Rams’ Sean McVay goes bigger. Seahawks feel they have an answer: Nick Emmanwori

Sean McVay has been the NFL’s premier innovator of offensive football the last decade.

His use of horizontal pass routes by multiple wide receivers and screen passes out of “11” personnel — one running back with one tight end — stretched defenses from side to side. It created mismatches for his Los Angeles Rams. He won a Super Bowl four years ago doing that.

The rest of the league copied.

Now this season, McVay has zigged while the rest of the league has zagged. “They’re just trying to present issues right now,” Seahawks Pro Bowl veteran safety Julian Love said Monday, three days before his 11-3 team hosts McVay’s 11-3 Rams in an NFC West Battle Royale at Lumen Field Thursday night.

“As the league’s getting smaller,” Love said of offenses, “they go back to being big.”

McVay this season has gone against the league norm by using “13” personnel: one running back with three tight ends. The Rams use it more than anyone in the sport.

L.A. has been in 13 personnel 213 times this season, per analysis by SumerSports. That’s 24.6% of the time, by far the most in the NFL. The league average using 13 personnel is just 5.6%.

The 213 plays in 13 this season is nearly twice more than McVay used 13 personnel in all eight of his previous seasons combined (130) as the Rams’ head coach and play caller, per TruMedia.

“They’re really leaning into it now,” Love said. And maybe even more Thursday night. The Rams have wide receiver Davante Adams injured and iffy to play in Seattle, per McVay. The NFL leader with 14 touchdown catches this season aggravated a left hamstring injury last weekend in Los Angeles’ win over Detroit.

L.A.’s second wide receiver along with Puka Nacua didn’t practice Tuesday. McVay told reporters in southern California the Rams were going to give Adams “every chance” to play Thursday and will take the decision on him playing “all the way up to game time.”

No Adams would likely mean more 13 personnel from the Rams.

Tight end Colby Parkinson has become like a second or third wide receiver in McVay’s new, tight end-heavy scheme. The Seahawks 2020 draft pick who played his first four NFL seasons for Seattle has six touchdown catches this season. That’s four more than Parkinson’s previous career high.

Parkinson’s 6-yard touchdown pass from NFL passer-rating leader Matthew Stafford early in the fourth quarter Nov. 13 proved to be the deciding points in L.A.’s 21-19 win over the Seahawks in Inglewood, California. That was the game Seattle’s Sam Darnold threw a career-high four interceptions to hand the Rams two of their three touchdowns. It’s the Seahawks’ only loss in their last nine games.

Three of Parkinson’s six TDs have come in L.A.’s last two games, including one last weekend that helped the Rams beat the Lions.

Parkinson also raced back up the field to chase now Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson after his interception of Stafford. NFL NextGen Stats measured Parkinson running 64 yards to tackle Hutchinson and prevent a Lions touchdown in the Rams’ 41-34 win that kept them even with the Seahawks at 11-3.

McVay use of three tight ends has the Rams plowing for lead rusher Kyren Williams, fourth in the NFC with 1,030 yards rushing, while also creating mismatches against linebackers and safeties in the passing game.

Rookie Terrance Ferguson from Oregon at 6 feet 5, 255 pounds has been a mashing blocker plus a problem for defenses to match in size in pass coverage beyond Parkinson. Third tight end Davis Allen is 6-6 and has three touchdown catches.

“I mean, it seems like he’s on the cutting edge of everything offense the past five to eight years,” Love said of McVay. “And right now, they’re playing the game of the “13.” You’ll see other team now next year, the year after that play the game of “13.” They get notes from him.

“But he works his personnel. Right now, obviously Colby is playing really well. The other two tight ends are playing really well. The rookie they like is a skillful tight end.

“So they are just trying to present issues.”

Enter Nick Emmanwori

The Seahawks believe they have their own issue to present the Rams. They have a weapon to counter McVay’s 13 personnel, a do-it-all force no other NFL team has.

Nick Emmanwori.

The 6-3, 220-pound dynamo covers tight ends. He covers — and body slams — All-Pro wide receivers, as he did Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson in Seattle’s 26-0 win over the Vikings last month.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald plays Emmanwori all over his defense. He’s a safety back deep in coverage. He’s a third safety in the box close to the line of scrimmage tackling back on running backs. Emmanwori plays outside linebacker. He blitzes from there. Or from safety. He plays inside linebacker next to Ernest Jones as the only off-ball linebackers in some of Macdonald’s five- and six-defensive back sets. He has even played at defensive end, outside the offensive tackle or those tight ends the Rams will employ.

“Learning different positions is pretty cool,” Emmanwori said, grinning. “I can do a lot of different things. So, just playing where I can make an impact, it’s pretty cool doing that, too.”

In the days following each game, Macdonald marvels at a play or plays Emmanwori made. The latest was last weekend in Seattle’s narrow escape past Indianapolis to keep pace with the Rams. In the fourth quarter with the Colts leading 13-12, Emmanwori put a head and shoulder fake on Quenton Nelson that made Indianapolis’ three-time All-Pro guard whiff on blocking him during a Colts screen pass. As Nelson fell to the turf Emmanwori tackled NFL rushing leader Jonathan Taylor, holding him to a 1-yard gain.

Macdonald, the defensive guru, couldn’t believe it.

“It was a tremendous play,” he said.

“It’s like the old school Oklahoma drill. You’ve got two blockers in front of you. You’ve got to beat those guys and get the guy with the ball. It’s some high-powered stuff, and that was a great play.”

Making All-Pro guards look silly. Suplexing All-Pro wide receivers. Nothing fazes Emmanwori. The rookie from South Carolina has gone from situational piece at the beginning of this season to an indispensable asset Macdonald can’t afford to take off the field. He played all 60 defensive snaps against the Colts.

“I think that’s just his mentality. I really want our team to have that mentality,” Macdonald said.

“You’ve heard it from me every week: How can we go play our best ball all the time, regardless of circumstance? (That) is what we’re shooting for.”

Emmanwori is big enough and Love, back a few weeks now from missing nine games with a hamsting injury, is fast and versatile enough to cover Parkinson, Ferguson and the Rams tight ends. Emmanwori is fast enough Macdonald could put him on Nacua and blitz Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon at Stafford. Emmanwori is stout enough to be a run defender against Williams. “That has been our weapon all year,” Love said. “That, I think, has been the story of the season.”

Emmanwori and Witherspoon are the chess pieces Macdonald will use, likely in ways he and his Seahawks’ top-ranked defense haven’t shown yet, to counter McVay’s innovations on offense.

It’s the game within the game that will decide the biggest game of this Seahawks season so far.

“I already know their staff, our staff...yeah, it’s gonna be a battle of the minds,” Love said.

“But, you know, every week I feel like the players are like: ‘Hey, just give us a call. We’ll line up and we’ll just execute.’ We’re talented enough. We work hard enough. We improvise enough.”