Nick Emmanwori is one week away from being halfway through the most critical part of his rookie contract with the Seattle Seahawks. Like all rookies drafted after the first round, Emmanwori signed a four-year contract and he can negotiate an extension — the real life-changing money — after three seasons.
Emmanwori is in the middle of year two and with as quickly as his star has risen (think part-Troy Polamalu in 2004, part-Brian Urlacher in 2001), it’s not too soon for Seahawks fans to prepare themselves for what figures to be one of the most fascinating contractual arguments for a player and team in franchise history.
The Seahawks won’t have to worry about those talks for another year and a half — which at this rate will set Emmanwori up for a massive raise from the $3.1 million he’s scheduled to make in 2028 — but the question we want to answer today is:
“What position does Nick Emmanwori play?”
Emmanwori’s true position during Monday night’s win over the Kansas City Chiefs was simply “Game Wrecker”.
Maybe more accurately we could call him a “Mahomes-Wrecker”
Per Next Gen Stats, Emmanwori was both a) shutdown coverage player by holding Kansas City’s skill players to two catches for 26 yards on seven attempts, and also b) pass rushing specialist by generating two pressures and forcing an interception by Patrick Mahomes that was caught by Ty Okada*.
*you voted 65 to 35 in favor of giving Emmanwori interception partial credit
The NFL is all about “types”
In the NFL, every contract negotiation and draft room discussion starts with the same classification:
Position.
A quarterback is supposed to be drafted first and paid the most regardless of whether or not he is a better player than the next guy at a different position. Cam Ward gets drafted over Travis Hunter, Jalen Hurts gets paid more than Saquon Barkley, and that’s the economy we’ve all come to expect.
The clearest manifestation of positional value we have is the franchise tag. Started in 1993 as a way for the Denver Broncos to keep John Elway from leaving in free agency, the franchise tag has since become the most important anchor there is in any negotiation with a superstar.
Here are the projected tag numbers for 2027, per OvertheCap:
As you can see, a safety’s tag is set around $22.6 million, whereas a linebacker’s tag is much higher at $29.9 million.
Everybody calls Emmanwori a “safety”, but … Nick Emmanwori does not play safety. He has only spent two snaps all season at safety.
What are the Seahawks going to do?
It’s true: