The Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers are both ready for Week 18 in one of the more important games of the 2025 NFL season. One can tell this by the fact that players are beginning to chirp about the other team. Perhaps the loudest is 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir.
Lenoir likes to talk trash. He has often done so on social media. To be fair, he doesn't normally back down in terms of vocally disrespecting others, even if his target happens to be the best player on the other team. Case in point is Lenoir talking about facing Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Speaking to reporters in front of his locker ahead of the showdown with Seattle, Lenoir said, "Hopefully, I get to shadow JSN. I’m ready for this. Like, I hope he ready... Man-to-man coverage, me and him. That’s what I want. Me and him."
49ers' Deommodore Lenoir attempts to talk trash about Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba
This isn't the first time the 49ers cornerback has tried to rile one of his team's greatest rivals. He did so multiple times this past offseason.
After DK Metcalf was traded ahead of 2025 free agency, Lenoir said, "Y’all cannot let DK let leave. Y’all can’t do that. Like, who… how am I gonna have fun out there?” Lenoir said in the video. “Njigba, he be crying all day. He cry. That’s all he do is cry. ‘Ref, he holding. He holding, ref. Oh no, don’t hurt me.’ Crybaby. Bro, I’m not worried about JSN. He know that."
When the teams met in Week 1, JSN was only matched up with Lenoir on one target, which was incomplete. That was before Smith-Njigba exploded to become the leading receiver in the NFL in 2025. Smith-Njigba had nine catches for 124 yards in Seattle's loss, but the team's failure and his success had little to do with Lenoir.
The hope is that in Week 18, Smith-Njigba is lined up more against Lenoir. San Francisco's cornerback has allowed 65.6 percent of the times he has been targeted this season to be completions. He has intercepted two passes, but he has given up five touchdowns. He's also been penalized nine times.
His quarterback rating allowed is a not-good 104.2, the second-worst of his five-year career. He's also whiffed on a career-high 15.4 percent of his tackle attempts, a brutal number that implies JSN could have an elite level of success against Lenoir.
The truth is, though, that Lenoir can talk all the trash he wants. He is not an overly good player, and he certainly will not follow Jaxon Smith-Njigba around for much of the game. If he does, that would be a mistake by the San Francisco 49ers, as the Seattle Seahawks' best receiver is bound to expose Lenoir for the fraud he is.