Seahawks make team--heck, NFL history--with the deal to get Nick Emmanwori signed for camp

How much do the Seahawks already value Nick Emmanwori, months before he plays his first NFL game for them?

They have broken their own precedent, and made league history, to get their rookie safety draft choice into training camp on time for its first practice next week.

The News Tribune confirmed Thursday night Seattle and Nick Emmanwori have agreed to terms on his rookie contract that is fully guaranteed. Adam Schefter of ESPN was the first to report the first fully guaranteed contract for a second-round pick in Seahawks history Thursday evening.

The agreement came two days after all Seahawks rookie except Emmanwori and fellow second-round pick tight end Elijah Arroyo reported to training camp at team headquarters in Renton.

Emmanwori is the first 35th pick, the third selection in round two, of any NFL draft to get all four years and money of his rookie contract guaranteed. The Seahawks expect him to training camp and sign within the next day or two. Veterans are due to report Tuesday.

The first practice of training camp is Wednesday.

Seattle traded up 17 spots in the draft this spring to select Emmanwori, a 220-pound safety from South Carolina. Coach Mike Macdonald plans to play him all over his Seahawks defense this season.

He is the first 35th pick, the second choice in round two, of any NFL draft to get all four years and money of his rookie contract guaranteed.

The Seahawks didn’t do this without hesitation. They have had second-round picks fail. Wide receiver Dee Eskridge and defensive lineman Malik McDowell immediately come to mind. McDowell never played a snap for Seattle following his head injuries from an ATV accident before his first NFL training camp in 2017. McDowell was the team’s top pick of that year’s draft.

Yet Emmanwori is squarely in Macdonald’s plans for the starting defense right away this fall.

He impressed his new coaches throughout Seattle’s offseason practices this spring. Macdonald’s defensive schemes had Emmanwori playing multiple positions. He was a big nickel as a third safety. He was a traditional nickel as a coverage defensive back inside. He was an outside linebacker blitzing starting quarterback Sam Darnold.

He picked up all of it. Coaches raved about the rookie’s desire and ability to learn.

“He’s gets it,” defensive coordinator Aden Durde said this spring.

Macdonald said last month: “Nick keeps showing up. I have to tell him, ‘Hey, man, the door’s closed, knock.’”

The night the Seahawks drafted him in May, Macdonald likened Emmawori to Kyle Hamilton, the 220-pound, do-it-all safety Maconald coached into an All-Pro in Baltimore.

Macdonald also compared the rookie in size to Kam Chancellor.

Yes, the Seahawks legend at the position.

The holdup

This week of rookies reporting to camps around the league began with 30 of the 32 second-round picks unsigned.

All contracts for rookies drafted over seven rounds each year have their salaries slotted in predetermined values by the league’s collective bargaining agreement. Emmanwori’s is worth $11.6 million over four years, with a $5 million signing bonus.

For most of this decade under this CBA, rookies dutifully sign their contracts and show up for their first NFL training camps on time. That ended the days of rookies holding out to grab the most money their agents could get them, even more than some of the established veteran players on their new teams.

The Houston Texans changed that for second-round picks this offseason.

A few years ago, agents for rookies drafted in the first round began succeeding in negotiating over the one aspect left in a rookie contract they could negotiate with teams: Guaranteed money. First, agents haggled with teams over the timing of the payments of signing bonuses.

In 2022, agents succeeded in getting the entire rookie contracts of first-round picks fully guaranteed. That’s become the NFL norm.

This year, Houston went further. The Texans became the first team to fully guarantee the contract of a second-round pick. And it wasn’t the first player selected in round two this spring. The Texans gave the 34th-overall selection, wide receiver Jayden Higgins from Iowa State, a fully guaranteed contract as the second pick of round two this year.

That pretty much forced Cleveland to then give the first pick of round two, UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger, a fully guaranteed deal.

The third pick of the second round was Emmanwori. The rest of the league was watching to see if Seahawks general manager John Schneider would fully guarantee Emmanwori’s contract to follow the Texans with Higgins and Browns with Schwesinger.

He did.

Other second-round picks across the league are now also agreeing to terms.