The Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Chargers 30-23 on Sunday afternoon, but head coach Mike Macdonald was far from pleased with the way the team carried themselves. They were penalized 14 times for a franchise-record 150 yards, which allowed the winless Chargers enough room for error to win nearly every team stat.
“We call them selfish penalties. It’s going to be a ‘through, not around’ type of next 24 to 48 hours on how we address [them],” Macdonald said in his postgame press conference.
While some players’ penalties were more obvious, preventable or costly than others, many of those same players filled up the stat sheet in the eventual win. That raises the question of who deserves the Stud nod more — the most dominant individual performers
or those who made the game-winning plays? It’s a subjective mix of both. These six all need to be discussed immediately, though, so without further ado, here are your Studs and Duds for Week 4.
STUDS
Emanuel Wilson
The Seahawks running back room was desperate for a workhorse, and Emanuel Wilson delivered. He took 21 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and caught three passes for 39 yards and a receiving touchdown through the air as well. He put the Seahawks on the board early, taking a screen pass 23 yards into the end zone behind blockers, and seemed to gain momentum as the game progressed. While he was consistently looking to cut outside in his first couple games as a Seahawk, he became the north-south runner the team needed today. He was falling forward to fight for every yard and hitting holes between his offensive line well. He earned as much trust as any player on the Seahawks today.
Seahawks Linebacker Room
There are few Seahawks more comfortable when the game plan is faltering than inside linebacker Ernest Jones IV. He filled the stat sheet to the brim, with 12 tackles (six solo), a sack, a tackle for loss, an interception returned for 20 yards, and a pass defended. He’s one of the more mature and calming presences on the defense, which couldn’t have been more valuable today. He also stood up for his defense at the podium, praising the individual units in his postgame press conference while articulating their issues. His partner in crime, Drake Thomas, took advantage of playing around a great defense as he often does. He also picked off Herbert today on their first play from scrimmage. Thomas had five tackles (four solo), a tackle for loss, an interception, and a pass defended. As far as the outside linebackers, Uchenna Nwosu added three tackles (two solo), a sack, a tackle for loss, and a forced fumble. Without each of those three LBs taking the ball away, the Chargers could’ve controlled the clock even more than they surprisingly did.
Nick Emmanwori
Why even call him just a safety at this point? Nick Emmanwori appeared in full health for the first time in 2026 and looked every bit the impact player he was last year between the whistles. The Seahawks tried using their Swiss Army knife safety in an unconventional way today, with both hands on the ground in a four-point stance. Who was the last safety to do that? He succeeded, generating pressure when asked and filling the stat sheet with nine total tackles (eight solo) and a tackle for loss. When you have the perfect nickel hybrid to play any position on defense, you can mess with your opponent. Unfortunately, Emmanwori also committed a costly unnecessary roughness penalty on Chargers offensive tackle Travis Burke that allowed them back into the game. The good news is that Emmanwori is setting the tone and setting the edge at full health. The penalty is avoidable, but it’s easy to forget how much growth this 22-year-old has undergone in just the last year — and how much room he has to keep growing.
Brian Fleury
There were two quarters of this game where offensive coordinator Brian Fleury’s offense seemed to be racing up and down the field. They scored 20 points between two Chargers field goals to take a 20-6 lead into halftime and scored right away in the second half to go up three scores, 27-6. He pulled out plays and packages that delivered on the former defensive coach’s promise to design things around making the opposing defense’s life uncomfortable. Perhaps the best one was just a simple HB toss, but the package to put receiver Rashid Shaheed at halfback to run it was what truly made it interesting. Receiver Tory Horton’s touchdown was also run out of an interesting formation, with Horton the only true wideout on the play. It was still uncoverable by the opposing defensive backs. Fleury will have the biggest game of his life against his former team, the San Francisco 49ers, in Week 5. He’ll be tested on how well Sam Darnold can manage the game.
DUDS
Sam Darnold
The Seahawks offense left a lot to be desired in Week 4, and quarterback Sam Darnold left as much on the table as he has in any Seahawks game since last year. He failed to separate himself from an incredibly inconsistent Justin Herbert, and didn’t even play as well as backup QB Drew Lock did in his opportunities earlier this season. What was worrying about it, though, was the uncharacteristic failure to hit open targets, especially receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (JSN). The stat sheet showed some of the issues — just 13-for-22 passing (59.1% completion rate), 168 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Darnold threw the pick on the first play of the game, which looked like a miscommunication with Emanuel Wilson on a play-action pass, but most observers will say it looked like he simply threw the ball to Chargers outside linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu. Darnold also missed JSN on consecutive plays in the first quarter that both would’ve gotten a first down. The first was an RPO Darnold read wrong and handed off to Wilson for a nothing-burger stretch play that could’ve given JSN a screen with multiple blockers to the boundary. The second was an ordinary High-Low concept for Darnold, with JSN getting open on an out route while Rashid Shaheed ran a seam and pulled away multiple defenders. Even when the broadcast says, “Let’s try to see what Sam’s seeing” on the replay, it looks like he’s staring down Shaheed and somehow not seeing his wide-open, all-world receiver JSN. With the San Francisco 49ers looming next, Darnold’s former team will spend all week designing exotic coverages to trick him. He needs to get back to hitting the middle of the field, which he lost sight of here.
George Holani
While Emanuel Wilson commanded the lion’s share of the backfield, George Holani struggled massively to make an impact. The Seahawks were desperate for RB help, but Holani took seven carries for 18 yards (just 2.6 yards per carry) on the ground. He also seemed to struggle in pass protection, which is usually his bread and butter. That contributed to the team losing the third-down battle, going just 3-for-12 (25%) to the Chargers’ 5-for-15 (33%). He caught one pass for two yards as well. There could be complexities to why he struggled so much on paper, but it didn’t look good on first watch either. He still has a solidified third-down role, but can’t have many more of these performances and expect to get consistent touches on first or second down.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks’ Four Studs and Two Duds in Week 4 win over Chargers
