Jaxon Smith-Njigba maintains historic pace in Seahawks win

Published 9:00 pm Monday, November 24, 2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans deserve credit. They came into Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks with the right mindset: Stop Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

But it didn’t take long before the Titans learned the same lesson as every other team to face the Seahawks this season.

Smith-Njigba is inevitable.

Teams can double him with a safety and a cornerback. They can bracket him over the middle. They can show one coverage pre-snap, then rotate coverage his way after the play begins. If defenses have a shutdown cornerback on their roster, then perhaps they can trust him to guard Smith-Njigba one-on-one.

No matter the strategy, Smith-Njigba has a counterpunch. Sometimes, as was the case in Seattle’s 30-24 win over the Titans on Sunday at Nissan Stadium, that counter is a haymaker.

“It’s just hard to guard him, bro,” said Seattle cornerback Devon Witherspoon, a two-time Pro Bowler. “He’s just so efficient at what he do, and then he’s got a great catch radius. I’m just a fan watching just like y’all when he’s out there, man.”

In the first obvious passing situation of the afternoon for Seattle (8-3), a third-and-9 at the Tennessee 48-yard line, the Titans doubled Smith-Njigba and forced Sam Darnold to check the ball down to tight end AJ Barner for 13 yards and a first down. On the Seahawks’ next pass play, a third-and-5 from the 28, the Titans again put two defenders in Smith-Njigba’s vicinity. Darnold was nearly picked off while targeting Ken Walker III. Seattle settled for a field goal.

The sample is large enough at this point to know those sorts of victories for the defense are few and far between. Case in point: In Seattle’s next obvious dropback situation, a third-and-6 from its 37-yard line, Smith-Njigba motioned across the formation and ended up one-on-one with safety Amani Hooker. Smith-Njigba tracked the ball perfectly, fending off Hooker as it arrived, made the catch as the defender rolled to the ground and backpedaled into the end zone for a 63-yard score.

“He’s the greatest player I’ve ever played with,” said receiver Jake Bobo, who joined the Seahawks the same year as Smith-Njigba. “Some of the stuff he does I’ve never seen before, nor will I ever see again.”

With his 162-yard receiving performance Sunday, Smith-Njigba has now done something never before accomplished in franchise history. He has a league-high 1,313 receiving yards, the most by a Seattle player in a season. The previous high was 1,303, set by DK Metcalf in 2020. Metcalf put up those numbers in 16 games. Smith-Njigba broke the record in 11.

“He’s just a smooth guy, smooth receiver,” said center Olu Oluwatimi, a fifth-round pick in Smith-Njigba’s 2023 draft class. “Everything he does, he does it pretty effortlessly, getting out of breaks, catching the ball. We’ve just got to keep feeding him, and he’s probably going to set an NFL record for receiving yards.”

He’s on pace to do just that. Smith-Njigba is averaging 119.3 yards per game. At this rate, he would break Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson’s single-season record of 1,964 yards (set in 16 games in 2012). With 80 catches through 11 games, Smith-Njigba is also on pace to break the franchise’s single-season record for receptions, which he tied last year with 100 (Tyler Lockett also had 100 in 2020).

Smith-Njigba had a second touchdown Sunday on a 13-yard strike from Darnold in the third quarter. He has a career-high seven scores on the season and is on pace for double-digit receiving touchdowns. The Seahawks’ single-season record is 14, set by Doug Baldwin in 2015.

Smith-Njigba is so difficult for teams to stop, even after spending the entire week preparing for him, because his skills are a mixture of the other players etched in the team’s record books. He can release off the line of scrimmage and run routes like Baldwin, which is why playing press coverage against him is an exercise in futility. He can track deep passes like Lockett and run away from defenders like Metcalf, as Smith-Njigba demonstrated on a 56-yard catch in the third quarter that required separating from defensive back Kevin Winston Jr.

“It’s unbelievable, man, the way he’s been able to play this year,” said Darnold, who was 16-of-26 for 244 yards and two scores. “Every single game. It’s tough to be that consistent.”

Smith-Njigba was the difference in the game for Seattle, which was happy to get back in the win column after a disappointing result in Week 11 but lamented many aspects of its performance against a 1-10 Titans team. The Seahawks were able to overcome many of their mistakes because the other team couldn’t stop their best player.

The offense settled for field goals on a pair of red zone trips before eventually scoring on a 5-yard touchdown run by Zach Charbonnet in the third quarter to take a 30-10 lead. Seattle converted on just 2 of 7 third downs. Darnold didn’t have any turnovers, but two of his passes were dropped by Titans defenders. The offensive line had three false starts, and Darnold accepted the blame for a delay of game penalty in the red zone in the first half.

“We’ve just got to finish when we get in the red zone,” Darnold said. “That’s the story today. And then some things operationally we can clean up; some penalties.”

The positive side of Seattle’s story from Sunday’s win was the efficiency of the run game. It was Walker’s first game since coach Mike Macdonald declared he had earned more opportunities to be the lead guy. Walker responded with 71 yards on 11 carries (6.5 average) with four first downs, along with three catches for 30 yards. Walker has topped 100 yards from scrimmage in consecutive games for the first time all year, and only the fourth time at all this season.

“Get (Walker) the ball, and good things happen,” Smith-Njigba said. “His elusiveness is next-level. Never seen it before. We’ve just got to block better and create more open lanes for him.”

Charbonnet had just six attempts but gained 35 yards and produced four first downs. His touchdown run capped a six-play, 74-yard drive that featured a pair of successful under-center runs from heavy personnel, two play-action passes and a chain-moving run by Charbonnet out of the shotgun.

“We gotta be able to start the game like that,” Oluwatimi said of the run game on that touchdown drive. “When we get to that point as an offense where we can be more consistent — being able to run the ball in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter — then we’re going to be a very good team.”

When teammates aren’t celebrating Smith-Njigba’s on-field excellence, they’re commending his work ethic and selflessness, characteristics they feel are just as essential as any of his physical attributes. Although 32-year-old Cooper Kupp is the oldest player, the 23-year-old Smith-Njigba is the leader inside Seattle’s wide receivers group. They go as he goes.

“He’s one of the most unselfish guys on the team,” Bobo said. “The ball finds him because he’s immensely talented. But in terms of being the leader of our receiver room and how unselfish he is and what he does for us as a group, he’s the reason we’re playing well on the field, and he’s the reason we have the camaraderie we have off it.”

Smith-Njigba said it “means a lot” to break Metcalf’s record and be mentioned with some of the great receivers to play for the Seahawks. He said he views it as a “team award,” because without Darnold’s arm, the offensive line’s pass protection and the other pass catchers doing their part, “this doesn’t happen.”

“I’m grateful,” Smith-Njigba said. “I’m thankful. Blessed to be a Seahawk.”

When asked whether he was aware that breaking the record was within reach this week, Smith-Njigba smiled and said, “Yeah, I knew.”

The Titans might not have known the specific numbers required, but they anticipated that offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak would feed his No. 1 guy. Interim head coach Mike McCoy worked with Kubiak in Denver, and the two are good friends. McCoy called Smith-Njigba “one of the best in the business” and said that even though it’s inevitable he’s going to make his plays, “You’ve just got to try to minimize the number.”

The Titans tried — and failed. Just like everyone else.