Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori injures ankle in Super Bowl practice

by · The Seattle Times

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Rookie safety Nick Emmanwori suffered an ankle injury during the Seahawks’ practice Wednesday at San Jose State University, according to a pool report released by the Pro Football Writers of America.

The severity of the injury was not immediately known but the NFL Network reported that Emmanwori will have imaging done to make sure it’s nothing major.

The team listed Emmanwori as limited in practice.

According to the pool report, Emmanwori “injured his ankle while defending a pass late in practice. He walked off the field on his own shortly before 4 p.m. Several players and coaches went over to comfort him before he left.”

In a comment to a PFWA pool reporter after practice, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said: “He had an ankle today; we brought him in to look at it, and we’ll kind of go from here and figure out what are the next steps.”

Emmanwori has emerged as one of the team’s most vital defensive players since arriving as a second-round pick in April, playing a hybrid role in which he serves as a nickel corner and strongside linebacker, depending on what scheme the Seahawks are in.

Related More Seahawks

More

Emmanwori had what Macdonald said might have been his best game with three pass breakups in the NFC title game win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sept. 25.

Quarterback Sam Darnold was also listed as limited.

But in the pool report, Macdonald indicated that was just part of the plan as Darnold continues to recover from an oblique injury suffered in practice on Jan. 15.

“Sam’s right on schedule,” Macdonald said. “So we’ve had this plan here over the last X amount of weeks, and it varies every day. And today he had a great day, so we’re right on schedule.”

Three other Seahawks players were listed as limited because of injury — left tackle Charles Cross (foot) offensive tackle Josh Jones (foot/ankle) and fullback Robbie Ouzts (neck).

Cross played with the foot injury in the NFC title game win against the Rams and was listed as able to play on last week’s game status report. So were Ouzts and Jones.

Three other players were listed as limited with the designation not injury-related/resting player — linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence, receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and defensive end Leonard Williams.

Listed as full participants were five players who were listed as limited at some point last week — middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV (chest), safety Julian Love (shoulder), tight end Eric Saubert (hamstring), fullback Brady Russell (hand) and linebacker Drake Thomas (shoulder).

The pool report stated that the Seahawks conducted their first and only padded practice that is planned for this week and that they “took the practice field at San Jose State for 1 hour and 50 minutes, starting at 2:15 p.m. under a sunny and cloudless sky. It was 73-degrees.”

The team then took off pads about an hour into practice, which Macdonald had said earlier was likely to be the plan. The Seahawks held a light practice Monday and did not practice on Tuesday and Macdonald said during his news conference before practice he was excited for the team to get into pads for Wednesday.

“We had an opportunity to work at a different practice window,” Macdonald said via the pool report. “Which I thought was great with our guys’ cadence. Lot of spirit. Guys did a great job. We had a great practice.”

The pool report noted that Macdonald said he reached out to some coaches he’d worked with the in past — he has earlier said his former boss with the Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh, could be on that list — about how best to implement the game plan with a bye week before coming to the Super Bowl site.

“We’re going to be evolving,” Macdonald said. “We didn’t put the whole thing in last week. We’re just gonna keep building it, stay on cadence this week and do what we need to do to feel like we get to a sweet spot by end of the week.”

The Seahawks will practice again Thursday at 2:15 p.m.