In retrospect, we should have probably all caught on to the clue Baker Mayfield left for us back in Week 4.

As the Seahawks and Buccaneers prepared to face off early this season, Tampa Bay's quarterback was asked in the days leading up to the game to give his thoughts on Seattle's defense.

"The rookie, No. 3, he's a really good player. Obviously, he's been injured a little bit, banged up, but he adds a different factor at the nickel position," Mayfield told reporters at the time.

Mayfield went on to note, quite accurately, that Seattle's defensive success "starts up front" with a defensive front led by the likes of Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy II, DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, Derick Hall and Boye Mafe.

Mayfield also praised Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald system, and the players executing it.

But before he mentioned any of that, the player Mayfield singled out first was not just a rookie, but one who, to that point, had played all of four defensive snaps before he suffered a high ankle sprain that kept him out of the next three games.

What Mayfield alluded to when he said Emmanwori "adds a different factor at the nickel position," and what the rest of the NFL is now seeing on a weekly basis, is that Emmanwori is a rare player whose skillset allows the Seahawks to counter multiple offensive looks without having to change their own personnel. Emmanwori is big and powerful enough set an edge or rush the passer as a defensive end, he's versatile enough to stop the run or cover a tight end down the seam as a box defender, and he's athletic enough and sticky enough in coverage to cover an All-Pro receiver like Justin Jefferson on third down, as he did in a Week 13 win over the Vikings, nearly intercepting a pass that ended as an incompletion.

And what really takes Seattle's defense to another level is the fact that Emmanwori isn't the only versatile, chaos-making defensive back who can hurt an offense in multiple ways. Before the Seahawks added Emmanwori in the second round of this year's draft, they had Devon Witherspoon, a 2023 first-round pick who has earned Pro-Bowl honors each of the past two seasons. Witherspoon lacks the size that allows Emmanwori to do some of the things he does around the line of scrimmage, but he is still pound-for-pound one of the hardest hitters in the league, and plays with a fearless style that makes him just as dangerous on a blitz or a run stop as a bigger player like Emmanwori.

And having a versatile duo like that is particularly valuable against an opponent like the Rams, who come to Lumen Field on Thursday night, and against a creative play caller like Rams coach Sean McVay.

Individually, Witherspoon and Emmanwori are both versatile difference makers who can make a defense better. Playing together, and for a coach as innovative as Mike Macdonald, they give the Seahawks a unique level of game-wrecking play from the secondary. That's been especially true of late, with those two combining for 26 tackles, six passes defensed, two interceptions, two sacks, three tackles for loss and a fumble recovery, not to mention Emmanwori's blocked field goal, in the past two games.

"That has been our weapon all year," safety Julian Love said. "We're not a team that's like, 'OK, we have a solid nickel, two corners, two safeties. With the skill of and the talent of Nick Emmanwori and 'Spoon, they can do so much. They can blitz, Nick can play D-end, pretty much, he can play safety, nickel, corner, whatever. He has the size to do it all, and 'Spoon just has a talent to do it all. So it allows us to be multiple. And that I think has been the story of the season. It's like, 'All right, this game might be in Hawk, might be in Big People, Nick might be playing like a linebacker. This week is more cover, we're going to have 'Spoon and Nick more as DBs in man and stuff like that.' I think that's our strength; it's been our strength all season."

And again, let's give a little love to the rest of the defense as well. Seattle's defensive front might be the best in the NFL, linebackers Ernest Jones IV and Drake Thomas have both made big plays throughout the season, and the rest of Seattle's secondary, made up of Love, Coby Bryant, Josh Jobe, Riq Woolen and Ty Okada, has also played at a high level throughout the season. So this defense is anything but a two-man show, but still, what Emmanwori and Witherspoon bring in terms of their positional versatility, athleticism and playmaking is something unique.

Through 14 games this season, the Seahawks have played with five or more defensive backs on 93.1 percent of their defensive snaps, per Next Gen Stats, the highest rate in the NFL. Even against 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends), a look the Rams use at a higher rate than any team in the league, the Seahawks have been in nickel for 66.6 percent of their snaps. And they're not sacrificing run defense to do it, ranking second in the league in opponent yards-per-carry average (3.8) and third in rushing yards allowed (91.6 per game).

Basically, nickel is the Seahawks' base defense, and they can also play dime at a very high rate, even against the run, because of what Emmanwori and Witherspoon can do. In the previous meeting between the Seahawks and Rams, LA used 13 personnel on 18 of 50 plays and 11 personnel (one back, three receivers) on the other 32, and the Seahawks countered with nickel or dime for 44 of 50 defensive snaps, limiting the Rams to one of their lowest offensive outputs of the season. With receiver Davante Adams dealing with a hamstring injury, they could lean even more into their three-tight end looks this time around, and how Seattle's versatile secondary matches that will once again be a key factor in this game.

"They do a great job of being able to—they can match you normal, or they can match you non-normal because they have some of those versatile pieces that they can use that they might not be listed as an outside 'backer, but they can play that way," Rams coach Sean McVay told reporters this week. "They're a great defense. They deserve all the credit that they're getting, and I think Mike does a phenomenal job of accentuating their skillsets, they're tied in on all three levels… They pose a lot of problems, they understand how they can conflict you, and they make it really difficult to be able to find big-play opportunities against them because of the way they play and some of versatile pieces and playmakers that they have. They're able to defend you both in the run and the pass out of some different groupings that other people don't have the luxury of being able to do."

The easiest way to understand how Emmanwori and Witherspoon impact a game is to just put on the tape and watch them on a play-after-play basis. Plenty of what they do shows up on the stat sheet, but so much more doesn't especially when it comes to Witherspoon, who defensive coordinator Aden Durde called, "one of the most intelligent football players I've been around."

And if the eye test doesn't provide enough evidence—and it should—then hearing their coaches and teammates talk about them should do the trick.

"He's part of the engine that makes the whole thing go," Macdonald recently said of Witherspoon. "He's probably the sparkplug behind the whole thing… He's playing really, really high-level football right now for us that's really helping us."

Added Woolen, "Ball-knowers know, football players know and people around the league know that he's a great player. When he's out there, he's a force multiplier. So, having him out there making those plays is amazing, and getting his first pick of the season is pretty cool."

And on Emmanwori, Macdonald said earlier this month, "We had him at 9-technique, 5-technique, he's playing the slot. We're putting a lot on his plate… We've never really had a player like him, so we are kind of making it up as we go to a certain extent," Macdonald said. "I hate to admit that, but we kind of are."

Said Love, "Nick can be the best of all of us. Obviously, we're not 6-3, can run and jump and can bend, all that stuff. From the jump, I think Mike did a great job of just introducing him to small concepts at once. He's not trying to make him learn all these things. He's like, 'Hey, learn this, rep it, now you can learn this, learn this and this.' So now, even if he's not perfect on the field, he just flies around and can make plays just because he is a special player."