The Seattle Seahawks targeted star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba on their opening three plays against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday night. The first was on a backwards pass that counted as a run. The second was a short slant that was broken up nicely by Chiefs cornerback Chris Roland-Wallace. The third was another slant that resulted in a first down.
It seemed pretty clear that offensive coordinator Brian Fleury was intent on getting his best offensive player involved early and often. As he has done since arriving in Seattle, JSN made that strategy pay off. Seattle rode their exceptional defense to a no-questions-asked victory over the previously undefeated Chiefs in Week 7.
They didn’t need a lot of offense. Jaxon Smith-Njigba made certain they had plenty of it nonetheless.
Smith-Njigba turns in another elite performance in a crucial Seahawks win over the Chiefs
As has become commonplace, JSN dominated the stat sheet on Sunday. 12 targets (out of 27), nine catches (out of 20), and 150 yards (out of 257). He scored the Seahawks first touchdown on a beautiful deep ball down the left sideline from Sam Darnold and almost repeated the play a few minutes later.
He had 61 yards after the catch (YAC). Kansas City’s leading receiver had 44 total. Seven of his catches resulted in a first down or touchdown. The entire Chiefs team had eight such receptions.
Brian Fleury and pass game coordinator Jake Peetz continue to tinker with the best ways to take advantage of their star’s exceptional skills.
After lining up far more on the perimeter early in the season, the last three games have seen a pretty steady balance, which finds him outside on about two-thirds of the plays and in the slot on the other third. He is frequently in motion, making it harder for defenses to determine where he will be and what type of route he will run.
And he can run them all. JSN began as a slot receiver with a traditional perimeter receiver – DK Metcalf – on the outside. To look at him, Smith-Njigba appears best suited for the slot.
But he runs slants and go routes with equal lethality. Defenses cannot cover him when he makes a quick cut in the middle of traffic, nor can they cover him when he simply turns on his 4.3 jets and runs past them. He did both to the Chiefs.
Those two deep shots in the second quarter were textbook. Both times, he beat tight coverage by the Chiefs' budding star, Mansoor Delane.
On the second one, which came up just short of the end zone, Delane tried in vain to argue that JSN had pushed off to create the small separation Sam Darnold needed to get him the ball. He did push off, but in such a fluid and effortless way that no official was likely to see it, let alone call it.
Everything JSN does appears effortless. But for a receiver listed at 6’1”, 197 pounds, he can absorb big shots without batting an eye.
Coming into the second half, Kansas City coach Andy Reid shrugged when asked how they planned to slow him down. “That’s a good question,” the future Hall of Famer noted. He had just watched Seattle’s receiver account for more offense in the second quarter than the entire Chiefs team had managed in the first half.
“We have to be more physical with him,” Reid concluded. Easier said than done.
Later in the telecast, announcer Cris Collinsworth drilled down on why JSN is the best receiver in football. It stems directly from that second quarter touchdown, but it really is present on every snap.
Collinsworth explained that Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is among the most aggressive and most effective blitzers in the league. He always has something special designed to wreak havoc on an offense.
But he could not engage in his usual tricks against Seattle because every time he did – as on that long touchdown pass – Jaxon Smith-Njigba made him pay. Whether it was a short slant, a medium cross, or a deep shot, the Chiefs needed to devote extra resources to stop JSN. Sometimes, it even worked.
But if they didn’t – if they left their corners alone – JSN was going to beat them and get a first down or some other big play. This is the exact effect we have been talking about in Kenneth Walker’s absence early this season.
Without his breakaway ability – and without Jadarian Price filling that role – Seattle’s run game doesn’t scare anyone, and defenses can play as aggressively as they want.
But as Jaxon Smith-Njigba showed on Sunday, when he is on, defenses have to take note. Collinsworth, who knows all about a receiver’s impact on a game, noted that Spagnuolo simply couldn’t play the defense he wanted to play. Not as long as Jaxon Smith-Njigba was on the field.
And he is not likely to be coming off the field very often as Seattle attempts to build on what it established on Sunday against the Chiefs.
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