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(Photo by Ian Maule\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Seattle Seahawks<\/a>\u2018 Jaxon Smith-Njigba really took his game to another level this season as he established himself as the team\u2019s No. 1 wide receiver. Moreover, his leap in development rewarded the front office\u2019s faith in him after shipping DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> last offseason. <\/p>\n Smith-Njigba posted 119 catches for 1,793 yards and scored 10 touchdowns in 17 games this season, per StatMuse<\/a>. Meanwhile, in the players, the Seahawks\u2019 young star is also producing, recording 13 catches for 172 yards and has scored two touchdowns in two games in the 2025 playoffs, per StatMuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The rise to being the No. 1 guy in Seattle hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed by Smith-Njigba\u2019s peers around the league. Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> standout Maxx Crosby didn\u2019t hold back his thoughts on the Seahawks star. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel that JSN is unreal,\u201d Crosby said in a Jan. 28 video from The Rush Podcast<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s had a crazy year, bro. He\u2019s been going nuclear, and clearly they knew in that front office how good he was by letting DK go and Tyler Locket go, and just seeing him explode into being that number one receiver that clearly they saw him being. You got to give them a lot of credit, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Seahawks\u2019 Jaxon Smith-Njigba Talks Reaching Super Bowl<\/p>\n Smith-Njigba recorded 10 receptions for 153 receiving yards and one touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>. In the tightly contested matchup against the Rams, the Seahawks had their best players step up with so much on the line.<\/p>\n After the win, the Seattle standout spoke with FOX Sports and shared his thoughts on his performance as the Seahawks are now one win away from winning a Super Bowl.<\/p>\n \u201cI told my team, \u2018I\u2019m going to do whatever it takes. Whatever you all ask for me, I\u2019m going to get it done. Whatever that might be,’\u201d\u00a0Smith-Njigba said postgame<\/a>. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what you saw today. You just saw grit, determination. You saw passion out there, and you saw a group, a collective, going out there and getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n Sam Darnold Earns Praise From Joe Montana<\/p>\n Nonetheless, Smith-Njigba isn\u2019t the only player getting his flowers for an amazing season that has led to a Super Bowl appearance. Seahawks QB Sam Darnold is drawing praise not only for a strong showing in the NFC title game against the Los Angeles Rams, but also for the way the quarterback has reshaped the narrative around the career.<\/p>\n After leaving the New York Jets<\/a>, Darnold carried the label of a bust for several seasons. That perception began to shift following a stop with the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> in 2023, then fully changed after an impressive 2024 run with the Minnesota Vikings. <\/p>\n The former USC Trojans standout now looks like a player who has found a second act rather than a cautionary tale. Darnold signed with the Seahawks last season, and it\u2019s been a marriage that has led to a Super Bowl appearance in Year 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n During a Jan. 27 appearance on \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show,\u201d<\/a>\u00a049ers legend Joe Montana shared his thoughts on Darnold\u2019s turnaround.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m all for Sam Darnold,\u201d Montana said. \u201cThe things that he\u2019s been through, the places that he\u2019s played, the games that he\u2019s won, even here in San Francisco before he got to Minnesota. I mean, come on.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the stat the other day on Sunday. He\u2019s won 28 games in the last two teams he was with, and he\u2019s now getting another chance here, and he\u2019s doing the same thing. And I\u2019m pulling for him. I\u2019m an NFC guy most of the time anyway, but I\u2019m all about Sam. He\u2019s a good guy, good player, and I\u2019m happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Seahawks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Ian Maule\/Getty Images) Seattle Seahawks\u2018 Jaxon Smith-Njigba really took his game to another level this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-716001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115982949633651058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}