Jaxon Smith-Njigba is at the top of the Seattle Seahawks now, and the timing is no accident. Sports Illustrated ranked him No. 1 in its Top 25 Seattle Seahawks going into the 2026 NFL season after he turned last season into one of the most productive receiving campaigns in the league.
The search for his name is easy to understand. Smith-Njigba had 119 receptions in 17 regular-season games, which was the fourth-highest total in the NFL, and he led the league with 1,793 receiving yards while scoring 10 touchdowns. He did that as the Seahawks' No. 1 receiver in the first season without D.K. Metcalf, giving the offense a clear new center of gravity.
The numbers also explain why this ranking matters beyond a simple preseason list. Last season, the Seattle Seahawks finished as the No. 1 seed in the NFC Playoffs, the biggest surprise team in the NFC, and Smith-Njigba was the receiver who made the offense feel inevitable. He posted nine games with more than 100 receiving yards and 13 games with more than 90, while the season before he had 1,130 yards and six touchdowns, a strong year that still sat a step below the leap he just made.
That rise came with a useful wrinkle. Smith-Njigba benefited from quarterback Sam Darnold and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, and the production points to a receiver who wins with precision as much as with speed. He is considered one of the NFL's best route-runners and, by this measure, one of the league's best deep-threat receivers: not because he piles up screen yards or breaks loose after the catch, but because he creates separation downfield and finishes plays when the ball is in the air.
That is also where the edge of the story sits. Smith-Njigba is not built as an explosive runner after the catch, and he is not used in screens often, which makes his yardage total even more striking. The Seahawks do not need him to be everything; they need him to keep doing the one thing that made him their top player in the first place, and the 2026 season will show whether last year was the start of a peak or just the first benchmark he has to clear again.
