It’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s world and we’re all just living in it — but the Seahawks are winners too in record-setting contract extension
Who has it better than JSN right now?
Good luck finding someone with a better 2026 than Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The Seattle Seahawks wide receiver has, in three months, put the finishing touches on a first-team All-Pro season, a receiving title, winning Offensive Player of the Year, helping Seattle secure another Super Bowl win, and now?
Big bucks on a new contract, as of this morning. But don’t mistake this as just a win for the fourth-year star. This deal is a win for Seattle, too. Because the Seahawks didn’t sit around and fuss over making this contract happen — and they’re exceptionally well-positioned to handle their new commitments as a result.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s record-setting contract extension with Seahawks is good business for all involved
Here’s the thing about contract extensions: they’re stacked on top of the years that are currently remaining on the contract. And so Seattle, fresh off of recently exercising the fifth-year option on Smith-Njigba’s contract, is likely looking at six more years of contractual control with their star wide receiver. Perhaps new details about this deal will change that picture, but as of right now this is looking like a stack of new years and money over what’s left of his rookie deal and his fifth-yera option.
Let’s pace it out. Because $42.15 million per year is a massive number to digest. 2026 will be his fourth season in the league, the final year on his original rookie contract. Then, in 2027, a $23.852M fifth-year option was exercised by the team earlier this winter. And now we are presumably stacking a four-year, $168.6 million deal that would start in 2028, when Smith-Njigba is 26 years old and fully in the prime of his career.
If we’re reading the tea leaves correctly here, that would give Smith-Njigba a total of just over $195 million in total value ($168.6 million in new money, the $23.85M fifth-year option, and this year’s compensation of the final year of his rookie deal) that can be distributed across six seasons of play (four new years, his fifth-year option year, and the fourth year of his rookie deal). So the reported extension value is a blockbuster that resets the wide receiver market, but the total annual average of $195 million across six years? That’d be just north of $32.5 million per season.
Assuming this is the reality of this announced contract, it is the latest reminder of why proactive contract extensions are good business. Smith-Njigba gets a massive headline to kick off the week. He’s, on a reporting basis, the new wide receiver APY king — a title that could be short-lived depending on the Rams’ intentions with Puka Nacua. Meanwhile, the Seahawks getting this business done early smooths out these major investments and makes them much more practical in their effort to sustain a winning window.
It’s good for Smith-Njigba. It’s good for Seattle. It’s good for everybody.