Injury Update: Latest on Seahawks rookie safety Emmanwori

SEATTLE – It didn’t take long for ultra-talented rookie safety Nick Emmanwori to make an impact play in his NFL debut.

Unfortunately for Emmanwori and the Seattle Seahawks, that debut was short-lived.

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On the fifth defensive snap of Seattle’s 17-13 season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon, Emmanwori brought down star running back Christian McCaffrey for a 2-yard loss.

But in the process, Emmanwori hurt his ankle. He initially tried to walk it off before falling to the ground, where he remained for several moments while being tended to by trainers. He then limped off the field and was later deemed questionable to return.

Emmanwori did briefly return for a kickoff early in the second quarter, but he was sidelined for the remainder of the game after that.

On Monday’s Mike Macdonald Show on Seattle Sports, the Seahawks head coach provided a small update on Emmanwori’s status.

“I’ll have more update later but let’s just say we’re not sure on the timetable right now with Nick,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald said early in Monday’s show that he had not “really talked injuries” with Seahawks staff since after Sunday’s game.

After Sunday’s game, Macdonald provided hopeful news, relaying that the team doesn’t think Emmanwori has a high-ankle sprain and that everything appears to be structurally intact.

“He hurt his ankle, so we’ll see kind of moving forward,” Macdonald said. “We don’t think it’s a high ankle, so that’s positive. Everything’s intact, we think.”

With the highly versatile 6-foot-3, 220-pound Emmanwori out, Macdonald said the Seahawks were forced to use lighter defensive personnel than they otherwise would have against the 49ers. Backup safety Ty Okada appeared to play significant snaps in Emmanwori’s absence, while versatile cornerback Devon Witherspoon also seemed to play more snaps in the nickel spot.

“A guy goes down, you’ve gotta change personnel,” Macdonald said. “We played the game lighter than we’d normally play against them, but I thought Spoon went in and did a great job at nickel.”

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