Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s Seahawks deal is a win for everyone but the rest of the NFL | Commentary

Draft picks. Trades. Free-agent signings. And, yes, contract extensions — they’re all a guess.

A move that seems like a slam-dunk one day often gets slammed by critics a year or two later.

So evaluating the Seahawks’ decision to sign reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba to a four-year, $168.6 million extension — a record for a receiver — is also an act of guesswork.

But, man … this sure does seem like a win for everybody. Except the other 31 teams in the league, of course.

It’s a win for JSN because, well — need I say more? He is the soon-to-be recipient of generational wealth at just 24 years old. He earned every penny of it, too. Any question of whether he could be a legitimate No. 1 receiver after DK Metcalf was traded last offseason disintegrated almost instantly.

Smith-Njigba led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,793 of them. He broke the Seahawks’ single-season receiving record in Week 11, and, at that point, was on pace to set the all-time NFL mark. And his slight statistical drop-off toward the end of the season had nothing to do with his performance. It was more the byproduct of the Seahawks’ running game suddenly becoming elite — which was crucial in turning them into Super Bowl champions.

Barring a severe injury, JSN could very well be in the prime years of a Hall of Fame career. A ring, a monstrous contract and a long-term spot on one of the most consistently successful franchises of the past decade and a half? Life is good for the Ohio State product. But …

This is a win for the Seahawks, too. Or it sure looks like it, at least.

It’s true that simply locking up a superstar isn’t an automatic victory. Theoretically, even a prime Tom Brady could be overpaid. No team had ever given a receiver this kind of cash before, but had the Seahawks waited a year, it could have cost them much more.

Smith-Njigba, remember, has two years left on his rookie deal. Before inking him to that extension, the Seahawks picked up the fifth-year option on the contracts of JSN and Devon Witherspoon, who were each drafted in 2023.

Most of the time, the Seahawks wait until a star is going into the final year of his contract before offering the big extension. As most fans remember, Seattle refusing to extend Kam Chancellor with multiple years left on his deal caused him to sit out two games in 2015 (they still didn’t budge), and prompted the infamous Arizona bird-flipping from Earl Thomas, who also wanted an early extension.

But if the Seahawks waited one more year, the market value for a receiver might have gotten so high (Rams receiver Puka Nacua is still on his rookie deal), that Seattle might have had to pay JSN another $40-50 million.

Again, it’s unknown whether this deal will benefit the team long-term. JSN’s 2025 was elite, but he hasn’t stacked two or three seasons of that caliber play together. Perhaps the league adjusts to him, or maybe he gets hurt. But the eye test suggests this guy is only getting warmed up. Shrewd move by Seattle.

And, of course, this is a win for the 12s. I don’t think too many people were worried that JSN would only be here through 2027. The Seahawks have a history of paying their top contributors. But this extension can’t help but build some excitement about the future. Some people still consider former receiver Steve Largent to be the greatest Seahawk of all-time. And consistent as he was, he never had a season like JSN did last year — and that’s adjusting for the era he played in.

Players who handle the ball and score touchdowns simply provide a level of entertainment to the fans that those in other positions don’t. And now Seahawk supporters should be able to enjoy one of the game’s great offensive threats for the foreseeable future.

There’s a famous quote from the series finale of “The Office” that goes “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the ‘the good old days,’ before you’ve actually left them.”

I think Seahawks fans have figured out that they’re in the midst of them right now. Their team just won a championship. Their team is bringing back the core of that championship squad. Their team just extended who might be the best receiver in the NFL.

Winning. Pure and simple.