If we separated John Schneider’s recent draft track record by offensive and defensive players, there would be no question as to which side is winning. Much like in real life, Jaxon Smith-Njigba would be carrying the offense.
Defensively, the Seahawks have drafted Devon Witherspoon, Byron Murphy, Derick Hall, Nick Emmanwori, and Nehemiah Pritchett in the previous three years. Even though Seattle drafted nine offensive players and only two defensive players in 2025, Emmanwori is easily the best pick in the class so far, and even Rylie Mills has contributed more as a fifth-round pick than Elijah Arroyo and Jalen Milroe as day two picks.
Perhaps if Schneider only drafts defense, no team will ever score on the Seahawks again.
Now imagine if in addition to being great players for everything that they do already, Witherspoon and Emmanwori also forced turnovers?
In the middle of year four, Witherspoon has two career interceptions, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. In the middle of year two, Emmanwori has one interception, no forced fumbles, and no recoveries. But how many turnovers have they assisted on?
Emmanwori definitely assisted on Ty Okada’s interception on Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs:
I have no way of knowing how many times Witherspoon and Emmanwori have tipped a pass or pressured a quarterback into a mistake, and maybe that’s a mistake by the record keepers.
We all know what Witherspoon did to Drake Maye in the Super Bowl and it only shows up as a QB hit.
So the Seahawks have the third-most turnovers forced in 2026 — and the fewest yards, fewest passing yards, second-lowest yards per carry allowed, lowest yards per pass allowed — and you can’t claim Seattle would have any of that without draft hits like Witherspoon, Emmanwori, and Murphy.
You can’t even say it about Sunday night’s win over the Chiefs without 2024 fourth-round pick Tyrice Knight, fifth-round pick Nehemiah Pritchett, and 2023 second-round pick Hall.
The Seahawks’ recent defensive draft picks have formed one of the best defenses in the NFL again. Their individual contributions don’t always show up in the stats sheet.
That’s fine for the box scores, but when it comes to determining a winner to our Seaside Joe weekly competition, I need your help!
Should Emmanwori be credited with a turnover?
To decide the winner of this week’s Greatest Expectations Award, I need you:
Should we award points to fans who predicted that Emmanwori would force a turnover?
If we only give credit to Okada, then Stu is the winner. If we give credit to both Okada and Emmanwori for teaming up on an interception, then Anon1 is the winner. What do you think?
By the way, we had some GREAT expectations submitted this week:
Seahawks score 20 (eight of you got it right)
Chiefs score 3 (lowest prediction was 6 by Begaw!)
Sam Darnold had 257 yards (Worthonium guessed exactly right)
Emanuel Wilson had 100 rushing yards (Loaf Bench was closest at 90)
JSN had 150 receiving yards (Jeffrey James and Leb were off by 1)
Nobody expected Okada most-likely to force a TO
I picked Michael Dickson as special teams player of the game
If you think Okada should be the only one with a TO credit, then Stu narrowly edged out Jeffrey James, Anon1, and Signature Seahawks.
If you think Emmanwori deserves some credit, then Anon1 narrowly edged out Stu, Long Island Mark, and Jeffrey.
What do you think? Share it in the comments:
By the way, what a night for Knight. Here’s a linebacker thrown into the lineup two weeks ago and he has had eight tackles in each game, a tackle for a loss, and he’s flying all over the field. The Seahawks need to get Drake Thomas back, but that’s how good their depth is at linebacker right now after a couple years of struggling to even find one good starter there.
Seattle’s depth has been their greatest strength … just another form of the Seahawks dominating “turnover”.
Charles Cross: High-ankle sprain. Expected 1-2 weeks out, but I feel like high-ankle sprains are closer to a month, at least.
Rashid Shaheed: early reports look positive, per MM.
Jadarian Price: They're opening his 21-day window this week.
Zach Charbonnet: Nothing close to confirmed that Charbonnet will play against the Bears. Think we should expect Emanuel Wilson again next week.
Nick had probably the best game of his career. He was all over the field.