The Seattle Seahawks have one of the best wide receivers in football in Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He was their first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and has already emerged as one of the best in the game at age 23.
Something interesting about Smith-Njigba is the amount he is earning to begin his NFL career. Every rookie contract is straightforward, depending on where you are selected in the draft. Smith-Njigba was the 20th overall pick, and that comes with a lucrative rookie contract.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba Rookie Contract
Smith-Njigba signed a four-year, $14,417,307 contract, along with a $7,485,316 signing bonus. Additionally, his average annual salary is not exceptionally high ($3,604,327), but he is eligible to receive a contract extension after this season.
Smith-Njigba has been a football star ever since his high school days. He was a four-star recruit out of Rockwell, Texas, who committed to Ohio State University. He was 91st on the ESPN top 300 and an immediate contributor to the Buckeyes.
He was even offered a plethora of NIL deals during his time in college, including those from Kane Footwear, Onyx Authenticated, and Express. According to SportsKeeda, Smith-Njigba earned around $453k during his time in college.
The 23-year-old has made a nice living for himself despite not receiving his second NFL contract. It will be interesting to see what his contract extension looks like and if the Seahawks are willing to give him one after this season.
What might Smith-Njigba’s second contract look like?
If you look across the NFL wide receiver landscape, there are a lot of high-paid players. According to Spotrac, the highest-paid WR in football is Ja’Marr Chase, who is making just over $40 million per season. Smith-Njigba is coming off a 100-reception season with 1,130 yards and six touchdowns. However, he likely will not receive top-three wide receiver money.
Smith-Njigba can make a good argument to be the fourth-highest-paid wide receiver in football ahead of D.K. Metcalf. Smith-Njigba is on pace for another 100+ catch, 1,000+ yard season, and that is something Metcalf has not achieved in a year.
You can bet Smith-Njigba’s agent will be looking for anything over $33 million per season. That would be a significant pay increase and reflect what the young wide receiver has meant to the Seahawks so far in his career.
The Seahawks would be wise to finalize this deal as soon as possible to avoid an increase in his cost. Wide receivers are one of the most vital pieces to a successful offense, and the Seahawks have a budding star in Smith-Njigba.
Seahawks Players’ Fantasy Outlooks for Week 9
Here’s what PFSN’s Kyle Soppe wrote on the Seahawks’ notable players’ fantasy outlooks for the Week 9 matchup against the Washington Commanders:
Sam Darnold
The volume isn’t quite the same, but you could have made a lot of money forecasting Sam Darnold to average more fantasy points per pass this season than last.
Fantasy Points Per Pass Attempt
- 2024 with Vikings: 0.53
- 2025 with Seahawks: 0.57
After a strong start to the season, Washington has struggled to create pressure without the courtesy of the blitz, and that means one of two things is likely to happen on Sunday night: (1) Darnold is comfortable in a clean pocket or (2) the Commanders are left vulnerable on the back-end as a result of needing to crowd the line of scrimmage.
Realistically, I’m OK with either result, but which adventure you believe is most likely for them to choose impacts where Darnold ranks among the pocket-locked QBs this week.
Sam Darnold Splits
- 2024, when blitzed: 66.4% complete and 133.6 rating
- 2025, when blitzed: 59.3% complete and 92.9 rating
- 2024, when not pressured: 73.7% complete, 8.2 yards per attempt
- 2025, when not pressured: 78.7% complete, 10.3 yards per attempt
With Seattle coming off the bye, I’m more bullish on Darnold in this spot than the industry norm and see him as a threat to the top 12 at the position, even without an expectation of any points on the ground.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
We spent time this summer worrying about what a move out of the slot would mean for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, with Seattle moving on from the receivers they had banked on for years, thus elevating JSN into a truly featured role.
We nailed the “out of the slot” portion of that. The “worrying” part? That was silly.
Smith-Njigba’s slot usage has fallen from 77.4% of routes to 19.4%. The loss of those “easier” targets hasn’t mattered in the least.
His average depth of target is up 41.3% from a season ago, and it hasn’t stopped him from earning 10 looks per game. He had a 40-yard catch in each of his first six games this season and has scored in three straight, following his TD in Week 7 against the Texans with an easy dunk on the uprights all in one motion from his route, an impressive athletic feat for a six-footer wearing pads.
I think a 38.3% target share and a 46.3% receiving-yardage share (he has 819 receiving yards and is the only Seahawk at even 300) are probably high-water marks. I have a hard time not penciling in some regression, but even a bit of backtracking keeps him EASILY inside the top 10 the rest of the way.
He’s a matchup-proof alpha. The numbers are expected to continue piling up this week and moving forward, giving you great value based on his preseason ADP.
Whispers … He faces the Panthers in Week 17, giving him every chance to not only be the reason your team makes the playoffs, but the reason you win the whole thing.
Kenneth Walker III
This is an old man yelling at clouds situation, and guess what? The clouds? They never listen. Kenneth Walker has his weekly moments, but NFL coaches love consistency, and if anything, Walker has been a consistent detriment.
He’s pacing to finish as a 20th percentile running back in terms of rush gain rate, something he’s done every season of his career up to this point. There’s a reason that the Barry Sanderses of the world are considered special: that home run-seeking style is hard to pull off.
Walker has been held under four yards per carry in three straight, held out of the end zone in four straight, and has just five catches in six games since catching three balls in Week 1.
We can beg for more work, but he hasn’t really earned it. Giving him more work would encourage a style that has been a net negative for going on five seasons. There is raw talent here, no doubt, and maybe we get a taste of that this weekend. Or maybe we don’t.
The fact that we can’t count on him carries over to the coaching staff, and that’s why I have a hard time penciling him in for over 15 touches in any single game. The touch count is close enough to that of Zach Charbonnet, so I’ll continue to rank him a touch higher because I have to account for the potential of a splash play, but I don’t feel great about playing him as an RB2 this week. Or, to be honest, any week.