Field Gulls
(Editor’s note: This is a special guest column by Griff Sturgeon, better known as cmikesspinmove on social media and co-host of the Seattle Overload podcast with Field Gulls alum Matty F. Brown)
In his second entry of real NFL action, Seattle Seahawks rookie safety Nick Emmanwori found himself involved in all phases of the game, collecting nine tackles and one tackle-for-loss. He was organized exclusively as the Nickel in Mike Macdonald’s 4-2-5 packages, and mostly aligned to the field, regardless if it was the pass-strength or not. From there he was assigned in coverage the cover-3 curl-flat zone, the curl of cover-2, seam-match responsibilities in both, as well as dropping deep to a cover-2 half shell in disguised calls. Macdonald was sure to feature him heavily as a blitzer in a variety of pressure designs as well. As dictated by the offense, he was also formationed or motioned into the box functioning as a de facto linebacker on the frontside and backside of runs. To this point, that encompasses the scope of responsibilities Macdonald will place on him this season.
As is well understood, he tested unprecedentedly well at the combine which followed cleanly from the many eye-popping splash plays he made in college. Much of the draft community though, myself among it, had reservations about some details of his play – from diagnosis to technique (although severity of criticism ranged) that also manifested in concerning negative plays (but what prospect doesn’t have negative plays, especially as a true junior?).
Nonetheless, he possesses extraordinary strengths ,so the purpose of this exercise is to evaluate the nitty-gritty of his process snap in, snap out, even when he is not involved in the result of the play, so that developments in either direction may be tracked throughout the season as said process and results eventually align – for better or worse.
I will preface this attempt of a deep dive by saying I was not as impressed with his week 6 performance as say PFF was, and will disclose now my pessimism of his draft selection back in April, but I still believe there were many positives from this game that project forward optimistically – so much for my pessimism.
Laced throughout his college film were examples of poor angles leading to poor tackling attempts in space. An immediate litmus test of whether or not a back-7 player belongs on an NFL field is how they travel from point A to B when the reads are fairly clear, as well as how physical they are along the way. Mike Macdonald also volunteered during the early stages of the off-season that getting Emmanwori’s angles right will go a long way for his overall game.
For the most part this game quelled fears about his physical will.
In the first play in the clip below the Seahawks rotate late into cover-3 buzz white the Jaguars motion into a trips formation. Emmanwori’s task is to...
