Former Seattle Legend Praises Stud Seahawk Rookie After Dominant NFC Championship Game

479 yards. 8.3 yards per play. 0 turnovers forced. 1 sack. 3 quarterback hits. 9 plays of 20 or more yards. It was not the game that Mike Macdonald or any of the players on the Seattle defense imagined would transpire last night. Maybe not quite as bad as the week sixteen game against this team less than two months ago, but not terribly far off.

For most of the evening, nothing worked very well defensively. The Seahawks couldn’t stop the run, couldn’t pressure Stafford, and three of their primary cornerbacks were beat for big plays multiple times. Devon Witherspoon rallied to make a couple game-saving pass breakups, but Tariq Woolen and Josh Jobe came out looking worse than they did going in.

Which makes the handful of defensive players who held up and did their job stand out all the more. Tyrice Knight was clean on the final drive of the game, relieving the injured Drake Thomas, making a big run stop inside the ten. Julian Love and Coby Bryant seemed effective to me, tackling well and not getting beat in overly obvious ways.

But the star of the show was, of all players, a 21-year-old rookie. Nick Emmanwori, drafted as a safety but lining up all over the play in Macdonald’s defense, was the best player the unit had to offer by a wide margin. His high level of play was evident throughout the game, but there was one particularly memorable sequence right before halftime.

1:13 to go in the second quarter, Rams up 13-10 and facing 2nd and 5 from their own 33. If you’re a Rams fan right now, you’re probably very annoyed with the decision on the part of Sean McVay to throw the ball at all, but the only reason why anyone is talking about that decision right now is because Emmanwori broke up a short pass intended for All-Pro Puka Nacua.

Had the pass been completed, it might be a first down, and the clock keeps rolling either way. Instead, we get a stoppage at 1:09, and another pass from the Rams. Another short one, this one to Ronnie Rivers, and it’s broken up by…Nick Emmanwori again. The Rams punt with more than a minute left in the half and the Seahawks still have all of their timeouts.

The Seahawks scored a touchdown right before the halftime break, completely flipping the feel of a game that had just been swinging in the Rams’ favor. Yes, McVay mismanaged the clock to allow the Seahawks that possession, but Emmanwori making back to back monster plays in coverage was the only reason why it amounted to anything.

And on a day where defensive stops were something of a rarity, and where every point mattered, sneaking that touchdown was massive. It wasn’t the only stellar moment of Nick’s first ever conference championship game, but it was the moment that fans will remember forever.

Sherman loves what Nick is doing for this team. — Former NFL player Richard Sherman looks on before the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images

Well after the game was over, early in the Monday morning, Richard Sherman retweeted a video of Emmanwori making the second of those two breakups and then celebrating. Sherman, who made four straight Pro Bowls and three straight First Team All Pros as a Seahawk during the Legion of Boom era, made it clear how he feels about Nick.

“Special player and the most important piece of the Seahawks defense going into the SB. Should be DROY,” he tweeted. That Seahawks defense was #1 in the league in points allowed, EPA, and DVOA during the regular season, by the way, so that’s quite the claim. Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Ernest Jones, DeMarcus Lawrence, Devon Witherspoon, move over.

But he has a point. Emmanwori is the true x-factor on this defense. He lines up everywhere and does everything. He’s an excellent blitzer, crashes down on the run from the slot with the force of a linebacker, and uses his length to break up passes no one else could. He brings something to the table defensively that no one else on the team, maybe even the whole league, can.

I certainly wouldn’t call him the best player on this defense. Not even top three. But we’ll be there before long at this rate, as he’s already showing signs of improving in coverage, at which point he’ll be a complete player and set to dominate the league for the foreseeable future. And for the time being, being the most important player is a pretty good start.

Nick Emmanwori is a finalist for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award that Sherman believes he should win. Generally, pre-award hype and vibes have favored Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger. As I’ve written before, Schwesinger was a great player on a great defense, and the award is for the regular season, so last night’s game shouldn’t really change anything.

But Emmanwori offers so much to the best defense in football, and it’s hard to completely ignore the fact that he played such a big role in a team making it to the Super Bowl. I can see it that way as well. Sherman isn’t wrong in his evaluation.

Richard Sherman is not the most popular former Seahawk in the world, leaving on bad terms and going to a division rival in San Francisco for three seasons, then voicing his sour feelings frequently towards his former team. As an analyst post-retirement, he often seems to cozy up to the 49ers more than the Seahawks despite accomplishing far more with Seattle.

But when the 49ers aren’t in the conversation, Sherman seems to have a great appreciation for what the Seahawks are doing under Mike Macdonald. And he appreciates the 21-year-old phenom that is one win away from winning a Super Bowl as a rookie.

You know what's better than a defensive rookie of the year? A super bowl. — Seattle Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (3) tackles Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle (5). | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

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