Seahawks move up in second round of NFL draft, take Nick Emmanwori

The Seahawks began day two of the NFL draft with a splash Friday, pulling off a trade with the Tennessee Titans to move up to 35 and take South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori.

The Seahawks dealt picks 52 and 82 to the Titans to move up and get a player who has been compared to Seattle legend Kam Chancellor and to one of Mike Macdonald’s former players in Baltimore — Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton.

Like those two, Emmanwori has unique size for a safety, listed at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds.

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That size had South Carolina using Emmanwori as a deep safety and near the line of scrimmage, often as a nickel corner.

Some have questioned if that means NFL teams will struggle to find the best fit for him. Wrote Pro Football Focus: “Emmanwori is a tricky prospect who will require a leap of faith, considering where he’s likely to be drafted. His elite athleticism and playmaking ability suggest his ceiling could be on par with a player like Kerby Joseph, but his underwhelming box play and questionable technique and instincts are more reminiscent of Isaiah Simmons, who was drafted in the first round in 2020 but has struggled to find a natural NFL position.”

The Seahawks obviously think they can find a good role for him having made an aggressive move up to add him to a secondary that already includes the safety duo that ended last season as the team’s starters — Coby Bryant and Julian Love.

Emmanwori said he was excited to join those two players as well as cornerbacks Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen and made a bold prediction.

“Just keep it short and simple, looking to recreate the Legion of Boom,” Emmanwori said.

Emnanwori said he is well aware of the LOB and Chancellor. His position coach at South Carolina, Torrian Gray, was also the position coach for Chancellor at Virginia Tech.

“He used to tell me all the time that we have a lot of similarities,’’ Emmanwori said. “He used to compare out game a lot and honestly Kam Chancellor is like one of my favorite safeties ever. So it means a lot to be going to Seattle. Used to watch film of him all the time on TV, used to pull up his highlights before the game. It’s crazy.”

In fact, Emmanwori said Chancellor sent him a text Thursday saying he was excited to see how his NFL career will unfold.

Emmanwori had an inkling he might be coming to Seattle.

The team hosted him recently for one of its official “30 visits,’’ when teams can bring in draft-eligible players to their facilities.

“Genuinely I’m happy they came and got me,’’ he said. “Felt great when I went up there for the visit. … felt the most connected with them, so if it was anybody to do it I knew it was going to be them.’’

The similarities in Emmanwori’s size and how Macdonald used Hamilton in Baltimore — Hamilton has been an All-Pro the last two years — had many thinking the Seahawks might take Emmanwori at pick 18.

The Seahawks instead used that pick on guard Grey Zabel on Thursday.

Seeing Emmanwori available the Seahawks leapt, trading the pick it got in the DK Metcalf trade along with its own in the third round to move up 17 spots to get him.

The Metcalf deal and the Geno Smith trade gave the Seahawks 10 picks overall and five in the first 92.

As general manager John Schneider noted earlier this week, that also gave the Seahawks flexibility to move up if a player was suddenly available they wanted.

“If we can find people that want to move around (the Seahawks will consider it),’’ Schneider said. “… We feel like we’re going to be able to impact our team with our kind of guys, with respect to all the guys that are here right now, bringing in people that we’ll be able to work with them, compete with them. Yeah, just continue down that path of competing every day and adding as much depth as you possibly can.’’

The Seahawks still have picks 50 and 92 to use Friday.