Done deal: Seahawks make bedrock Jaxon Smith-Njigba NFL’s richest wide receiver
So now we know why the Seahawks weren’t spending all their money in free agency.
They are using it to keep the best of their own.
The Super Bowl champions have agreed to a four-year contract extension with All-Pro Jaxon Smith-Njigba that will pay him up to $168.6 million with more than $120 million guaranteed. That makes the NFL offensive player of the year the highest-paid wide receiver in league history.
The deal at $42.15 million per season is also a record for wide receivers.
Smith-Njigba gets a tidy $69.13 million guaranteed at signing. He’s earned $14.4 million up to this point in his three-year NFL career with Seattle.
His representatives at Win Sports Group confirmed Smith-Njigba’s massive new deal Monday morning.
The wide receiver’s reaction online late Monday afternoon: “SEAAAAA”
The contract rewards Smith-Njigba a month after he finished the best season by a receiver in the franchise’s 50-year history. It came after Seahawks general manager John Schneider traded DK Metcalf to Pittsburgh last spring to clear Smith-Njigba’s ascension.
Smith-Njigba broke Metcalf’s Seahawks record of 1,303 yards in a season in 2025. And he did it with 167 yards in Seattle’s win at Tennessee in late November, with still six more games left in last season.
“It means a lot,” Smith-Njigba said Nov. 23 in Nashville, sighing under his black cowboy hat he’d recently bought online.
“This organization is a great organization. Great receivers have (come) through here.
“Honestly, I look at it as a team award, honestly. Without Sam (Darnold), without the protection, without (fellow wide receivers) Rashid (Shaheed) and ‘Coop’ (Cooper Kupp) this doesn’t happen.
“I’m grateful. I’m thankful, blessed for my team. Blessed to be a Seahawk.”
Even more so today.
His new deal keeps Smith-Njigba, the former Ohio State Buckeyes star who turned 24 last month, a franchise cornerstone with two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Darnold and three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon for as long as the Seahawks can envision.
The contract keeps Smith-Njigba under contract with Seattle through the 2031 season.
It also lets the Seahawks set the NFL wide-receiver market for contract, before the rival Los Angeles Rams re-sign All-Pro Puka Nacua. That L.A. deal is expected before next season begins in September. Now Nacua has Seattle’s number for Smith-Njigba to compared to, and the Rams to have to deal with.
The same happened at cornerback two weeks ago, in reverse. The Rams traded to get All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie from the Chiefs. Then L.A. signed the former University of Washington star to a mega contract extension worth $31 million per year for four seasons. That’s the new market for cornerbacks.
Witherspoon, the fifth pick in the 2023 draft 15 spots ahead of where the Seahawks took Smith-Njigba, is likely next.
Smith-Njigba’s agreement came three days after the Seahawks announced they were picking up fifth-year contract options on Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon. That’s by virtue of them being the team’s first-round choices in the 2023 NFL draft.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement gives teams the right to choose options for an extra year for first-round picks beyond the standard, four-year rookie contract all drafted players get.
Picking up those options and now Smith-Njigba’s new deal follow what Schneider and the Seahawks just did with and for Charles Cross.
Last offseason, the team picked up the fifth-year option on Cross, their first-round pick in 2022. That effectively bought the Seahawks time to get a longer-term extension done with their cornerstone left tackle.
Cross signed his richer, longer deal two months ago, in January. It gives him $75 million guaranteed, and the Seahawks a less expensive salary-cap charge on Cross for 2026 than that fifth-year option would have for next season.
Smith-Njigba’s new deal increases his salary-cap charge for this year by $5.8 million, which the team has ample cap space to absorb. The new contract lowers Smith-Njigba’s 2027 cap charge by $8.2 million over what it would have been with the guaranteed fifth-year option.
Doing the same with Witherspoon before the 2026 begins, also at the top of the market at his position ($31 million per year for cornerbacks), is likely to be Seattle’s next big move.
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 7:00 AM.
