Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba propelled by changed offseason work. And baseball?

Jaxon Smith-Njigba has a lot going on.

He is, by multiple measures, the top or in the top two of all wide receivers in the NFL so far this season. He leads the league in catches of 20-plus yards, with 10 through five games. He is second in yards receiving (534) and yards per game (106.8). He is third in first-down receptions; 24 of his 34 catches this season have extended drives.

In his third season since the Seahawks drafted him in the first round out of Ohio State, Smith-Njigba is in a more varied role this season. With DK Metcalf traded to Pittsburgh and Tyler Lockett now with Tennessee — he says he misses both of them — their previous protege is moving around Seattle’s formations more. He’s spending less time in the slot, which is more where new Seahawk Cooper Kupp, the Super Bowl MVP a few years ago with the Los Angeles Rams, plays now.

Still just 23, Smith-Njigba is finding the new role fits. Supremely. He is becoming a national star. His duel last weekend with Steilacoom’s Emeka Egbuka, his fellow Ohio State Buckeye, in Seattle’s 38-35 home loss to Egbuka’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the talk of the league.

Egbuka caught all seven of his targets from Baker Mayfield for 163 yards and a touchdown.

Smith-Njigba caught eight of his nine targets from Sam Darnold for 132 yards and a touchdown.

Yet with so much swirling around him, success coming at him so quickly, Smith-Njigba has a simple view of his complicated game.

“Be at the right spot at the right time. That’s the name of the game,” he said Thursday, three days before the Seahawks (3-2) play at Jacksonville (4-1).

DE DeMarcus Lawrence returning full go to practice good #Seahawks injury news of the day toward Sunday's game at Jacksonville.

Ernest Jones, Jarran Reed back to practice. Riq Woolen practiced again. Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon, Derick Hall still out. pic.twitter.com/MhN8A2x9PE

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) October 9, 2025

Smith-Njigba was answering a question about his mental checks when facing a defense as aggressive at taking the ball away as the Jaguars’. Surprising Jacksonville has 10 interceptions and four fumble recoveries in five games. The Jags lead the league in takeaways and turnover margin (plus eight).

“Executing, precision and timing with the quarterback beats a lot of coverages, especially zone and man,” Smith-Njigba said. “Just keying in on my fundamentals, making sure I’m at the right spot at the right time.

“And then just execution.”

That timing he’s had with Darnold just five games into the quarterback’s Seattle tenure looks like it’s been there for decades, not just a few months. Darnold and Smith-Njigba talk constantly. On the sideline during games. In the film room. Walking onto and off of the indoor practice field before and after morning walk-through practices.

“Our relationship, to be able to play our best football, it’s always the conversations (like) we just had at our walk through,” Darnold said Thursday. “Those conversations go a long way. They continue to help us out there on the field, and we’re going to continue to grow as a connection.”

JSN’s offseason workout plan

Smith-Njigba is on a pace that would exceed the 100-catch season he had in 2024 to tie Lockett’s Seahawks record. At his current rate he’d finish with 116 receptions over 17 games for 2025.

That’s exactly the improvement, elite on top of excellent, he sought this offseason.

He wasn’t satisfied with being a 100-catch guy in the league. Last winter, the 6-foot, 197-pound receiver set a goal to get stronger with more muscle mass in his legs and his upper body.

He trained this offseason intensely with Johnathan Jones, the same trainer he found in Pensacola, Florida, before the 2023 NFL draft.

“That’s my ace card. He does everything with me,” Smith-Njigba said. “He’s with me every single day. We get after it. “He’s been everything, plus more, for me.”

Before last offseason he took longer vacations after the seasons with the Seahawks and at Ohio State.

This offseason, he went right back to work.

“I think I just spent more time on it, honestly. My vacation break wasn’t as long as it was in the past years,” he said. “Just getting in the gym every, single day and working literally every single day.”

He did leg lifting out of positions he often finds himself in while as a wide receiver in games: squatting out of breaks, turning on cuts. He worked upper-body weights for churning his arms on running routes, beating defensive backs’ jams off the line and warding off defenders, such as Tampa Bay’s Winfield last weekend.

“I do a lot of mobility strengthening,” Smith-Njigba said. “So, getting in different positions and just strengthening while being strong from those positions, weird positions and positions that I’m always in as a receiver.

“To get faster, the strength and the power comes from that, it’s kind of my engine,” he said. “So, lower body, even for my arms, being able to pump faster. I feel like it definitely correlates with strength and speed, so I made sure to stay on top of that.”

He gained weight, to over 200 pounds, lifting this past winter.

“Yeah, in the beginning of the offseason training, I gained a lot of muscle,” he said, “and then shaved down to my normal weight. But I still feel like the muscle mass — I’m usually around 197 to 202 pounds, so just flirting with that.”

His coach Mike Macdonald has seen greatness at wide receiver up close in the NFL. He was a Baltimore assistant coach for the final seasons in the brilliant, 16-year career of Steve Smith Sr., 2014-16 with the Ravens. Smith was a finalist for induction last summer in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025. Macdonald thinks Smith-Njigba’s approach to football is unique.

“I’d say it’s unique to great players,” Seattle’s second-year head coach said.

“What great players do is that they bring it every day. They go rip it. They prepare their tails off. When it’s time to go, they go make decisive decisions, play hard, go after it. And then they recalibrate and do it over and over again.”

Macdonald calls Smith-Njigba’s mindset as “steadfast and consistent of ‘I’m trying to be great at my craft. I’m also trying to push the envelope on what I’m trying to do and get accomplished.’”

“Part of that is building chemistry with the rest of your offense, the quarterback and the rest of your receiver room and being a great teammate,” Seattle’s coach said. “That is what the great ones do, and that’s what Jaxon’s (Smith-Njigba) doing, and that’s what makes it so exciting, sustainable.”

Baseball paying off

Smith-Njigba is particularly deft at tracking, slowing down or speeding up to passes in flight.

In last weekend’s game, while in the middle of his route, he judged Darnold’s deep throw down the right side to him was shorter than the sprint line he was taking. So Smith-Njigba slowed his run. He extended his left arm to keep Tampa Bay safety Antonie Winfield Jr. inside of him, as Darnold’s pass arrived over both players’ right shoulders. Smith-Njigba paced his way to the 53-yard catch midway through the third quarter.

That play set up Darnold’s touchdown pass to tight end AJ Barner that tied at 21 a game Seattle had trailed 13-0.

Where did he get his ability to track balls in the air?

While playing baseball as a kid growing up his native Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

“When I was a younger kid, I was at shortstop. And they would hit the ball short center field and I would go and catch it and run into people,” Jaxon, the younger brother (by three years) to Canaan Smith-Njigba, a free-agent outfielder and former fourth-round pick by the New York Yankees who has played for the Pittsburgh Pirates. “That was just my thing to go get the ball.”

In football?

“I’ve always been a wide receiver ever since I was 3 years old,” Jaxon Smith-Njigba said. “They would send me on a corner route, and the ball is up in the air for a long time.

“So, it’s just something that I’ve naturally been doing all my life.”

He still remembers slamming into an outfielder chasing and catching a fly ball over his shoulder like a football pass.

And he still — while at the top of the NFL, among the best of the best in the football world — regrets it.

“They would get mad at me. Hurt a couple kids,” Smith-Njigba said.

“Still feel bad about that.

“But yeah, that’s when I knew I was probably a football player.”