Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald Speaks out on Rookie Nick Emmanwori

The Seattle Seahawks drafted safety Nick Emmanwori at No. 35 overall in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. So expectations around the rookie are already high.

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is only raising the bar for the first-year defensive back.

This past week at NFL training camp, Macdonald was highly complimentary of the safety, specifically complimenting him for his “coachability.”

“We keep giving him stuff and he keeps executing,” the head coach said, via Seattle sports journalist Chris Cluff. “You have to be mindful that you don’t take the playmaker out of the player. That’s something that is on my mind. He just keeps learning and keeps executing and keeps making plays.

“He’s got great enthusiasm and any time you’ve got a coaching point for him, he’s very receptive towards it. We’ve said this kind of ad nauseam here, but he’s just a really fun player to coach.”

Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald Pushes Back on Pre-Draft Narrative on Nick Emmanwori

A lot of highly drafted rookies receive a heap of praise during training camp. But Macdonald’s recent assessment of Emmanwori is noteworthy because of what pundits were claiming about the safety prior to the 2025 NFL Draft.

Cluff described Macdonald’s words as “debunking pre-draft scuttlebutt” on Emmanwori that the safety was hard to coach.

He seems to have been anything but that early in his Seahawks tenure. SI on Seahawks’ Tim Weaver reminded Seattle fans Saturday that Emmanwori has been trying to pick Macdonald’s brain so much this offseason that the Seahawks head coach had to tell him to quit entering his office unannounced.

If Emmanwori continues to showcase that he has the intangibles, then he figures to be a dangerous player for the Seahawks. That’s because he definitely has the tangibles.

“He’s a physical specimen with rare size and outstanding speed,” NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote. “When he gets it cranked up, he becomes a much more effective tackler and overall run stopper from sideline to sideline. He’s capable of playing over the top, inside the box or even matching up with pass-catching tight ends.

“He’s upright with average transition fluidity in coverage, but he has great recovery speed and uses his length to throw a blanket over the catch point. He has rare NFL traits and talent, so a boost in urgency could take him from a good starter to a Pro Bowl-caliber player.”

Emmanwori’s Pick Six Against Fellow Rookie Jalen Milroe

Weaver also noted Saturday that the safety deserves the praise he has received from Macdonald and others during training camp. He deserves the praise because of how he has performed at practice.

Over the past week, Emmanwori has intercepted three passes at training camp. One of those interceptions he returned for a touchdown against rookie quarterback Jalen Milroe.

“For now, Emmanwori should still project to come off the bench in certain packages behind starters Julian Love and Coby Bryant,” Weaver wrote. “If he continues making plays like this, it will be impossible to keep him out of the starting lineup for much longer though.”