Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald says he has coached a lot of versatile defensive backs. He’s built entire defenses around players like Kyle Hamilton. But when it comes to rookie Nick Emmanwori, Macdonald made a surprising admission at his latest press conference: the Seahawks have “never had a player like him,” and they’re “kind of making it up as we go” with his role.
Emmanwori is lining up everywhere from nickel to the defensive line, and Macdonald is leaning into that flexibility as his defense surges.
‘Never Had a Player Like Him’: Inside Macdonald’s Comments
Macdonald was asked about the mechanics of moving Emmanwori around the formation and whether the Seahawks have to treat his different alignments as separate positions. That’s when he conceded just how unique the rookie is.
He explained that Seattle has specific ways to label and communicate Emmanwori’s spots so teammates know where he’s going and what his job is. But then he said the quiet part out loud: the Seahawks have “never really had this… never had a player like him,” and they are “kind of making [it] up as we go to a certain extent.”
Macdonald contrasted Emmanwori’s usage with how he deployed Hamilton in Baltimore. With Hamilton, he said, they started him at safety and gradually moved him closer to the ball. With Emmanwori, Seattle essentially flipped that script. They started him at nickel, then let him bounce between nickel and dime, and have played him on the line of scrimmage more often than they did Hamilton.
Both players, Macdonald said, are “tremendous,” with a lot of similarities, but each has distinct traits that make their games come to life in different ways.
For Emmanwori, that has meant a lot of responsibility early.
Macdonald said the staff has had him at nine-technique, five-technique and in the slot, calling it “a lot on his plate” and telling the rookie there are “a lot of expectations” that he has earned. The message: prepare like crazy, go play your brand of ball, and trust that if something goes wrong, the coaches will adjust or get him out of the bad situation.
The Hybrid Job Description: DB Room and D-Line Room
The way Seattle is handling Emmanwori week to week shows how unusual his role really is.
Macdonald said Emmanwori is with the defensive backs all the time for the base install and coverage work. Then, all the extra teaching happens at the line of scrimmage with the front-seven coaches, in pre-practice periods and extra sessions focused on techniques usually taught to edge defenders and linebackers.
He called it an “all hands on deck” effort.
That workflow matches why Seattle moved up in the 2025 draft to grab Emmanwori with the No. 35 overall pick. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound safety arrived from South Carolina with a reputation as a do-everything defender who could cover, hit and blitz, earning first-team All-American honors in 2024.
Stats, Context & Why the Role Makes Sense
Emmanwori’s rookie season hasn’t just been about hype and quotes. He’s producing, too.
Through Seattle’s Week 13 win over the Minnesota Vikings, Emmanwori has logged over 47 total tackles and eight pass breakups, flashing the length and range that made him a high second-round pick. He has already stacked games with splash plays — including a performance with eight tackles and three run stops against the Tennessee Titans, where his film showed growth in coverage reactions and blitz timing.
That impact comes after a setback early in the year. Emmanwori suffered a high ankle sprain in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers and was briefly an injured reserve candidate before working his way back. Since returning, he has started to look more like the explosive prospect who wowed scouts with his 40-yard dash and versatility at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The Seahawks’ own site recently highlighted that Emmanwori “can do things in the game at every level of the defense,” reflecting exactly what Macdonald described: a player who can live deep, in the slot or right on the line of scrimmage.
Macdonald also tied Emmanwori’s success back to his broader defensive philosophy. He talked in the same press conference about players “playing off each other,” needing a team-first attitude, and the importance of stacking a “ton of reps” so guys understand how the teammate next to them will react. Emmanwori’s role is the extreme version of that — a movable piece that forces offenses to find him before the snap and guess what he’s going to be on that play.
For now, the head coach is comfortable embracing the uncertainty.
Seattle may be “making it up as we go” with Nick Emmanwori’s role, but so far, it looks like the kind of problem every defensive coach wants: a unique rookie they can’t wait to move around even more.
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