Seahawks HC Gives ‘Positive’ Update on Injury to Rookie S Nick Emmanwori
The Seattle Seahawks opened the 2025 campaign with a crushing 17-13 loss at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers in a tightly contested division matchup. While the Seahawks didn’t exactly play good football, they still had a shot to come away with a victory at the end of the game.
Those hopes were killed by a Nick Bosa strip-sack on Sam Darnold, sending Seattle into Week 2 with a lot to work on. Of course, there were some injury concerns as well, as safety Nick Emmanwori was forced out of the game early with an ankle ailment. However, after the game, he received a positive update from head coach Mike Macdonald.
Mike Macdonald Issues Nick Emmanwori Injury Update
After getting selected in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft, Emmanwori earned a starting job in the Seahawks’ secondary out of training camp. It didn’t take long for him to drop star 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey in the backfield for a two-yard loss, but Emmanwori appeared to tweak his ankle on the play, resulting in his departure from the game.
While Emmanwori did briefly return, he didn’t last long, and his early exit had fans fearing the worst regarding his injury status. After the team used a high draft pick on him, it’s clear Emmanwori is a big piece of their plans on defense, so a long-term absence could have been detrimental for the 2025 campaign.
There’s no guarantee that Emmanwori has avoided a severe injury, but Macdonald did provide an encouraging update on the rookie’s status after the game. Macdonald said that he thinks Emmanwori has avoided a high-ankle sprain, but ultimately, the team won’t know until he has more testing done on the injury.
“He hurt his ankle, so we’ll see kind of moving forward,” Macdonald said after the game. “We don’t think it’s a high ankle, so that’s positive. Everything’s intact, we think.”
Seahawks Hoping for More Good News on Nick Emmanwori’s Ankle Injury
With Emmanwori out, that forced Ty Okada into action, and while he held his own, the team would obviously rather have the former South Carolina Gamecocks star at their disposal. For now, it seems like Emmanwori has avoided the worst-case scenario, but the team needs more information before determining a timeline for his return. At this time, it seems like he’s probably trending towards missing Seattle’s Week 2 matchup.
That will make an already tall task even more difficult for the Seahawks, as they will be looking to get into the win column against a tough Pittsburgh Steelers team that won a shootout against the New York Jets in Week 1. The Steelers’ offense looks lethal, and it’s telling that Aaron Rodgers was able to carve up the Jets’ solid secondary in his first outing with his new squad.
All eyes will be on Emmanwori over the next couple of days, but as of right now, the Seahawks are going to have to prepare to be without him against Pittsburgh. Kickoff for the team’s second contest of the season is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Packers’ Colby Wooden Fires Back at Critics After Dominant Run Defense Performance
Micah Parsons, a contrarian opinion had taken hold, too–the Packers defense would get chewed up in the running game.Three days before the Packers were to play the Detroit Lions in their 2025 opener, defensive lineman Colby Wooden got a phone call. It was his father. While much attention had been foisted on the Packers in recent days after the stunning trade for pass-rusher
The Packers had to trade away stalwart defensive lineman Kenny Clark to acquire Parsons, and the feeling was, that would be costly in the team’s efforts to handle the run. Detroit, after all, rushed for 2,488 yards last season, sixth in the NFL. Without Clark, surely the Packers would be in trouble.
Wooden, who is helping replace Clark in the middle, took the call from his dad, who said, “Do me a favor, shut ‘em up.”
And he, along with the entire Packers defensive front, did just that, holding the Lions to 46 yards on 22 carries, their lowest rushing output since Week 6 in 2023. Wooden, Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks held the line admirably in the middle all day for the Packers.
Colby Wooden: ‘I Took That Personal’
Wooden, for one, was insulted by the questions about the team’s inability to hold against the run.
“I for sure took that personal …” Wooden said. “So I just, did my job, went out there, stopped the run. I took it personal. Honestly, I felt like it was kinda disrespectful, like, ‘Oh, they gonna run the ball.’ So I made it my mission—we, excuse me—we made it our mission to shut them down.”
That’s not easy to do against the combo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, nicknamed Sonic and Knuckles.
“We know what they want to do,” Wooden said. “Last year, they wanted to run. They call them Sonic and Knuckles, or whatever. They want to run them 30 times. So we know they want to run that ball. We’ve got to do our job to stop the run so they can get back and let (Parsons) go get them.”
Packers Filling Roles With Micah Parsons on Board
Wooden said the effect of having Parsons on the field was obvious, and it works both ways. When offenses focus on corralling Parsons, the other Packers must step up.
“Everybody’s got a job to do, everybody got a role,” Wooden said. “Everybody’s got to buy into their role. We know what attention and what he comes with. And we know we got to stop that run, go help him out, if he is getting is getting chipped, doubled or whatever, now it’s somebody else’s turn to win their one-on-one.”
Packers Have Commanders Next
And despite the obviously encouraging results, Wooden is not getting ahead of himself. The Commanders will be next on the docket, with fearsome young quarterback Jayden Daniels on hand.
“It’s just one week,” Wooden said. “It’s Week 1. It’s great to start off with a win, dominate. But we’ve got to keep it going. We got a good team coming here on Thursday, we know we got to be ready to stop that run and contain that quarterback. So we just gotta keep going, keep getting better, keep jelling.”
