A good reminder that the NFL Draft is inching closer and closer is that the stream of leaks about different draft prospects visiting the Seattle Seahawks start to come through. These visits are better known as “30 visits.” A 30 visit is a formal in-person meeting the NFL teams get to have with draft prospects. Each NFL team gets a maximum of 30 of these visits (which is where the name comes from) and can bring in prospects to their facilities for interviews and physicals. If a prospect is brought in for a formal visit, that does not necessarily mean they are a top-30 prospect for the team. More so it means the team does not have enough information on the player and want/need a more in-depth look at their character or their health. This is why there are further interviews and physicals taken. Local prospects do not count against a team’s limit of thirty visits.
With that, the first leak of a “30 visit” to Seattle has come through. Nick Emmanwori, a safety out of South Carolina is reportedly set to visit Seattle in the next few weeks.
South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori will travel to Flowery Branch to meet with Falcons in coming week or two, he said Tuesday. He also is visiting Panthers, Seahawks, Bengals and Dolphins.
— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) March 18, 2025
Emmanwori was already projected to be a top 50 pick entering the NFL Scouting Combine. However, what Emmanwori did in Indianapolis put his name on everyone’s radar as a potential top 20 pick, with many mock drafts showing him being taken before the Seahawks even get to pick at 18. Nick Baumgardner of the Athletic, amongst others, is currently mocking Emmanwori to Seattle at 18.
The All-American safety measured in at 6-foot-3, 220-pounds, this is a much larger size for a safety. Think of Kam Chancellor, who measured in at 6-foot-3, 232-pounds. Despite this size, Emmanwori ran a 4.38 second 40-yard dash, and had a 43-inch vertical jump, and 11-foot- standing broad jump. These numbers gave Emmanwori the best broad and vertical jump among all prospects in the entire combine this year.
In fact, since 2003, Emmanwori is only the fourth player to have topped 40 inches in the vertical jump and run a sub-4.4 40 time. The other three? Bryce Ford-Wheaton, Riq Woolen, and DK Metcalf. Looking at this alone would clearly show that Seattle is interested in the former Gamecock’s talents.
While at South Carolina, Emmanwori appeared in 37 games, recording 166 tackles, four tackles for loss, six interceptions (two going for touchdowns), one fumble recovery, and 11 pass defenses. In 2024 Emmanwori was selected as a First-Team AP All American. If the Seahawks were to want to draft Emmanwori, they surely would need to make him a first-round pick (if he is even available at 18th overall).
Although Coby Bryant and Julian Love are the set starters at safety for 2025, Seattle could look to add a third safety to the mix, whether with Emmanwori in the first round, or another player later in the draft. Last season, Mike Macdonald frequently used three safeties on his defense, with Bryant being the third safety behind Love and Rayshawn Jenkins before Jenkins got hurt. After Jenkins’ injury, Bryant took over the second starting safety position, relegating Jenkins to be the third safety. Now, Jenkins has been released, leaving the depth chart at safety behind Bryant and Love thin (Ty Okada, Jerrick Reed II, JT Woods, and AJ Finley.)
This leaves the door open for a true starting caliber safety, like Emmanwori, to come in and be that third safety for 2025. On top of that, Bryant is entering his final year of his contract in 2025. This means if the Seahawks were able to land Emmanwori at 18, he could be the eventual replacement for Bryant, despite how well Bryant played last season.