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Brady Henderson, ESPN
RENTON, Wash. — Mike Macdonald didn’t agree with the premise of the question.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba had led the Seattle Seahawks in receiving for a seventh straight game, catching 10 passes for 83 yards in their home loss to the Green Bay Packers on Dec. 15. The performance put him on the doorstep of 1,000 yards for the campaign and led to a question about his breakout second season.
“I wouldn’t call it a breakout,” the team’s first-year head coach said. “I mean, this guy has been making plays since we walked in the door. There is a reason we drafted him in the first round last year. Can’t speak to last year, but this guy is a dynamite player. He just brings it every day. He’s the guy that we thought he was.”
Macdonald might merely have been rejecting the notion Smith-Njigba’s second-year surge had come out of nowhere, because this was the expectation all along.
After all, the Seahawks had watched him look stronger in the second half of his rookie season. Then they saw him dominate in offseason practices, positioning himself to overtake 10-year franchise veteran Tyler Lockett in their pass-catching pecking order.
Add in his track record of significant leaps in production in Year 2 — something he did at Rockwall High School outside of Dallas and again at Ohio State — and what Smith-Njigba has done in 2024 almost seemed predestined, and the only surprise is that he has outproduced even DK Metcalf, who commands regular double-teams and missed two games with a knee injury in November.
Heading into the Seahawks’ Thursday night game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Smith-Njigba leads Seattle with 93 catches, 1,089 yards — fifth most in the NFL — and six touchdowns. He has been paying off general manager John Schneider’s decision to make him the first wide receiver taken in last year’s draft with the 20th pick, and his jump in 2024 has been among the biggest reasons the Seahawks are in playoff contention with an 18.6% chance to win the NFC West, according to ESPN Analytics.
“He’s been great,” said Metcalf, whose 897 receiving yards are second on the team. “I know Lock saw me make the transition to getting the numbers that [Smith-Njigba is] getting now, but just to see it from the other side … is kind of great, because last year he didn’t really have any idea of what was going on or how to take it 16 games, 17 games in a season.
“But now, just to see him put everything together, it’s kind of like a proud parent or a big brother moment just to see him have the success, and I know he’s going to continue to have major success in his league.”
SCHNEIDER WALKED OUT of Ohio State’s pro day in March 2023 thinking his chances of landing Smith-Njigba had taken a serious hit.
The wideout was not expected to run a 40-yard dash that day, still recovering from the hamstring injury that had sidelined him for most of his final college season. But he did anyway, clocking a more-than-solid 4.48 seconds at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds.
Smith-Njigba had eye-popping stats on his résumé, having led the Buckeyes with 1,606 receiving yards in 2021 — including a Rose Bowl-record 347 — despite playing in a receiver corps that included future first-round picks Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Marvin Harrison Jr. Former OSU quarterback C.J. Stroud once called Smith-Njigba the best route runner he has ever played with, pointing out the pass catcher’s polish.
But with Smith-Njigba not running at the NFL combine, his 40 time was the last remaining question. When he unexpectedly answered it at his pro day, Schneider — as he explained on his Seattle Sports 710 AM radio show — left feeling like there was no way the wide receiver would fall to No. 20, where the Seahawks had their second first-round pick.
To Schneider and the majority of the organization, the pro day performance solidified Smith-Njigba as the top wideout in the draft. According to a team source, then-coach Pete Carroll saw it that way, as well, but a few members of his staff favored Boston College‘s Zay Flowers, a smaller but speedier receiver who had run a 4.42-second 40.
While Smith-Njigba didn’t have that kind of explosiveness, the consensus in Seattle’s draft room was that he was the more well-rounded player, according to team sources, and a better fit for a receiver corps that needed a chain-moving slot man since it already had deep threats in Metcalf and Lockett.
“If we would have sat here … when we were looking at the 2023 draft, we would have said that guy is easily a top-five, [top-10] player, but then he unfortunately had the hamstring injury,” Schneider said on draft night.
To the Seahawks’ surprise, Smith-Njigba was there at 20, and Schneider stuck to his board even as, according to a team source, one of the dissenters made a last-second plea against drafting Smith-Njigba.
As Schneider saw it, Smith-Njigba was on the verge of breaking out as a rookie in training camp last season, having started to emerge after a slow start to his first offseason workout program as he worked back from the hamstring injury. Smith-Njigba then suffered a broken wrist in the preseason, which continued to affect him even after he ditched the brace he had to wear for the first two regular-season games.
On top of that, one Seahawks coach said, Smith-Njigba looked like a typical rookie early on as he learned what it meant to become a pro. But as his wrist healed and his practice and study habits improved, his play started to follow.
He finished with 628 receiving yards — a distant third behind Metcalf and Lockett — and four touchdowns in 2023. Two of the scores were game winners and two were on plays in which he lined up out wide, showing he had enough speed to be more than a slot receiver.
“I felt like it was a good foundation,” Smith-Njigba said over the summer while reflecting on his rookie season. “I can grow from it. A lot of growing pains, a lot of ups and downs, but kind of similar from first years of college and in high school.”
BEFORE HIS ROOKIE season, Smith-Njigba had dinner in New York City with fellow wide receiver Davante Adams. Smith-Njigba was already in the area hanging out with Wilson, who had just finished his rookie season with the Jets, when he got a call to meet Adams from a mutual business partner.
The four of them dined at a Manhattan restaurant, Adams doling out wide receiver wisdom and the two young players picking the brain of the six-time Pro Bowl selection.
Adams told them how he had built chemistry with quarterback Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay that allowed him to take off after two sub-500-yard seasons to begin his career.
“Having that confidence and just building that relationship with your quarterback. He talked about that a lot and how important that is, and that’s where I get it from,” Smith-Njigba said of Adams. “My mindset is, whatever [Seahawks signal-caller] Geno [Smith] needs, I’m there to do that.”
Smith-Njigba’s breakout is a product of several factors. He has bought into first-year coordinator Ryan Grubb’s offense and has become comfortable with its complex passing scheme. He showed up in better shape as compared to his rookie season and has stayed healthy. And he has earned the trust of his quarterback and playcaller.
“Feeling stronger, feeling faster, being able to just really have a good grasp on the offense and understand what is expected from me,” Smith-Njigba said of what he has done better. “I would say that, and just me and Geno’s timing comes off of that.”
In Week 9 against the visiting Los Angeles Rams, Smith-Njigba delivered the most productive game of his career, catching seven passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns in an overtime loss.
Over the first eight games, he averaged 7.27 air yards per target, mostly making hay with underneath routes out of the slot. But with Metcalf sidelined against the Rams, Smith-Njigba took over as Seattle’s deep threat, averaging 18.08 air yards per target — and that wasn’t counting the two long passes he hauled in for 78 yards that were wiped out by holding penalties.
The breakout was officially on from there.
If the Rams game was the best evidence that Smith-Njigba can be more than a chain mover, the Seahawks’ next outing was further proof of his growing rapport with Smith. Smith-Njigba’s 10-catch, 110-yard performance at the San Francisco 49ers included four catches for 38 yards on the game-winning touchdown drive that Smith led to snap Seattle’s six-game losing streak against its division rival.
“Just how comfortable we are with one another, our communication on the sideline and in games, we’re just developing that,” Smith said after the 49ers game. “It’s kind of unspoken. We don’t have to say anything, but we know what to do.”
The quarterback and wideout had honed their chemistry by training together for a week over the offseason, but with no defenders, those throwing-and-catching sessions didn’t focus on extended-play situations such as the ones that led to two of their connections on the decisive drive against the Niners.
“We’re always going to have stuff in the game plan where he’s the primary guy,” Macdonald said of Smith-Njigba after that game. “I think the cool part is the stuff that’s happening later in the downs [with] him and Geno.
“After watching the tape, you kind of feel it. There’s a chemistry going between those two guys.”
During a two-minute drive at the end of the first half last week against the visiting Minnesota Vikings, Smith showed his trust in Smith-Njigba on a risky throw up the seam. With a cornerback trailing his receiver and two safeties over the top, Smith put the ball on a rope toward his back shoulder. Smith-Njigba made a midair adjustment and hung on through contact for a 25-yard gain, setting up his 18-yard touchdown catch one play later.
While leading the Seahawks in receiving for an eighth straight game in that loss to Minnesota, Smith-Njigba, 22, became the 10th player in franchise history to top 1,000 yards for a season. And he needs eight catches to break Lockett’s single-season club record of 100, adding some individual stakes to Thursday’s contest, which the Seahawks need to win in order to avoid being eliminated from playoff contention with a Rams victory on Saturday over the visiting Arizona Cardinals.
The 32-year-old Lockett — the second-most prolific receiver in franchise history and a surefire Ring of Honor member down the road — has given no indication he plans on retiring after this season. But he is scheduled to make $17 million and count nearly $31 million against the cap in the final year of his contract in 2025, which makes him a candidate for release unless he takes a pay cut for a second straight year.
Even if Lockett is back for an 11th season in Seattle, the proverbial torch already has been passed to Smith-Njigba as the Seahawks’ co-No. 1 receiver with Metcalf, 27.
“I don’t think there has ever been a game where I would’ve been worried about throwing the ball to Jaxon in a really big moment,” Grubb said. “I think that’s exactly who he is. I think we are really blessed to have a couple veteran guys that obviously have made a lot of those plays. And then Jaxon is a guy that’s certainly capable of making that kind of play at any moment.
“Just really excited for him. He’s really starting to show what we know he is.”
ESPN Jets reporter Rich Cimini contributed to this story.
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