Inside the 1st underwhelming games of Seahawks rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s life
Jaxon Smith-Njigba was alone on the bench. His head was down.
He had just one catch on three targets in the first half of the Seahawks’ home game against Carolina last month.
Geno Smith saw his rookie wide receiver sulking.
The 33-year-old quarterback and team captain walked over to the Seahawks’ first-round draft choice. Smith continued to be what Seattle’s youngest player calls his friend and “big bro.”
“Hey, I need you,” Smith, standing, told the seated Smith-Njigba, as captured by NFL Films microphones. “Need you in the second half. I need you locked in.”
Smith sensed the 21-year old wasn’t shaking his funk.
“All right. Look,” Smith told him, “whatever happened is on me. It ain’t never on you.
“You’ve gotta get the ball, so I’ve gotta find you. All right?”
Smith-Njigba nodded his head up and down.
“I need you to give me your best this second half, all right?” Smith told him.
“I got you.”
Smith put his hand on the rookie’s shoulder. He tapped it. Then he put his hand on top of Smith-Njigba’s head. He dropped his head to press it into the receiver’s.
“Come on,” Smith said.
Four games into a rookie season his training camp and pedigree suggested would be stellar, Smith-Njigba remains stuck. He has 12 catches, eight incomplete passes and just 62 yards, only 15 yards per game. His patterns have mostly been short and inconsequential; he’s averaging 5.2 yards per reception. That’s the lowest for any NFL wide receiver who has more than five receptions this season.
Smith-Njigba has two first downs in four games. Only five of his 20 targets have been “successful,” as defined by Pro Football Reference: gains of at least 40% of the yards required on first down, 60% of yards required for a first down on second down and 100% of yards required on third and fourth downs.
On one of the few times he’s had a chance to catch a pass of more than 10 yards, the first throw by backup Drew Lock after Smith got hurt in the first half of Seattle’s win at the New York Giants Oct. 2, Smith-Njigba had the ball go off his hands at the sideline. It would have been a 17-yard gain, the longest of his young career.
Smith-Njigba isn’t used to this. At all.
He’s had disappointment; a hamstring injury cost him all but three games of his final college season at Ohio State last year.
But he’s never had a stretch of underwhelming games like this.
The NFL can do that, even to the best.
JSN’s lofty pedigree
Four years ago Smith-Njigba was the Texas high school player of the year at Rockwall High just northeast of Dallas, in Class 6A. That’s the highest level of perhaps the highest caliber of high-school football in the country.
He was a five-star recruit to mighty Ohio State. He set a school record with 95 catches and 1,606 yards receiving in 2021. He set Rose Bowl records to end that second season with the Buckeyes: 15 catches, an all-time college bowl game-record 347 yards and three touchdowns on New Year’s Day 2022.
He was the 20th pick in this spring’s NFL draft. Then had an exquisite spring and summer with Seattle. He ran precise routes and smoothly caught just about everything thrown his way with his hands far from his body, like a veteran.
So, yes, he is grateful for Smith supporting him through the first underwhelming games of his football life.
“Oh, he’s been great. I appreciate him.,” Smith-Njigba said of Smith before the Seahawks (3-1) left Friday for their game Sunday at the Cincinnati Bengals (2-3).
“I call him a friend. I call him a big bro. He’s been helping me, a lot.”
Asked what in particular Smith’s helped him with, Smith-Njigba said: “Everything. Really, everything.
“Shoot, he’s been good (for me).”
Geno Smith leads his rookie
So far in the regular season, his quarterback’s pick-me-ups have been the best thing Smith-Njigba’s had going.
“Just uplifting and encouraging him, as always,” Smith said. “Spending extra time watching film and showing him and teaching him things that we’re seeing as quarterbacks. And just working with him.
“It’s a process. It’s a step-by-step process. And he’s very young in that process. We just have to continue to work with him and he’s continuing to work hard. As long as his spirits are high, which they are, we’re in a good place. So we just have to keep working on that.”
None of what has happened through four games has been as the heralded rookie and the Seahawks expected.
In August he broke a bone in his wrist bracing his fall at the end of a long catch and run to the goal line in the second preseason game, against Dallas. He returned to practice in wowing time, six days after his surgery, catching passes wearing a cast.
He was full go the following week.
Yet his results haven’t been full go.
He’s played just over half the Seahawks’ offensive snaps through four games. He’d likely be playing more, but Seattle has started each game using two tight ends.
The Seahawks led the NFL in using multiple tight-end formations last season. That was when they lacked the third, play-making wide receiver. It’s what they drafted Smith-Njigba to be, with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
The 2023 Seahawks have had to continue using tight ends Will Dissly, Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson often at the same time, at the expense of Smith-Njigba’s opportunities. That’s been because of injuries to starting tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas. Both have missed the last three games, and play-caller Shane Waldron has used the tight ends to help fill-in tackles Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan pass block.
Cross practiced fully this week for the first time since he injured his knee early during the opening game against the Los Angeles Rams Sept. 10. He’s on track to start at left tackle.
That could lead Waldron to calling more formations with three wide receivers than the 52% of the time Smith-Njigba’s been on the field so far.
Not if, but when
Waldron said he’s called plays specifically to get Smith-Njigba the ball. But then a coverage shift or pass rush by the defense has caused Smith to throw more quickly somewhere else.
“He’s handled it tremendously,” Waldron said of the rookie wide receiver’s low production so far.
“He’s prepared to have that breakout game. I know with the receiver position sometimes the way the coverage plays out or the way the calls play out it doesn’t work out in his favor, and it hasn’t quite yet. We want him to have the ball....
“I think Jaxon has done a good job handling it. He’s been under the big spotlight before. He’s had success. He knows what it’s like. Just waiting for that moment that it works out the right way for him and not taking anything away from his preparation. He’s doing everything the right way.”
It could be in Cincinnati if Waldron indeed uses fewer two- and three-tight end sets. It could be next week when the Seahawks host Arizona.
Smith, his play caller and the Seahawks believe Smith-Njigba making his expected big splash is a matter of when, not if.
“Expectations can be a mug for a bunch of people,” Smith said. “I think the thing that you have to remain confident in is your process, the process over the results. Everyone is looking at the results and seeing numbers and stats, and everyone is big on fantasy.
“The things that he’s done within the game to help us win — the blocking in the run game, the way that he’s run his routes that allow other guys to get open — that’s helping our offense. The process that he’s in right now is just continuing to grow as a young player.
“And the results will come over time.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 12:42 PM.
