SEATTLE – For Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the response came quickly and without much thought.
“A go route,” the Seattle Seahawks star receiver told me at his locker when I asked his favorite route to run.
It’s a surprising answer for a guy who until this season was viewed as a traditional slot receiver and one of the best route-runners in the game. But it also represents Smith-Njigba’s attitude as a player: all gas, no brakes.
The Seahawks will need plenty of that when they host the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday (8 p.m. ET on FOX) with a trip to the NFC Championship Game on the line.
“I’ve been highly successful in my career on corner routes,” Smith-Njigba told me. “But on a go ball, it’s beat them at the line, and I think my releases are one of the best. So, winning at the line and taking it deep.
“Everything is angles. [The defensive back is] trying to mirror me, so anytime I can sell something, be a good salesman, that plays a lot into it.”
In his third NFL season, Smith-Njigba has entered the conversation for the best receiver in the league. The Ohio State product set franchise single-season records for receptions (119) and receiving yards (1,793). The 1,793 receiving yards are the eighth-most in league history, and his nine 100-yard games led the league during the regular season.
This season, Jaxon Smith-Njigba set career-highs in catches (119), receiving yards (1,793) and touchdowns (10), among many other categories. (Photo by David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)
Smith-Njigba’s historic season was inspired in part by Seattle general manager John Schneider’s willingness to trade the team’s former No. 1 receiver DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers last March. That gave JSN the opportunity to show he’s a complete receiver who can win from anywhere on the field.
Smith-Njigba told me that when he found out about the trade, his sole offseason focus was to set himself up to be one of the best in the game. That included working with private trainer Jonathan Jones, whom JSN met in Florida when he was training for the NFL Draft three years ago. They developed a rapport, and that relationship evolved into a full-time job for Jones.
“I work with him every single day,” Smith-Njigba told me. “I’m feeling great right now, and ready for the back end of the season.
“I always go into the offseason wanting to get bigger, faster and stronger. I didn’t know I was going to be WR1 when I left the building [last season], but my work ethic is just that I see the potential that I can be one of the best in the game. I don’t want to leave nothin’ out there.”
The proof of that hard work is JSN’s production this season. He has accounted for 44% of Seattle’s receiving yards, the highest percentage by any player in the league. He led Seattle in receiving yards in 16 of 17 games this year, the most in a regular season in NFL history.
Smith-Njigba also made a seamless transition from slot receiver to outside receiver this season — and he put his explosive playmaking ability on display, leading the NFL in catches of at least 20 yards (27) and 40-plus yards (8). In 2024, he led the league with 956 receiving yards (with five touchdowns) when aligned in the slot, per Next Gen Stats. This season, he leads the league with 1,378 receiving yards (with eight touchdowns) when aligned out wide.
For his elite production, Smith-Njigba was selected to the Associated Press All-Pro first team. He helped Seattle’s offense score 28.4 points per game, No. 3 in the NFL, and earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
“He’s got all of the physical attributes,” Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold told me in the hallway outside the team’s facility. “I feel like a lot of guys in the NFL do, but just the way he understands football and the way he understands space is unlike anyone I’ve been around. So, that’s unique.
“And I think he’s stronger than most guys think as well. His lower body and upper body, like you see him on the stiff arm he had with the Rams. Just little things like that. I don’t think anyone is really expecting him to do stuff like that, but he’s really strong, and he’s very fluid as well in his route-running.”
Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold (#14) developed a quick rapport soon after the Seahawks signed the quarterback last offseason. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Seahawks left tackle Charles Cross put it more succinctly.
“He’s different,” Cross told me in the locker room in November. “That’s the best way to say it. The way he catches the ball, what he does with the ball in his hands, how he gets open — it’s fun to watch and be a part of.”
Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald said what makes Smith-Njigba special is his approach to the game, his competitiveness and his willingness to work collaboratively with his teammates.
“There’s a lot of great receivers in this league who don’t have as diverse of a skill set as he does,” Macdonald told me at the team facility. “Anywhere from an intermediate route tree, catch-and-run stuff at the line of scrimmage, and then we’ve seen his ability to track the ball at the third level and keep his body position, all that kind of stuff. There’s just not that many people that can do that.
“You couple that with his work ethic and his competitiveness. His relationship with Sam. Our offensive coaches have done a good job of getting him some good looks as well, so I think it’s kind of a culmination of all those things.”
Smith-Njigba said he and Darnold quickly developed a rapport after the QB signed with Seattle last offseason. They’ve been particularly dialed in on play-action passing. Per Next Gen Stats, Darnold and Smith-Njigba connected 31 times for 723 yards and six touchdowns on play-action this season (18.1 yards per attempt), making them the only quarterback-receiver duo to have combined for more than 700 such yards in a season during the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
“I watched film on his game as soon as we got him,” Smith-Njigba said of Darnold. “I’m sure he did the same thing. Just being together and getting reps.
“He has an elite competitive gene in him, and I do too. We want to be the best and lead this team to victories.”
They’ll have their chance to lead the team to its most important victories starting Saturday night.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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