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# Analysis: Predicting Seahawks 2026 Defensive Breakout Candidates
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/predicting-seattle-seahawks-2026-defensive-breakout-candidates/
- Published: 2026-06-30T22:56:57.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T05:55:38.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Seahawks, Nick Emmanwori, Rylie Mills, Noah Igbinoghene, Derick Hall

\[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="3304"\]

![  Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) looks over the Panthers offense during the second half at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images  ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/seattle-seahawks-safety-nick-emmanwori--283-29-looks-over-the-panthers-offense-during-the-second-half-at-bank-of-america-stadium--mandatory-credit-3a-jim-dedmon-imagn-images-format-original.jpg)

Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) looks over the Panthers offense during the second half at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images \[/caption\]

Now less than a month from reporting date for training camp, the Seattle Seahawks will soon begin their Super Bowl title defense with sights on hoisting another Lombardi Trophy.

But even with most of their roster kept intact after losing only five free agents from their title squad, for the Seahawks to have a shot at a rare Super Bowl repeat in coach Mike Macdonald’s third season at the helm, they will need several players to take a step forward with every opponent ready to give them their best shot each week. Defensively, Seattle has more holes to fill after the departures of Coby Bryant, Riq Woolen, and Boye Mafe during the offseason, leaving more opportunities for other players to rise to the occasion and help fill those significant voids.

Looking towards the 2026 season, which defensive Seahawks stand out as prime candidates for a breakout campaign? These four players stand to benefit the most due to increase roles, strong schematic fits, and/or other factors:

### Nick Emmanwori

Living up to the hype as a football cyborg coming out of South Carolina, Emmanwori put together one of the best rookie seasons by a defensive player in Seahawks franchise history while seeing action as strong safety, slot corner, off-ball linebacker, and off the EDGE. Even after missing three of the first four games with an ankle sprain, he surpassed 80 tackles, recorded 2.5 sacks, and led all safeties with eight pass breakups in the regular season, finishing second in Defensive Rookie of the Year balloting. In the playoffs, he continued to be a game wrecker, tallying 13 tackles, four pass breakups, and a fumble recovery to help Seattle win the Super Bowl.

Most players would only dream of such production, but for the 22-year-old Emmanwori, he truly has just started scratching the surface of his potential. Macdonald gradually started to experiment more with moving the 6-3, 230-pound defender around the formation as he gained experience last year, putting more on his plate by week, including an uptick in action playing on the line of scrimmage. The Seahawks appear to be doubling down on that positional flexibility heading into his sophomore season, as the rising star spent extensive practice time working with Demarcus Lawrence and the EDGE group during OTAs and minicamp.

Boasting a rare blend of size, speed, and playmaking ability, Emmanwori may be the NFL’s toughest matchup nightmare for opposing offenses to game plan for, as his presence allows Seattle to mix up personnel groupings without making substitutions due to his unique positional flexibility playing everywhere from the line to linebacker to deep safety. As Macdonald and defensive coordinator Aden Durde continue to find new ways to deploy him within the confines of the scheme, his production across the board should only increase, including generating more sacks, quarterback hits, and pressures with more opportunities to moonlight as a pass rusher off the EDGE to go with his abundance of roles, making him a prime All-Pro candidate.

### Derick Hall

Coming off a strong sophomore season where he flirted with hitting the double-digit sack mark, Hall endured some bad luck during a 2025 campaign where he went through quite the dry spell, failing to record his first sack until Week 11 and finishing the regular season with only two sacks in 16 games despite having 13 quarterback hits and a quality 15.5% Pass Rush Win Rate. He found his groove in the postseason, however, including sacking Drake Maye twice and forcing a fumble in the Super Bowl victory, stating his case for MVP honors that eventually went to running back Ken Walker III.

Believing Hall had a much better season than his raw sack numbers would indicate and rewarding him for his outstanding play in the postseason, the Seahawks decided to invest in Hall as a foundational piece of their defense moving forward, signing him to a three-year, $42 million extension in June. Still just 25 years old, on the heels of signing that deal, he should be in line for an expanded role, potentially ready to seize a full-time starting job over the likes of Uchenna Nwosu or Lawrence, who he has benefited from immensely as a veteran mentor since arriving as a free agent last year.

Already having an eight-sack season on his resume, Hall has shown that he can be a nuisance for opposing tackles, particularly when it comes to winning with power via bull rushes and ferocious long-arm moves off the edge. As the player himself indicated during OTAs after signing his new contract, the next step for him revolves around continuing to enhance the technical part of his game and finding ways to be more effective winning with developed counter moves to work off of the top of his rushes. If he can check off those two boxes to pair with his always running hot motor and bulldozing power, there’s a great chance the Seahawks get the best season of his career - and possibly a 10-plus sack output - as an immediate reward for their faith in him.

### Rylie Mills

Suffering a torn ACL during the College Football Playoff at Notre Dame in January 2025, the Seahawks took a flier on Mills with the understanding that his rookie season could turn into a redshirt year due to an extended rehab on a significant injury. Opening the season on the Non-Football Injury list, he missed all of training camp and by mid-November, the jury remained out on whether he’d be activated at all for the 2025 season. But the team designated him to return to practice a few weeks later and he made his debut in a home win over the Colts, seeing 28 defensive snaps in four regular season games in what turned out to be an unofficial training camp and preseason for him.

After making three tackles in that stretch, Mills had his coming out party of sorts happen on the biggest stage in the Super Bowl, bullying Patriots guard Jared Wilson into the backfield on a dominant bull rush before tackling both the blocker and Maye for his first career sack. That single play provided a glimpse of what the 6-5, 290-pound defender could provide an already stout Seahawks defensive line, and with his injury now in the rearview mirror, he was able to shift his sole focus to football and participated in his first full offseason program as an NFL player, rotating in as a defensive tackle and defensive end with the second team defense throughout OTAs and minicamp.

Since the Seahawks have their entire defensive line returning from a year ago, including stars Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II, Mills won’t be asked to shoulder too much of the load in his first full season at the NFL level and his overall workload will remain capped by the talent ahead of him. However, he should see plenty of run rotating in behind Williams, Murphy, and Jarran Reed as a capable three-down defender at multiple alignments, and after barely seeing the field in his rookie campaign, his strengths penetrating gaps and overpowering blockers as an interior rusher will set him up nicely for a sophomore surge that makes a dominant front even better in 2026.

### Noah Igbinoghene

Drafted in the first round out of Auburn by the Dolphins in 2020, Igbinoghene has never been able to live up to that draft billing, starting more than two games in just one of his first six seasons. He allowed 18 yards per reception and three touchdowns with quarterbacks posting a 133.9 passer rating when targeting him in coverage as a rookie and didn’t fare much better over the next two seasons, as Miami chose to make him a healthy scratch in eight games in 2022 before trading him to Dallas for cornerback Kelvin Joseph in a player swap the following summer. He enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in 2024 with the Commanders, registering 65 tackles and six pass breakups while starting in 10 games, but his role reduced again last year to primarily special teams.

Even with those struggles, however, Igbinoghene has been on Seattle’s radar for a couple of years as a player that Macdonald and general manager John Schneider held in high regard, in part due to his ability to play both on the boundary and in the slot as well as being a stalwart special teams player. A few months after signing in free agency, that versatility showed up during the offseason program, particularly in minicamp when the 26-year-old veteran enjoyed a strong three days playing inside and outside with the second team defense, breaking up several passes in coverage and intercepting backup quarterback Drew Lock for a 100-yard pick six in a red zone drill.

Following the departure of Riq Woolen for Philadelphia in free agency, the Seahawks have an ongoing competition underway behind Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe for the third cornerback role, and Igbinoghene may have played his way into the driver’s seat heading towards training camp with a stellar finish to the offseason program. There will be opportunities for a trio of rookie cornerbacks to push him along with returning third-year player Nehemiah Pritchett, but talent has never been an issue for him and in a scheme that has a proven track record of maximizing on the talent in the secondary, his fourth NFL team may finally be the landing spot necessary for him to reach his potential as a sub-package player who excels in nickel/dime sets along with special teams duties.