The case for Seahawks’ Nick Emmanwori as NFL rookie of the year? It’s roaring

The man who up to now has been the do-it-all best player on the Seahawks defense said it…best.

“Bro’s playing his ass off right now,” two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon said Sunday. He was talking about teammate Nick Emmanwori.

“There’s nothing he can’t do.”

The Seahawks and the league list Emmawori as a safety. That’s almost an insult to the dynamic rookie. He’s redefining his own position — and status already across the NFL — with each game.

Sunday in Seattle’s 37-9 obliteration of the Falcons, the safety/slot nickel back/outside linebacker/inside linebacker/blitzer/run stopper/defensive end filled nine of the 11 official statistics the league uses to measure a defensive player’s performance in a game.

Emmanwori had six tackles. He had a sack of Kirk Cousins. He intercepted Cousins in the third quarter, off a play Witherspoon deftly started by fooling Cousins with a fake blitz into the line. Witherspoon backed off into Cover 2, two-deep-safety pass coverage, then jumped the stick route Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts ran on a curl in front of him. Witherspoon tapped the ball into the air. Emmanwori dived to catch it for his first career interception.

Seattle turned that into a field goal by Jason Myers, part of a 17-0 streak early in the third quarter that turned the game into a rout.

Emmanwori also had two tackles for loss, a hit on Cousins and a pass defensed. He played 91% of the defensive snaps, almost all until the end of the game when Macdonald rested his starters. The rookie was a moveable chess piece check-mating Atlanta’s many formations with three tight ends.

He and Witherspoon — plus elite middle linebacker Ernest Jones with Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence and Byron Murphy dominating on the defensive line —are why the Seahawks are 10-3 vying with the Rams (10-3) and 49ers (9-4) for the NFC West title. If Seattle wins its final four games, it will win the division for the first time since 2020, and have the NFC’s top playoff seed. The Seahawks’ path to that is treacherous. It includes the Rams (Dec. 18 at Lumen Field) and at San Francisco (in the regular-season finale). The next game is Sunday against Indianapolis. The Colts (8-5) have lost four of five games, and Sunday lost starting quarterback Daniel Jones to an Achilles injury. Rookie Riley Leonard is readying to start in Seattle this weekend. He will be the third consecutive rookie or backup QB, or both, this rampaging Seahawks defense has faced.

They’ve dominated the other two, Cam Ward in Tennessee and veteran Cousins in Atlanta.

“Pffft…this defense special,” Emmanwori said. “This is defense is super special. This is probably one of the best defenses I’ve ever played on. I’m just a rookie, but I don’t think no defense can probably top this, honestly. We’ve got a lot of special dudes on this team.

“From the first level, the D-line, to the linebackers and secondary, like, I think this defense is historic, almost. People don’t want to…they shy away from saying it. But I really do think this is a special defense.”

Oh, yeah, Emmanwori also blocked a field goal. After he made a tackle near the line of scimmage on Falcons lead back Bijan Robinson to begin a series of downs, he ended it by racing off the edge with perfect timing to back down Zane Gonalez’s 50-yard try to break a 3-3 tie in the second quarter.

It was special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh’s idea to put the long, fast, determined Emmanwori on the edge of the field-goal block team at the start of this season. Another win for Harbaugh, who also got Rashid Shaheed’s 100-yard kickoff return for the game-turning touchdown at the start of the second half Sunday.

“I’ll tell you what, you watch our field-goal block unit, really proud of the effort in there. That’s a great indicator of your effort on your football team,” Macdonald said.

“Nick brings it every time. …I’m really happy for Nick because he’s really been ripping it on field goal block. He’s come so close for a while now.”

Emmanwori became the first Seahawks player to block a field goal, have a sack and intercept a pass in the same game. He’s the first NFL player to do that in 15 years, since the Cardinals’ Adrian Wilson did it Sept. 12, 2010, against the then-St. Louis Rams.

Seattle Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams had a sack, intercepted a pass and blocked an extra point (not a field goal) last December in a Seahawks win at the Jets.

“Tremendous game. We gave out some game balls, and he got one of the game balls,” Macdonald said. “I’m really happy for him. He’s worked his tail off. He really has. He does it every day. He’s a tremendous asset for us.

“When we’re playing him against ‘13’ (one back, three tight ends) personnel in the area, he’s throwing his stuff in there.

“I’m happy for him, and he’s got a great attitude. Happy for him. He deserves it.”

Nick Emmanwori (3) of the Seattle Seahawks reacts after a defensive stop against the Atlanta Falcons during the second quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 7, 2025 in Atlanta.

Emmanwori, rookie of the year?

His Sunday in Atlanta makes Emmanwori a strong candidate to be the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year.

Who else new in the league is doing more already?

Cleveland middle linebacker Carson Schwesinger has been getting national attention for being a tackling machine. He almost never comes off the field for the Browns. He had another 12 tackles playing all 66 defensive snaps Sunday in Cleveland’s home loss to two-win Tennessee.

The Browns are 3-10. Emmanwori and the Seahawks smacked the Titans in Nashville a couple weeks ago.

Abdul Carter is getting a lot of looks, largely because he was the third pick in the draft and he plays in New York. He has as many sacks as Emmanwori does (1 1/2), and plays for the cruddy Giants (2-11). Atlanta’s Jalen Walker has five sacks for a 4-9 team. The 15th pick in the draft plays about four fewer positions than Emmanwori plays. While Emmanwori was starring Sunday, Walker didn’t have a statistic in the Seahawks game. He left in the second quarter with a quadriceps injury.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba knows who he’d vote for to be the league’s rookie of the year.

The NFL’s leader in yards receiving with 1,429 has been giving Emmanwori static since the day the rookie showed up to guard him in the first organized team activities (OTAs) seven months ago.

“Oh, yeah, I talk a lot of crap to Nick,” Smith-Njigba said in Atlanta following his two-touchdown game Sunday.

“He’s the rookie I’ve kind of been picking on.

“But I tell him he can be a legend.”

Not rookie of the year. A legend. Again, Emmanwori is just 10 games into his career.

Then Smith-Njigba, a sage third-year veteran at the ripe old age of 23, added: “But, yeah, I’m on him until, probably, next year.”

Nick Emmanwori (3) of the Seattle Seahawks reacts after a interception during the third quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 7, 2025 in Atlanta.

More versatile than Kyle Hamilton

This spring the Seahawks traded up 17 spots to the top of the second round to draft the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Emmanwori out of South Carolina. In college he played primarily off the ball, deeper more as a traditional safety.

Coach Mike Macdonald said the night they drafted him seven months ago the Seahawks envisioned using Emmanwori like Macdonald used 6-4, 220-pound Kyle Hamilton as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022 and ‘23. That is, all over the back of the defense, as a hybrid linebacker and matchup nightmare for opposing receivers and offensive play callers.

The comparison Macdonald made in May was striking, since Emmanwori had yet to have an NFL practice, let alone a game.

Now, 10 games in (Emmanwori missed three games starting in September with a high-ankle sprain he got on the fourth play of his career), he has surpassed what the All-Pro Hamilton does. He is doing more than Baltimore’s $100 million star.

Emmanwori is playing on all three levels of Seattle’s defense. Against Minnesota the week before his Atlanta show, Emmanwori played seven of his 50 snaps as a defensive end (!) on the line.

“I saw it one time when he blitzed in training camp,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde said of Emmanwori’s end-like bend and dip into offensive linemen in his pass rush. “He dipped and ghosted the guy on the edge.

“Me and Mike were like, ‘That was pretty cool!’

“It’s more like you see in practice what he can do,” Durde said.

“There’s nothing he can’t do.”

They’re all saying that.

Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) reacts to a stop against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the third quarter of the game at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, in Seattle.

The only thing Emmanwori did not do to Atlanta was force and recover a fumble. Witherspoon did that for him. That was part of Seattle’s three takeaways in the second half, which turned a 6-6 slog at halftime into a 31-3 Seahawks runaway in the final two quarters. Witherspoon just laughed on his way out of Georgia Sunday evening at how great Emmanwori was Sunday, and has been all season.

“He’s strong. He’s physical, bruh,” Witherspoon said through the chuckle. “I don’t know, it’s just a loss for words.

“But he had a helluva game today.”

Just like he had a hell of a practice Friday. And Thursday. And Wednesday…

“We always talk about, ‘You’re going to have a great game, but don’t let the game get to you. It’s just, another play,’” Witherspoon said.

“We do that all the time. We make those plays in practice. And when it happens in the game, you know, it’s just another play to you.”

The case for Seahawks’ Nick Emmanwori as NFL rookie of the year? It’s roaring

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