It seems each week, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba finds a new way to contextualize the absurdity of the season he is having. After each dominant performance, there’s a new stat or trend for the third-year playmaker that proves what he is doing from a production standpoint is nearly unprecedented in the NFL.
Smith-Njigba arguably had his most impressive performance of the 2025 season in the Seahawks’ 30-24 road victory over the Tennessee Titans in Week 12, catching eight of 10 targets for 167 yards and two scores, the yardage and touchdown marks now setting new single-game highs this season. He also became the franchise leader for receiving yards in a single season with six games left to play.
That performance pushed his statistical pace for the entire campaign well ahead of Calvin Johnson’s 2012 season, which was widely regarded as one of the best single-season performances in the history of the position, at least until Cooper Kupp broke the mold in 2021.
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is outpacing Calvin Johnson’s 2012 start
Through 11 games, Smith-Njigba has caught 80 passes for 1,313 yards and seven touchdowns. Through 11 games in Johnson’s 2012 season, the Hall of Famer had 73 catches for 1,257 yards and four touchdowns.
JSN’s current pace would see him catch two more passes than Johnson did in 2012, break Johnson’s single-season yardage record by 65 yards, which would break the 2,000-yard mark for the first time in the history of the position, while scoring six more touchdowns.
The more bizarre aspect of it all is that Johnson received considerably more targets in his 2012 campaign. Johnson saw 204 targets that season. Smith-Njigba finished Week 12 with 107 total targets, putting him on pace for just 165 by season’s end.
Of course, the similarities in Smith-Njigba’s bid to win the 2025 NFL Offensive Player of the Year award are playing out quite similarly to Johnson’s in 2012. Despite the historic stature of Johnson’s 2012 season, it was Adrian Peterson who won the award that year after falling nine yards short of Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing yards record.
This year, Jonathan Taylor is playing the Peterson role, targeting LaDanian Tomlinson’s rushing touchdown record instead, though more as a modern benchmark than an actual bid to break the record.
Taylor may fall short of that record as Peterson did, but his all-purpose production stands up. Smith-Njigba’s low touchdown total is harming him in much of the same ways that Johnson’s did as well. Still, the race is close, with Taylor’s slim lead in the sportsbooks dwindling after Week 12. According to FanDuel, Taylor is at -125 odds to win the award while Smith-Njigba trails at -105.
Naturally, the race for an individual award pales in comparison to the importance of Smith-Njigba’s impact on the Seahawks’ successes this season. It’s a novelty that he’s positioned to become the first wide receiver in league history to haul in 2,000 yards' worth of receptions. But it’s the role that Smith-Njigba's heavy production has played in Seattle’s rise on the national landscape that is keeping the 12s as hopeful as ever.
That’s where Smith-Njigba’s historic season has more in common with Cooper Kupp’s 2021 season, in which he won the Offensive Player of the Year award, set the single-season receiving yard record, and his team hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end.