Jaxon Smith-Njigba is in the midst of a breakout sophomore season and has emerged as Seattle’s go-to pass catcher.
His rookie year was a bit quiet, relative to expectations, as he didn’t eclipse 100 yards once in a single game. However, this year, he leads the Seahawks in targets, receptions, and receiving yards and has three 100-yard performances through Week 13.
DK Metcalf’s Week 7 knee injury forced Smith-Njigba into a more prominent role in Seattle’s passing game, and he’s fully capitalized on that opportunity. Since Week 8, he has 510 receiving yards and the third-highest yards per game among NFL receivers.
Evaluating JSN's Breakout
Improved Ball Skills
The biggest improvement in Smith-Njigba’s game from his rookie season has been catching the football.
Last year, he had eight drops and an 11.3 percent drop rate, the highest in the NFL among receivers with at least 75 targets. In 2024, he’s only dropped two passes on 94 targets.
He’s also been much more competitive on contested targets, another area where he struggled last season. His ball tracking and focus at the catch point have significantly improved, making him an effective deep threat despite his lack of speed.
He had several impressive catches in traffic in Seattle’s Week 9 loss to the Rams:
SEPARATION VS. MAN COVERAGE
Smith-Njigba is a fluid route runner who consistently separates from man coverage. Although his top speed is below average, his efficient footwork and lateral quickness allow him to get open on intermediate routes.
This play from Week 13 shows his awareness and separation ability. It’s fourth and 6, and he’s running a slant against outside leverage. As he accelerates out of his break and looks back to the quarterback, he sees that Geno Smith has been flushed out of the pocket.
There are no routes breaking in the direction that Smith is rolling out towards, but Smith-Njigba extends his route to the sideline and gives him an outlet to convert the fourth down:
While Smith-Njigba runs almost 86 percent of his routes from the slot, he’s still capable of separating on digs and deep outs as a boundary receiver:
ZONE ROUTE RUNNING
He’s an elite zone route runner with advanced spatial awareness to maximize windows over the middle of the field. He understands when and where to sink into open space and how to use his stem to disguise the direction of his route. This year, Smith-Njigba has 10 third or fourth down conversions against zone coverage, the second most among NFL receivers.
This play from Week 13 is a great example of deceptive stem work and proper landmarks against zone coverage. Smith-Njigba is running a 15-yard sit route and needs to account for two defenders, the middle hook and the backside safety.
Instead of crossing Isaiah Oliver’s (#23) face, he stems his route vertically and runs off his outside hip. This allows Smith-Njigba to break outside of Oliver’s field of vision, causing him to pass off the route and break on the underneath sit.
The vertical stem also forces Chuck Clark (#36) out of position and creates more space in the opposite direction. Clark is playing poach technique, where the backside safety looks to rob in-breaking routes from the strong side of the formation.
If Smith-Njigba had stemmed his route inside and run directly to the breakpoint, Clark would have read that and bracketed his route from the backside. Instead, Clark reads that Smith-Njigba is running down the seam and zones off to DK Metcalf:
He also understands how to attack a defender’s blind spot to create openings within underneath zones. On this play, Smith-Njigba cuts his route off behind Greg Rousseau’s (#50) outside shoulder.
While Rousseau can’t see Smith-Njigba, he assumes his route is breaking toward the flat based on the direction of the stem. This causes Rousseau to widen out and vacate the middle hook, and Smith-Njigba slides into the uncovered void:
This third down conversion from Week 4 is a textbook example of midpointing zone coverage defenders to maximize catch space. Smith-Njigba sits down at the optimal point between the middle-hook defenders, but Smith can't target him in rhythm since the pocket is collapsing.
When Smith breaks the pocket, Smith-Njigba maintains equal distance between each defender as if he’s connected to them by a string:
This ability to get open and stay open against zone coverage makes him a reliable target that Smith can trust on late downs.
Yards After Catch
I wouldn’t call Smith-Njigba a premiere YAC threat, but he’s still been a lot more productive after the catch than I expected. Shane Waldron featured him heavily on screens last season, and while they were fairly effective, Smith-Njigba was given too many designed touches and not enough downfield opportunities.
Ryan Grubb has utilized Smith-Njigba in a much more appropriate role. This year, screens have gone from 6.1 percent to 3.5 percent of his total route tree, per TruMedia. But his yards per reception on screen targets has almost doubled, from 5.4 to 10.7.
The tunnel screen is a staple in Grubb’s offense and a good way of getting blockers in space without forcing them to run from midfield to the alley:
CONCLUSION
While the Seahawks have other established playmakers to feed, Smith-Njigba’s mid-season breakout should warrant a higher target share going forward.
His complete skill set makes him viable regardless of down, distance, or coverage, and Seattle’s passing game is at its best when running through him.
