The year-end honors kept coming for the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday when wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba won the prestigious Offensive Player of the Year from the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA). Smith-Njigba became just the second Seahawk player to win the award, following Shaun Alexander in 2005.
That year, Alexander was also awarded the PFWA’s MVP honor. This year, that went to Rams’ quarterback Matthew Stafford, the last obstacle to Seattle’s fourth Super Bowl appearance in a couple of weeks.
Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, who set a single-season sack record in 2025, was named the Defensive Player of the Year. One Seattle player has taken the defensive honor: Cortez Kennedy in 1992.
Seattle Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba honored as league's top offensive player in 2025
The year Kennedy won was the first in which the PFWA separated Offensive and Defensive awards from the traditional MVP. As trends and styles of offenses have changed, the meaning of Smith-Njigba’s award has changed a bit as well.
Whereas quarterbacks have claimed the MVP award every year since 2013, they have only taken the OPY five times in that span. No QB has won it since 2019. In most people’s minds, the OPY has become the de facto MVP award for all positions outside of quarterback.
Smith-Njigba is the third receiver to claim the prize. All have come in the last five seasons. Smith-Njigba’s current teammate Cooper Kupp was the first in 2021, followed by Justin Jefferson the following year. Running backs have won the last two.
But Smith-Njigba probably fought off another receiver – the Rams’ Puka Nacua – for the award in 2025. Both were recently chosen as First-Team All-Pros by the Associated Press, and more honors are expected down the road.
In his third season, Smith-Njigba had a massive breakout. No longer in the shadow of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, he expanded on his shorter route tree run primarily out of the slot to become the league’s best all-around receiver. He led the league in total yards and finished fourth in receptions.
He led the league in yards-per-target amongst all receivers with at least 50 catches. He finished second in first down receptions (one behind Nacua), and tied his LA rival for sixth in touchdown catches.
JSN flirted much of the year with 2,000 yards and with Calvin Johson’s single-season yardage record, but he fell off a bit over the final month. Still, he established new franchise records for most receptions in a season (119), most receiving yards in a season (1,793), and most 100-yard games in a season (9).
He also ended the year with the highest career catch percentage (71.8%) and highest career yards-per-game (69.6) in franchise history. After just three seasons, he ranks tenth in total catches in franchise history and is 16 yards short of tenth in career receiving yards.
His showdown with Nacua in the NFC Championship game is one of many fascinating subplots to watch for on Sunday. Both defenses will be geared toward stopping the run, but the league’s two best receivers will also take a lot of the attention. In their two previous games this season, Smith-Njigba totaled 17 catches for 201 yards and a touchdown.
It is not hard to imagine a scenario in which either JSN or Nacua makes a huge play late in the game to lead his team to the Super Bowl.