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Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks exercise 5th-year options on Devon Witherspoon, Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Jaxon Smith-Njigba (11) of the Seattle Seahawks scores a fourth quarter touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Dec. 7, 2025, in Atlanta. (Tribune News Service)
Bob Condotta Seattle Times

SEATTLE – The Seahawks have exercised the fifth-year options on the rookie contracts of receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon, the team announced Friday.

That means that each is now under contract through the 2027 season.

For Smith-Njigba, that means a guaranteed salary of $23.852 million for the 2027 season while Witherspoon will get $21.161 million, per the estimates of OvertheCap.com.

Those options are now fully guaranteed.

Fifth-year options are only available for first-round picks. Witherspoon was the fifth overall pick in 2025 out of Illinois and Smith-Njigba the 20thoverall pick out of Ohio State.

Each was entering the final year of their initial four-year rookie deals with Witherspoon due to make a base salary of $1.145 million in 2026 and Smith-Njigba $2.715 million.

In the case of each player, however, the expectation is that exercising the option is simply the first step in a process to get each under contract to long-term extensions at some point in 2026, likely before the start of the regular season.

Seattle last year exercised the fifth-year option on left tackle Charles Cross and then signed him to a four-year extension through the 2030 season in January.