Why Jaxon Smith-Njigba has Been Unstoppable in the #Seahawks Offense | Seattle Sports

Why Jaxon Smith-Njigba has Been Unstoppable in the #Seahawks Offense | Seattle Sports

Let’s get into JSN a little more as well. You had a nice breakdown towards the start of the show towards the end of our opening segment where you broke down why JSN is so difficult to defend and talking about his route running. And I think it’s pretty relevant because the Texans, their beat writers and everyone who covers the Texans, they’ve been up in arms over these past couple days based on a perceived game plan that didn’t play out against the Seahawks. So, a couple of beat writers are are tweeting some comments from Demo Ryan’s before the Seahawks game. He said, “With JSN, we want to be aggressive. We’re getting hands on him, playing tight and sticky. That was the game plan.” And then one of their beat writers found that JSN was pressed only eight of his 33 routes, none by Derek Stingley. So they asked Stingley, and he was like, “Well, that wasn’t the plan. You know, I was told to go here, so I’m not going to deviate from the plan.” So yeah, you might want to try to press JSN, but you also got to make sure he doesn’t blow by you. Phil, what about his release and his route running makes it so difficult to enact a set game plan against him? Well, a lot of it is is the offense and where you put him. What kind of spots Kubak puts JSN in? Is he going in motion across the line of scrimmage? You’re not going to be able to press him when he’s in motion and JSN goes in motion quite a bit. Uh, is he setting up tight in is they do these tighter formations. Well, a lot of times that’s where this run game happens. So, what’s JSN doing off the line? Well, he’s kind of taking an angle like he’s going to block. And what’s a defender supposed to do? I mean, he’s got to make a tackle. He’s got to go try to defend the run and then you release for for the crossing route or whatever that JSN does. And and that that’s all meshed off this run game again. So, so JSN, it’s it he’s getting put in spots where you it’s tough to press him. But again, just because you’re a little receiver doesn’t mean people should press you. I mean, look at Doug Baldwin. Doug Baldwin was one of the best receivers in the league to uh to face press coverage. JSN has had really good releases against press coverage when he showed it. He’s shown he can beat press coverage the fourth down um a few weeks ago I believe. Remember when Sam Darnold was kind of like we thought he was sacked a few times and rolled out. Was that the Steelers? I thought it was the Bucks. I think now maybe it was the Steelers. I think it was the Bucks. I do think it was the one of those one of those fourth downs where he thought they were not going to snap the ball and you remember that we Oh, they’re going to call timeout and try to get the or try to get the team off sides and it was fourth down and Sam Darnold found JSN on like a 20 yard out route. Well, they pressed him on that play. He released inside, got him, jumped inside, stemmed him outside. He’s wide open. He already he he he beat him on that play. And so then as a defensive coordinator, you go, “Well, if he’s going to beat us off the ball like that, we can’t press him.” But then JSN’s route running comes into to play because you go back to the Jaguar game. I’ve talked about this before. He ran the post corner early in the game. It was unguardable. He he he stemmed it up about his fifth outside step, hit it to the post, corner went with him, and he broke out of that. didn’t lose much any speed. Broke out of it quickly straight to the sideline. Sam Darnold hit him. Perfect timing. Well, the whole rest of the game, he worked everything off that one route. That big 61 yard touchdown he had was off a post route. What did the corner do? Well, he might run this post corner on me again. That’s in the back of your mind. And everything looks exactly the same. And and the thing JSN has that is so good is his speed doesn’t change as much. Every route looks exactly the same with him. And you can’t tell as a DB. A lot of a lot of guys a lot of receivers will kind of kind of stand up briefly if they’re about to break down or or or they’ll run harder if they’re running a go ball as opposed to a dig. JSN’s speed is the same. And and so one that makes him dangerous because you if as a DB, you can’t tell what route he’s running. He’s meshing all routes off of each other. And that would be if I was a wide receiver coach, that’d be the one thing I would want to harp on my guys the most is don’t no giveaways. No dead giveaways of what route you’re running. you’re going to make this everything look like a go and branch it off that and that’s what JSN does so well. And then I will go to this last game against the Texans. This was the game that I thought JSN looked the most confident. And when I talk about confidence, he was not thinking twice about catching that football. The the catching the football was second nature to him. You know, a lot of times receivers will kind of okay, make sure you got it. Boom. Tuck. Okay, now make the move up field. He was making the move. And a lot of times you wouldn’t as a coach, you wouldn’t want to teach this because a lot of times you start getting eyes downfield and you start dropping passes. But he was already making his move down the field while he was catching the pass. And it looked smooth. It looked good. You saw a couple, you saw a little slant route he made or maybe a little in route it was. And he caught it with his hands and he was upfield for another five, six yards like nothing with two defenders all over him. And he just looked confident. He knew where he wanted to go after the catch. He made the catch look easy using his hands. the way he sets up it, it’s just he has been so fun to watch this first seven games and that’s why he’s on a record pace. I mean, right now his stats are showing he is going to break the all-time receiving yards record in a season, which is pretty remarkable. Yeah, great breakdown because I think people just are assuming, well, at some point defense will will stop him. They go they’ll key in on him, you know, they’ll they’ll double team him, but they’ll do something that for some reason they haven’t done over the previous seven games. Yep. And then you hope you starts double teaming him because then what are you going to do? Well, then you’re going to run a fullback in there. You’re going to run the ball. Oo is going to get out on your linebacker. JSN’s already down the field with two guys and and then your run game starts opening up. So, there’s a lot of things that go into why teams won’t be able to double team him when this run game gets going with a guy like Uts back, right? And everything you broke down, too, I think, explains why the Texans aren’t able just to be like, “Well, yeah, we’ll we’ll press him on every route. We’ll cover him with Stingley.” Because it sounds like the frustration from the beat writers is the the thought that, well, Dico Ryan told them that Dererick Stingley Jr. would press JSN and follow him all over the field and he didn’t. But what you just described is sounds like a reason why he might not have if he’s lined up in different places. He’s going in motion and you don’t want to give away what you’re doing on defense or if he’s showing run block and then all of a sudden gets off the line faster than you’re ready for. So it’s a credit to JSN as well. It’s not just well look he’s the main receiver and we’re going to figure out a way to stop him. So appreciated that good breakdown. I don’t think we’ve had someone explain it as well as that. So good to know. Good to get that insight on JSN. That’s what a receiver brings you. Hey, and I will say you got to have timing with your quarterback. Sam Darnold, JSN, they’re on a different level right now. The timing, everything. You could run into triple coverage. If your timing is right, you know when he’s going to come out of his break, you throw a good pass, right? Hit him right on the hands, your receivers’s going to come down with it. Yeah, it has worked very well through the first seven weeks of the season. Excited to see what happens uh coming out of the by-week, that game against the Commanders, and then, you know, we talked about it, two huge games after that against the Cardinals and the Rams. Your first three games after that bye-week.

Former Seahawks WR Bryan Walters breaks down why has made JSN so hard to stop this Seahawks from the view of a former NFL WR.

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