics and formation usage, giving them the upper hand.
But for the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, that’s no longer the case thanks to the arrival of Nick Emmanwori. The do-it-all hybrid slot safety unicorn who moonlights as an EDGE rusher as well as an inside linebacker while possessing 4.3 speed provides coach Mike Macdonald with the ultimate cheat code, stealing that long-held advantage away from opposing quarterbacks and the offense.
As a rookie, Emmanwori gradually added more responsibilities to his plate as he became more comfortable with Macdonald’s defense, starting off primarily as a big nickel in the slot before transitioning to dime linebacker and eventually starting to work off the EDGE. Finishing second in Rookie of the Year balloting, he totaled 81 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and eight pass breakups in the regular season for Seattle while playing extensive snaps in the slot, in the box, and off the edge.
By the time the playoffs rolled around, Emmanwori had evolved into the ultimate chess piece for the Seahawks’ No. 1 ranked “Dark Side” defense, generating four pass breakups during a dominant run to a Lombardi Trophy. And at 22 years of age, he’s just getting started.
How has Emmanwori’s presence allowed Macdonald and the Seahawks to break all of the rules? Diving into the All-22 film, here’s how his once-in-a-lifetime versatility and positional multiplicity coupled with off the charts athleticism and size translates to him being a coach’s worst game planning nightmare:
Big Nickel Extraordinaire
The Seahawks aren’t the only NFL team that sprinkles in safeties as slot defenders, as the trend has come more in vogue over the past 15 years. According to TruMedia, 21 safeties played at least 100 regular season/playoff coverage snaps in the slot last season, including Emmanwori with 312, fourth-most in the league for the position. One year prior, 22 safeties logged at least 100 slot coverage snaps.
Before coming to Seattle, Macdonald had one of the best in the business in Kyle Hamilton at his disposal with the Ravens, giving his defense the flexibility to handle offenses that leaned heavily on tight ends in the passing game while also adding another hammer to slow down the run near the line of scrimmage. During his two seasons as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator, he deployed the 6-4 Hamilton in the slot for 354 and 465 snaps in 2022 and 2023 respectively, maximizing the former Notre Dame star’s versatility as much as he could within the confines of his scheme and turning the safety into a household name in quick fashion.
Not surprisingly, Macdonald quickly made his intentions to replicate that plan clear with Emmanwori, who cut his teeth in training camp playing most of his snaps in the nickel role. As training camp unfolded, he started to find his groove, reeling in multiple interceptions at open practices with fans in attendance, including a remarkable diving pick where he used every bit of his 6-3 frame and 32 1/2-inch arms to secure the catch before the ball hit the ground. The coaching staff also started to sprinkle in blitzes, something he didn’t do much at South Carolina, only for him to prove to be a natural once the regular season arrived.
Typically, when it comes to big-bodied safeties such as Emmanwori and Hamilton who historically have a tougher time changing direction due to their size, opposing coaches attempt to scheme their way into ideal matchups pitting them against speedy, shifty slot receivers. But that tactic rarely worked against Emmanwori, whose speed, quickness, and stature allowed him to be able to match up against all types of receivers and tight ends without a hitch while also being a force multiplier with his run defense and blitzing ability, allowing Macdonald to confidently keep him at that spot without concern about switching personnel.
Leading all safeties in pass breakups for the season, Emmanwori regularly got his hands into passing lanes, impressively doing so against opponents of all shapes, sizes, and speeds. While working out of the slot, two plays in particular showcased his rare coverage chops against NFC West foes, starting with a difficult test against First-Team All-Pro tight end Trey McBride in Week 11.
In the shadow of their own goal post with the Cardinals facing second down at the Seahawks six-yard line, Arizona broke the huddle with a 2×2 set and McBride lined up as an inline tight end on the right side of the formation. Seattle called Cover 1 with safety Julian Love in a shallow zone in the end zone and everyone underneath him in man coverage, including Emmanwori shadowing the playmaking tight end four yards off the line of scrimmage. McBride ran a quick out route, but the safety stayed glued to his backside going down the goal line and legally reached around from the outside with his left arm to swat away a potential touchdown for a key pass breakup.
Two months later, with the stakes much greater in the NFC Championship Game against the Rams, Emmanwori drew an equally challenging matchup against future Hall of Fame receiver Davante Adams, who has carved up many of the NFL’s best slot cornerbacks for the past decade. Such a test would normally be a daunting one for a rookie, but the athletic safety did a fantastic job of staying in phase with the savvy route runner on a 10-yard in-breaking dig, keeping a hand on the receiver’s back without grabbing and reaching in front to knock Matthew Stafford’s pass over the middle away for an incompletion.
Quality slot defenders must be effective tacklers against the run, as they normally play closer to the line and serve as another line of defense setting the edge from between the hash marks to the numbers. While he left a few tackles on the field, Emmanwori exhibited the physicality and toughness Macdonald demands at the position while tallying stops in bunches from the secondary, allowing the top rushing defense in the league by yards per carry and Expected Points Added (EPA) per play to stay in defensive back-heavy groupings even on early downs.
During a Week 6 road tilt in Jacksonville, the Jaguars lined up under center in 12 personnel, motioning the slot receiver across the formation pre-snap against the Seahawks 4-2-5 “Over” front, which features a 3-tech defensive tackle to the strong side and 1-tech nose tackle to the weak side of the offensive formation Emmanwori initially looked to follow the receiver, but he stopped before getting to the hash, strafing for a few strides before crashing down on the line of scrimmage. With nose tackle Jarran Reed winning inside leverage against his blocker, running back Travis Etienne had to bounce the split zone run back to his left, quickly getting devoured by the massive safety for no gain on the play.
Against another AFC South foe in Week 15, Emmanwori played a starring role in shutting down Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor. Indianapolis attempted to create gap integrity issues with misdirection by calling a “pin and fold” counter out of shotgun with the tight end fold blocking back inside behind the right tackle. Instinctively reading run immediately after the snap, the young safety rocketed from his coverage responsibility through the line of scrimmage in backside pursuit, chasing down Taylor before he could get a full head of steam for another run stuff netting no yardage.
Multi-Purpose Dime Linebacker
In today’s NFL, contrary to earlier decades, it’s become far less common to see linebackers weighing in north of 240 pounds. In fact, looking at this year’s crop of linebackers selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, only four of the 29 players at the position above 240 pounds, while 11 of them weighed under 230 pounds. This isn’t some new phenomenon either, as a changing game has altered the types of athletes now playing in the middle of the defense to combat spread offenses at lower levels.
Watching him go through drill work on the practice field, Emmanwori doesn’t look out of place when working with linebackers, something Macdonald started to delve into midway through his first training camp last August. Early on, most of his snaps in the box came as a strong safety lined up alongside Ernest Jones and Drake Thomas in nickel packages, providing extra support against the run and offering another threat for teams to monitor from a pass rushing standpoint. Those looks continued to be a big part of Macdonald’s play calling menu all the way up to the Super Bowl.
But as the 2025 season progressed, particularly after Week 10, Macdonald started to mix in more dime packages with six defensive backs on the field, often subbing out Thomas and sliding Emmanwori into the second linebacker spot next to Jones. In doing so, the Seahawks often had as many as four safeties on the field at once, allowing the mad scientist on the sidelines to create uncertainty for opposing quarterbacks reading coverages with Ty Okada, Julian Love, and Coby Bryant all capable of playing either safety spot and Emmanwori being a Swiss army knife on steroids who could seemingly play anywhere.
Though Emmanwori still had plenty to learn at the NFL level, he played linebacker in high school before committing to South Carolina, so he didn’t come into the league as a complete novice either. That experience coupled with his extensive time already playing in the box as an enforcer at the strong safety position that functioned like a third linebacker set him up for early success, and everything started to fire on all cylinders in a historic performance against the Falcons in Week 14.
Facing off against one of the league’s most explosive backs in Bijan Robinson and a quality change of pace runner in Tyler Allgeier, Emmanwori quickly became a thorn in the home team’s side, using his speed and explosiveness as a weapon while lined up in the box. Reduced down to the box against a two-tight end formation, he let the blockers rapidly take him to the football, flowing quickly through the B gap off the backside of Leonard Williams and slipping past two failed blocks before upending Allgeier two yards in the backfield for the first of two tackles for loss on the afternoon.
Later in the same game, Emmanwori wrought destruction once again, this time feasting on Robinson against a heavy 13 personnel grouping with three tight ends on the field. Lined up over the strongside C gap, he snuffed out a duo run from the backside immediately after the snap to Kirk Cousins, flying like a bat out of hell from the backside linebacker spot to drag down the back before he could get back to the line of scrimmage, setting yet another drive back for Atlanta.
As if the Falcons hadn’t already had enough of Emmanwori - he also had an interception off a deflection from teammate Devon Witherspoon out of the slot and blocked a field goal - destroying their offense, Macdonald decided to cut him loose as a blitzer to put the cherry on top of the stat-stuffing sundae. The Seahawks walked seven defenders up to the line of scrimmage pre-snap, including Thomas and Tyrice Knight, dropping Thomas and EDGE rusher Uchenna Nwosu back into coverage. With Knight occupying two blockers on his blitz, Emmanwori shot through the B gap without any resistance, engulfing Cousins in the backfield for a rapid fire sack.
Fast forwarding five weeks later, with an NFC West title and the No. 1 seed on the line in Santa Clara, Macdonald utilized the aforementioned dime sets with six defensive backs with great success against the 49ers on passing downs to disrupt Brock Purdy’s timing. Early in the third quarter, with Thomas subbing out on 3rd and 13, Emmanwori took his place as the second inside linebacker next to Jones, while the Seahawks overloaded the left side of San Francisco’s offensive line with three defensive linemen rushing. As Jones dropped back into zone, the rookie blitzed the strongside A gap behind a hard slanting Byron Murphy, bouncing off a block and crashing down on the quarterback to deliver a jarring hit that forced a wobbly incompletion, leading to a punt.
Between his strong safety and pseudo-linebacker duties, according to Pro Football Focus charting, Emmanwori played 340 snaps in the box at the two positions and just as he did in the slot, he held his own in pass coverage. Five of his 12 pass breakups between the regular season and playoffs - or nearly 50% - came from linebacker alignment, where he often found himself matched up against tight ends or running backs while also picking up his share of crossing routes from the outside.
One of his two games on the season where he recorded three pass breakups came against the Texans on Monday Night Football in Week 7, and some of that output came as a dime linebacker. Houston dialed up play action out of a strong I-formation look and after scanning the field, quarterback C.J. Stroud had a tight window open to connect with star receiver Nico Collins over the middle on a slant route, as the wideout got a couple of steps of separation on cornerback Josh Jobe. But Emmanwori makes up an incredible amount of ground fast with long strides and without a receiver in his zone drop, he astutely read Stroud’s eyes and let them take him to the ball, leaping in front of the receiver to knock the pass away for an incompletion.
On a similar play against the Colts, Emmanwori initially lines up off the edge as one of six Seahawks on the line of scrimmage, giving a signal he might be coming on the blitz. But instead, as Indianapolis tries to move the chains with a levels concept with three different crossers coming from a trips right set, he drops back into his hook zone responsibility underneath in a Cover 4 look as the dime linebacker, and as tight end Tyler Warren comes open over the middle on a 12-yard dig, he delivers a massive hit at the catch point, managing to jar the ball out of his hands for a hard-nosed forced incompletion.
Budding EDGE Weaponry
Given the evolution of the sport in recent years, the line between strong safety and off-ball linebacker has become a bit more blurred. But while seeing 220-pound safeties move into the box and look like natural fits at linebacker can be seen regularly on Sundays with the two roles carrying similar responsibilities with the preference for similar traits, the same cannot be said in regard to safeties moving up to the line of scrimmage as edge rushers.
While seeing a safety walk up to the line and blitz a fair amount wasn’t abnormal - see Jamal Adams with the Seahawks in 2020 - there hasn’t been a defensive back come along withe capability of threatening tackles upfield with speed as a legitimate pass rusher while also having enough size and physicality to be able to set a firm edge against the run to warrant more than just a handful of snaps in the trenches.
Or, at least, that was the reality before Emmanwori came along.
Not wanting to overwhelm him with too many responsibilities to slow down his development and render him thinking too much, Emmanwori rarely lined up off tackle as a true edge in the first half of his rookie season, playing an average of 3.5 snaps in that alignment in his first six games with the Seahawks. But as he got his feet underneath him after missing three games early in the year due to an ankle sprain, Macdonald took the training wheels off as the calendar turned to November, beginning the next stage in the rookie’s evolution by starting to sprinkle in more designed opportunities for him to rush the passer and line up in a two-point stance out wide.
In five of Seattle’s final eight games, including the Super Bowl win over New England, Emmanwori hit double digits for snaps as an EDGE. Not looking out of place at all, he generated nine tackles and an impressive 28.6% pressure rate with a partial sack on 108 snaps in the role, proving he could not only turn up the heat on quarterbacks, but also hold up as a reliable run defender who could shed blocks to get to ball carriers.
Interestingly, months before the Seahawks fully immersed themselves in the Emmanwori edge experience, the rookie flashed his potential in that utility on just his fourth play as a pro, the same snap that he unfortunately rolled his ankle in the season opener. Crashing down as a fifth defender on the line of scrimmage like a bullet bearing down on a target against a singleback inside zone concept, running back Christian McCaffrey didn’t have any time to react before No. 3 blew him up two yards in the backfield, managing to finish the play with authority despite getting his ankle caught underneath him during the tackle.
Fast forwarding to the NFC Championship Game, Emmanwori had progressed through much of his early “course work” learning to play off the edge on the fly, with his increased flexibility playing nicely into Macdonald’s hands as a play caller. With the Rams threatening deep in Seahawks territory, the rookie showed off his tenacity against a downhill duo run, taking on tight end Davis Allen at the point of attack and shedding his block to maintain an outside shoulder free. Stellar play up front forced Kyren Williams to spill the run wide right, running right into Emmanwori’s grasp for a minimal gain as the rookie played the part to near-perfection.
In the pass rushing department, Emmanwori didn’t have many opportunities to rush the quarterback as a true edge in a four-man front, and that may never be something that he does often. However, his ability to do that in a pinch opens up the whole playbook for Macdonald in regard to zone blitzes and mixing up disguises on who’s coming and who’s not.
Revisiting the Week 11 thumping of the Cardinals at Lumen Field, as just one example, Emmanwori waits until late in the play clock to walk his way up to the line of scrimmage, nearly lining up shoulder-to-shoulder with defensive end Demarcus Lawrence to create a five-man front. Rather than a zone blitz, Macdonald opts to still only send four after Jacoby Brissett, with Emmanwori coming screaming off the left side and defensive end Boye Mafe dropping back into zone on the opposite side. Arizona running back Emari Demercado stepped up in an attempt to pick up the safety in pass protection, only for the defender to knock him down to the ground and climb back up in the pocket to pair up with Lawrence for a split sack.
What’s Next?
Few rookies have enjoyed the success Emmanwori did in his first year in Seattle, posting an impressive stat line and hoisting a Lombardi Trophy. And yet, it can be argued that he achieved those feats as still a relatively unshaped ball of clay, excelling at multiple positions despite having limited background as a linebacker and an EDGE rusher.
This offseason, the Seahawks made a concerted effort to escalate Emmanwori’s development playing near the line of scrimmage, as he spent most of his time in individual drills with Lawrence, Nwosu, and the rest of the EDGE group. Per the player himself, he has been focused on “learning how to win” as a rusher, playing the role of a sponge taking in lessons from Lawrence in particular about hand usage with counters and having a rush plan, a sign that the coaching staff has plans to further unleash him in that capacity along with his other duties covering from the slot and flying sideline to sideline as a linebacker.
Even with the majority of teams trending towards more and more nickel/dime usage, it can be argued Emmanwori gives the Seahawks a clear advantage that no other team has. While the rest of the league has to make substitutions going from base to sub-packages, Macdonald can simply tell Emmanwori to move positions, maximizing the flexibility on the field for the defense to be able to dictate what the offense does. Against heavy packages, he can slide up into the box as a third linebacker. If the opponent tries to spread them out, he can play in the slot or threaten protection as a blitzer/pure EDGE.
Down the line, Emmanwori’s athleticism and ball skills may open the door for him to play free safety, which he did at a high level at South Carolina. But with the current talent around him, he’s most disruptive in the thick of the action, and Macdonald has been leaning into that since the early stages of his rookie season. Once the pads come out in early August, the Seahawks will likely continue to up the ante with his edge usage, allowing Witherspoon to play plenty of snaps in the slot and adding another twitchy rusher to the equation as one of his many yet to be fully fulfilled gifts.
Saying the sky is the limit would be a disrespectful understatement for Emmanwori, who already belongs in the discussion as one of the most dynamic forces of nature in the league and yet has only scratched the surface of his vast potential playing for a defensive wunderkind in Macdonald. Seemingly able to play anywhere at 6-3, 230 pounds with vulture wings for arms, the fleet feet of a world class sprinter, and the physicality of old school enforcer, he has emerged as a true existential threat to modern NFL offenses even before becoming a finished product, which is a terrifying prospect for the rest of the league.
