The Seattle Seahawks made smart choices during the first round of the 2023 NFL draft. The team chose not to trade back but instead took cornerback Devon Witherspoon at pick number five overall and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba at pick 20. Both have turned out to be pretty good.
In fact, JSN had a huge uptick in production from year one to year two. This past season, he led the team in catches (100) and receiving yards (1,130). Those numbers also ranked in the top 20 in the NFL. Smith-Njigba is graded as the 20th-best wide receiver in the league, according to Pro Football Focus (more on that in just a minute, and that website does require a subscription).
Witherspoon has been even better. He graded fifth among corners in 2023, and 12th in 2024. Clearly, and rightfully, PFF thinks Witherspoon is one of the best players at his position in the league. The issue is that the website does not believe that either player is one of the 101-best players in the league overall.
Pro Football Focus's ranking of the 101 best NFL players is missing two key Seattle Seahawks
In a recent such ranking, three Seahawks did get a mention among the top 101, but not Witherspoon or JSN. Safety Julian Love snuck in at number 101, left tackle Charles Cross came in at number 89, and defensive lineman Leonard Williams was number 44.
10 cornerbacks are listed, but not Witherspoon. One might assume PFF simply went with what they had about Seattle's corner based on their grades for 2024. This would not be the case. Sauce Gardner, who is a great cornerback but so is Witherspoon. was listed at number 99, but he was graded as the 32nd-best cornerback in the league this year.
In other words, there was seemingly no real rhyme or reason for the rankings overall.
There are 14 wide receivers on the list, and many of them had less productive seasons than Smith-Njigba had in 2024. Perhaps the thinking by PFF was partly based on past production as well as how a receiver will do in the future, but JSN should only be better in the future. This is especially true if Tyler Lockett is released because Smith-Njigba will pick up a number of those targets.
At least, there was some positivity to the article. Charles Cross being ranked at all means he is ascending toward being very good. Seattle has an option year on him in 2026, so, most likely, the Seahawks have found the anchor at left tackle for most of the next decade.