RENTON, Wash. – We’re just about past the “small sample size” portion of the NFL season.
The Seahawks have played five of their 17 regular-season games, almost 30%, enough for what might have seemed like a statistical blip to become an emerging trend.
In that almost 30% of the season, one thing is becoming increasingly clear – Jaxon Smith-Njigba could be on his way to the greatest receiving season in Seahawks history.
The third-year player out of Ohio State ranks second in the NFL in receiving yards (534) and receiving yards per game (106.8), trailing only Puka Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams (588, 117.6).
Smith-Njigba’s yards per game average would shatter the Seahawks’ record of 82.5 set by Steve Largent in 1979.
It’s also markedly above the 81.4 average of DK Metcalf in 2020 when he set the team single-season record in receiving yards with 1,303 (Metcalf played 16 games in 2020 to Largent’s 15 in 1979 when Largent finished with 1,237 yards).
Smith-Njigba is on pace for 1,816 yards in a 17-game season, or 1,709 in a 16-game slate.
“Very impressive,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said this week. “… He’s playing great football for us.”
Smith-Njigba’s production looks even better when examining some of the more advanced numbers.
He is averaging 12.4 yards per target, which leads the NFL and is almost 3 yards better than the 9.5-yard per target average of Nacua, who has 19 more targets than Smith-Njigba but only 54 more yards.
He also has a catch percentage of 79.1 (34 receptions on 43 targets) which is fourth of the top 37 receivers in the league and would be the best of any of the top 42 receiving yardage seasons in Seahawks history.
You have to go down to Tyler Lockett’s 2017 season, when he caught 81.4% of the passes thrown his way (57 of 70 for 965 yards, 43rd most in team single-season history), to find a better catch percentage than Smith-Njigba has of any of the top 50 yardage receiving seasons in team history.
Along the way, he’s answered the questions of whether he could take another step forward after his breakthrough 2024 campaign when he led the Seahawks with 100 receptions (which tied Lockett’s single-season record) for 1,130 yards, and if he could do so while playing without Metcalf and Lockett to share some of the defensive attention while also forging a quick on-field bond with new quarterback Sam Darnold.
All from a player who doesn’t turn 24 until February.
Macdonald says there’s nothing fluky about any of it, pointing to Smith-Njigba’s preparation as a key to his fast start.
“What great players do is that they bring it every day,’’ Macdonald said. “They go rip it. They prepare their tails off. … But I’d say his mentality is steadfast and consistent of ‘I’m trying to be great at my craft. I’m also trying to push the envelope on what I’m trying to do and get accomplished.’ Part of that is building chemistry with the rest of your offense, the quarterback and the rest of your receiver room and being a great teammate. That is what the great ones do, and that’s what Jaxon’s doing, and that’s what makes it so exciting, sustainable.”
Whether Smith-Njigba is surprised by the numbers he’s putting up is something he’s keeping under wraps.
During a session with media Thursday, Smith-Njigba revealed that he writes down goals for each season but prefers to keep them a secret.
“Yeah, it’s just personal for me,” Smith-Njigba said. “And I don’t want to be called crazy or anything.”
Asked if he’s achieved any of his goals, Smith-Njigba replied: “No.’’
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Like I always say, I think my main goal is just helping this team and getting to the playoffs, helping us get a ring. I feel like all the personal goals just fall in after that. It always has for me once I put my mindset with the team goals and I just leave it at that.”
Smith-Njigba was expected to become a significant contributor, and hopefully quickly, when he was taken 20th overall in the draft in 2023 and as the first receiver taken.
He might have gone sooner had he not played only three games his final year at Ohio State in 2022 because of a hamstring injury.
The injury lingered through the Seahawks’ offseason program, when Smith-Njigba’s snaps were limited, and he seemed to spend much of his rookie season getting fully healthy again (he also suffered a slight fracture in his wrist in the preseason that required surgery but didn’t cause him to miss any games) while finding his NFL footing.
With Metcalf and Lockett serving as co-WR1, Smith-Njigba caught 63 passes for 628 yards as a rookie.
He stepped into a larger role in 2024 under pass-happy coordinator Ryan Grubb, catching 12 passes for 117 yards in Week 2 at New England.
He eventually surpassed Lockett to become a co-No. 1 option with Metcalf, finishing as only the 10th player in franchise history with 1,000 or more yards in a season.
With Metcalf and Lockett departing in the span of three days in March, Smith-Njigba knew even more would be expected this year.
That helped compel him to take his offseason conditioning even more seriously. While he weighs in the same 197-202-pound range as always, he said he feels a little different.
“Yeah, a goal of mine was to get bigger, faster and stronger,” he said. “That’s how I feel. I think you can see it in my play a little bit. So, I’m just going to continue to take care of that and to grow. I feel like I’ve got some years to continue that. I’m just taking full advantage, and it’s definitely helped me this year to perform.”
That’s helped to even further accentuate his natural catching skills and ability to track the ball in the air – each honed through years as a shortstop playing baseball growing up.
“Be at the right spot at the right time,” he said. “That’s the name of the game.”
Still, the newness this year – Darnold replacing Geno Smith as well as another new offensive coordinator in Klint Kubiak – left Smith-Njigba uncertain how things might unfold.
He said he learned early in the offseason program that Darnold would find him if he was open.
He said in a couple early workouts he wasn’t expecting the ball only to turn and see Darnold was throwing it his way.
“A couple footballs caught me off-guard,” he said. “I had to really tell myself to expect the ball every play, honestly, because it could be there. And that’s the attitude and approach that I came into the season with.”
The relationship has only grown as the Darnold-JSN connection has been so dynamic and efficient that the Seahawks rank fifth in passing at 245.4 yards per game despite attempting fewer passes than all but one other team.
“I definitely had confidence (in the offense),” he said. “I didn’t exactly know where we could take this thing and still don’t. But I’m excited for the ride.”
It’s one that could well end in the Seahawks’ history books.