The Seattle Seahawks have been one of the bigger surprise teams of the young 2023 season.

Many people expected most of the NFC West to fall in the way it has with the 9ers in clear first place and the Seahawks in second, but the gap being as close as it has been was not on everyone's radar a few months ago.

The Seahawks have done well to succeed so far this year and win some big games, and being able to do it without a few key rookies has been impressive. However, it is about time for that Jaxon Smith-Njigba breakout that was foreseen when he was drafted.

We'll keep writing it every week; the JSN breakout shouldn't just happen, it needs to happen at this rate.

The Seattle offense is good, but it isn't "world-beater, three WR1 wide receivers" good. That can change with Smith-Njigba finally stepping into the big shoes that were put on him long before he was drafted by Seattle.

Hopefully the Bengals game is where the script flips.

Cincinnati hasn't been great this year, especially on offense, but the past few weeks have started to show a change. This is actually good for Seattle.

As much as pure wins matter more than everything, tests help a team like this in a different way, especially when the hopes for this franchise are deeper in the playoffs.

If Joe Burrow and his wide receivers come out swinging, which is seeming like more and more of a possibility, the Seahawks are going to have to respond in kind. This will hopefully bring JSN into the spotlight for the first time in his career. 

Every team knows to key in on the top receivers, and as we have been saying for weeks, this will leave the rookie in a perfect position to dominate some favorable matchups.

That momentum could then carry over into the rest of the season, starting a ball rolling that could take this offense to even greater heights than it has already reached.

Seahawks’ ailing secondary is set to get much healthier in Week 4

They’ll be in much better shape.