(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.
Keying fast and getting downhill on the perimeter
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 fit any screen or run with outside leverage on the “new” number-2 WR (counted from outside-in) post motion. His key squares to the quarterback and so his wide aiming point and explosive downhill mindset makes it difficult for the number-3 slot to block him and facilitates Coby Bryant’s triggering from his hook zone to make a play on the ball unabated.
In the second play, as he reads his number-2 WR sit for the swing pass, his eyes immediately transition to the number-3 aligned TE who he plays head up and tosses him aside with authority to make a play on the ball. This use of his size and block control is very encouraging.
In this next clip, he reads his initial key, the TE, block down and gets lost, failing to transition to the strongside backfield flow. The defense is blitzing into a bear-spaced front so as drawn up this would be Emmanwori’s play to make but fortunately it is of no consequence to the defense as DeMarcus Lawrence is all over it and Drake Thomas corrects him as well. Emmanwori’s inconsistent concept recognition does rear its head at times in this game.
Next the Seahawks play a disguised inverted Tampa-2 with Emmanwori bailing into a cover-2 half. The defensive line does a decent job to slow and bounce this weakside zone run, but they lose the edge and Emmanwori does a good job of pacing the back out to make a play in the alley, saving both Lawrence and Ernest Jones.
In the below video, Emmanwori is playing a cover-2 curl zone. He misses the tackle on this play because he has a difficult time dropping his hips to breakdown while still closing vertical distance. He ends up overrunning Travis Hunter as a result and loses his inside leverage that he is supposed to play with given that Shaquill Griffin would have outside leverage from the high-flat. I personally do not think there is a lot Emmanwori can do about this at the tackle point itself because its stems directly from his deficient short area movement skills. However, what he can do is be more efficient in his zone drop before he breaks on the checkdown altogether. With the running back motioning to the flat fast, Emmanwori would have been better off expanding to his initial landmark in his drop diagonally. He would have gotten there faster and would thus be able to trigger downhill sooner giving the running back less time to square him up at the tackle point, making for an easier tackle attempt.
What’s cool about this game is that when he makes a mistake, we see him learn and adapt in real time. In this next play, he caps his depth quickly in his cover-3 curl-flat drop, and is able to trigger downhill earlier. He is then able to stay leveraged and square at the tackle point and the RB’s attempt at a spin move proves fruitless and unable to escape Nick’s enveloping wingspan.
Box Fundamentals: Diagnosis and Technique
Here Emmanwori is motioned into the run fit once the slot goes away on the backside of split-zone. He holds for a beat to clear the possibility of play-action, and then uses his speed to fill the C-gap which is formed by the split-action of the TE.
Where it gets tricky for him is when the offense creates wrinkles. His initial key here is the TE. The TE blocks backside on the edge which Emmanwori mistakenly bites on, missing the WR folding into the blocking scheme. Emmanwori is tasked with transitioning his eyes to the WR and maintaining inside leverage on him. He fails to do so and is the cause of a successful run but Shaquill Griffin is able to overlap and stop the bleeding.
Once again though, we see him improve in real time in the next clip below. The Jaguars run a very similar concept. He keys the WR-fold and does try to work inside of him and makes a diving tackle attempt. He is a step late however (notice how Ernest Jones’ playside left foot is up and down before Nick even lifts his) which prevents his own playside hip getting square to the block. By being late to the block, he is late to get off it, and then late to the ball. As a result the RB falls forward for a seven yard gain. Keying this in time is the difference between a glancing blow on the back and a firm tackle right at the line of scrimmage which manifests in a clear yardage difference. Regardless, this is still him playing the same concept in the same game better on take two.
The next video is another case of wrinkles in the run game slowing Emmanwori’s processing speed in the box. The Jaguars motion the WR away pulling Nick into the fit (and Thomas out) and then run a zone concept with a pulled guard to kickout the edge. The Seahawks are playing a two-high shell which means they are fitting seven gaps with six players. To accommodate being down a man, Emmanwori has to be able to be available for two gaps, and needs to work over the top of this TE first before thinking about falling back inside him, but he does not let the guard pull inform the technique and ends up getting blocked into the ground surrendering the defense’s contain. Griffin makes a good play to save them however and the run only goes for four yards.
He also has a propensity to backdoor on the frontside of outside stretch plays. It’s 2nd and 1 and the Seahawks are once again out-gapped with two deep safeties. Emmanwori has to play laterally and outside-in: from the edge to the next open interior gap (D-gap to B-gap). He shoots the B gap instead and Jones has to overlap to the outside to correct him. The play goes for a measly two yards because it’s well defended by the rest of the defense but still converts a first down because of Emmanwori getting aggressive at the wrong time. There were other examples of him backdooring similar run plays this game and that will have to be corrected.
Zone coverage – Spot dropping
Good versus bad spot dropping is what determines if intermediate routes turn into completions. While the ball did not go Nick’s way a lot in this game in coverage due to a combination of the quarterback’s progression and pass rush, his spot dropping was poor and if it does not improve the other shoe will eventually drop with digs, outs, comebacks, and curls getting completed on him overhead.
Below the Seahawks are in quarters. Emmanwori is at the bottom of screen. With the Jaguars’ tendency to run three level flood concepts, Ernest Jones is taking “#3 through to the flat” from his middle-hook zone so that Emmanwori, as the quarter-flat player, is free to get depth and width on an out breaker. He initially gains depth, but then freezes as the quarterback climbs the pocket, and fails to feel the out wrap over the top of him. Ideally, Nick recognizes how the offense is attacking his side and pushes for width. I hesitated to include this play because it was a penalty and Trevor Lawrence doesn’t read Emmanwori’s side anyway, but every other Seahawk defender plays their rule correctly, so I think Emmanwori’s rep is still illustrative of his greenness here.
It’s a 3rd and 15 and Liam Coen presses the dagger button from a trips formation. The Seahawks are playing quarter-quarter-half and Emmanwori is again the flat defender to the quarters side. Nick is the defender being attacked by this concept: the outside dig and the TE’s underneath route creates a “high-low” on his zone. He ends up taking the cheese when he should have held depth to protect the sticks. Fortunately, Ernest Jones diagnoses the concept readily and pushes to the field hash from his middle hook, which kills the dig window.
This is another penalty so the outcome does not hurt the defense, but it is again a clip that isolates Emmanwori’s process. He is the curl defender of cover-2 so he is right to drop to his curl initially, but with the running back releasing to the flat fast, he needs to push for width quickly with the near flat defender, Shaq Griffin, expanding deep for cover-2 hole shots that had been hurting them all game. He ends up recognizing and arriving late to it, leading to a tough angle leading to a tough tackle opportunity. Ideally he reads backfield action sooner so he is able to stay leveraged with the collective underneath coverage being horizontally stretched.
This is another example of him not using the offensive formation and the initial route releases to inform his spot drop. The Seahawks rotate late into cover-3 weak buzz. Emmanwori becomes the curl-flat defender. With Jacksonville in trips, he needs to help flood the coverage and push from his curl to the flat to get underneath any perimeter outbreakers or comebacks–especially when the quarterback looks his way. Instead he holds too long in the curl yielding a first down conversion in the high flat.
One-on-one coverage
His day against the pass was hardly defined by his clunky pure zone coverage though. In man or seam carry assignments within zone-match calls, he looked great. In the clip below there are three plays.
In the first, he has a seam carry on the number-2 slot. He weaves with the release of the route to maintain his outside leverage and sits down as the WR sits taking out the air of this curl route.
The second play is my favorite snap of his in the entire game because of his initial footwork. When he’s off in an 1-on-1 situation, he has a tendency to step wrong off the snap, letting the WR out of his frame, which puts him in the hole at the break. Here he steps laterally, playing on a cliff, with the WR’s outside release. This allows him to stay square on his target which then helps him open and break in sync with the WR. He finishes with a fun tackle too. A lot of quick outs from the slot in short yardage go for first down conversations every Sunday. Not here.
In the third play, he’s playing a trail technique in cover-2 man. His initial key releases flat and he transitions to his new number-2 seamlessly. His WR runs a bender over the middle and he does a good job pacing the route out and not letting it climb over the top of him making it untargetable.
Getting after the quarterback
His blitzing opportunities were fun as well. No clips here, but of the three times he was sent he affected Lawrence on two of them. One affected the flight of the ball enough making it difficult for the TE to track, and on the second he flushed Lawrence out to his left forcing a tough throw that was too high to the open WR in the flat.
Kangaroo Court reads its verdict
In my view, it was a mixed day overall from Emmanwori. He was the cause of handful of first downs and successful offensive plays that led to converted series soon after, yet this was counterbalanced by the prevention of harmful plays from happening too. Plainly I think the fundamentals of his box work right now are poor, and his understanding of how route combinations attack his zone needs to be developed when spot dropping. Simultaneously his physicality and effort was impactful and encouraging given pre-draft concerns, and his technique when matching routes (one of the pillars of Kyle Hamilton’s game) appears greatly improved over college and even pre-season.
Personally, I find it intriguing that if a player is to have a “mixed” game that it manifests so with clear themes — he did well across the board in categories A and B, and needs works in C and D. It’s easier to digest than if he were to simply be half-decent and half-bad in each respective area.
Ultimately, there was enough meat on the bone from this game to get hyped about his trajectory, but there was just as much reason to be cautious depending on how you feel about an eight ounce glass with four ounces of water in it. Either way, he will continue to grow as he experiences more football and the data will continue to unfurl itself to us as it will. On to Houston!
