Todd McShay on Nick Emmanwori: 'There's only a few times that you can legitimately say a human being shouldn’t be able to do this'
Todd McShay has been at ESPN for nearly 20 years but even the veteran NFL Draft analyst found himself in awe of South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori‘s NFL Combine performance.
On an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Podcast last week, McShay said that Emmanwori’s jaw-dropping performance was the single biggest headline from Indy the week before.
“There’s only a few times (in combine history) that you can legitimately say a human being shouldn’t be able to do this,” McShay said. “And Emmanwori was like one of those times, I think back to like Calvin Johnson, right? DK Metcalf. Just look at him. He is a massive safety, right? He’s 6’3″, 220 pounds, no one has ever done what he’s done before.”
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Emmanwori ran a blazing 4.38-second 40-yard dash to go along with a 43-inch vertical and 11′ 6″ broad jump, the only safety in combine history to run under 4.4 seconds in the 40 and jump over 43 inches in the vertical and over 11 feet in the broad, according to NBC’s Pro Football Talk.
“I think the way the NFL is now, with looking for long safeties, chess pieces, guys that can cover, we’ve seen what Hamilton’s done in Baltimore,” McShay continued. “Just that versatility as an athlete, for me, he stole the show. You just don’t see guys like that move and jump and participate in the way that they do the way he did.”
It’s easy to get caught up in the combine numbers. Countless past prospects have capped off solid or even mediocre careers by blowing it up at the combine and moving way up in the draft.
But as Russillo points out, Emmanwori has three years of strong game tape to back up his claim for a first round pick.
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“Anybody that watched South Carolina this year, I would say the game tape has to back it all up too,” Russillo said. “Like the testing part of it is just another bonus on top of a dude that was a game-wrecking safety. Like I loved watching South Carolina this year.
“You and I talked about it all season long, but there are just all these times you’re like, ‘There’s (No.) 7 again.’ So I imagine that this isn’t out of nowhere because he looked like he made a big impact on Saturdays anyway.”
To Russillo’s point, the Irmo grad collected 244 career tackles and six interceptions, returning two for touchdowns, in 37 career games, including 36 starts.
The former Freshman All-American and first-team All-American as a junior entered the combine listed as the No. 2 safety in the draft by many but may have passed Georgia’s Malaki Starks as the potential No. 1 prospect at his position.
At this point, all the major mock drafts have Emmanwori going in the first round.
“And I think when teams are looking for traits and looking for a player that can do different things and can make you multiple on the defensive side,” McShay said. “Emmanwori, I mean, he just… I don’t know that any player truly helped themselves more than he did.”
