Smith-Njigba hung three touchdowns on Sunday as Seattle pulled away 24-7, and broadcasters are now saying the title out loud instead of hedging. Believers say production two years running is the whole argument. Skeptics say “best receiver alive” is a crown you earn in January, not in Week 2.
Join the debate to comment
Reading is free. Members pay to post — that's why it stays clean.
Add your commentI was at the game. The way he was getting separation before the snap even happened — that's not scheme, that's just a different level of processing speed. I've watched football in person for 30 years and I've never seen a route runner that clean up close.
My son plays high school ball and when I showed him the JSN highlights last night he paused the screen and made me rewind the third touchdown three times. He just kept saying "how is he always where the ball is going." That's the whole thing, isn't it. That's the argument.
The thing that people miss when they say "wait until January" is that the best receivers in football history were recognizable as the best receivers in football by October of their elite seasons. We didn't wait for Jerry Rice to win a playoff game to know he was Jerry Rice. Stop moving the goalposts every time a young receiver has a transcendent stretch.
I've been skeptical of JSN getting overhyped ever since college honestly, and I'll say this: I was wrong. I'm not fully there on GOAT receiver talk yet but I was wrong to be skeptical. The separation numbers are absurd.
I work in sports media and I can tell you exactly why the broadcasters said it out loud on Sunday instead of hedging: because hedging stopped being defensible. There's a point where the cautious take is actually the lazy one.
I moved to Seattle two years ago for work and started watching the Seahawks mostly out of boredom. I am now the most insufferable Seahawks fan at my office and it is entirely JSN's fault. The man makes you believe.
My dad texted me after the game — he's 71, doesn't follow football closely — and he said "who is that receiver for Seattle." When my 71-year-old father who watches maybe four games a year notices a player that fast, something real is happening.
The "you earn it in January" crowd conveniently forgets that JSN was putting up numbers last season too. At what point does consistent production become enough? Do you need him to win a Super Bowl singlehandedly before you'll admit it?
The "week 2 doesn't count" crowd is the same crowd who spent last December saying "he hasn't done it yet" after he'd been doing it for months. The bar keeps moving. Just admit you don't want to give him the crown and own it.
Three touchdowns in one game is electric, I won't deny that. But the "best receiver in football" conversation after Week 2 is exactly the kind of thing that makes people roll their eyes at sports media by December.
The January argument is fine in theory but it kind of falls apart when you realize receivers are dependent on quarterbacks in the postseason more than any other skill position. Holding that against JSN when Geno's been his QB is a little rich.
He's the best route runner in football right now. I'll give them that. "Best receiver in football" is a compound claim that includes contested situations, playoff performance, and consistency against elite coverage. He checks some of those boxes. Not all of them yet.
The person who posted the actual stat line against top-10 defenses is doing more work than the entire broadcast booth. 89 yards a game is good, not great. That's the gap that still exists.
Two years running of elite production is the argument and people are acting like it doesn't count because it happened in September. That logic would disqualify every receiver who plays in a bad conference championship.
I covered the Seahawks beat for four years before moving to a different market. The coaching staff has been talking about this kid differently than they talk about other players since the moment he arrived. That's not nothing.
I actually thought CeeDee was still clearly ahead entering this season. After Sunday I'm less sure and I don't love admitting that.
Fine. I'll be the one to say it plainly: yes. Best receiver in football. Has been for about six months. We're just finally catching up.
I keep waiting for someone in this thread to bring up his route-running efficiency metrics because the PFF grades this season are quietly historic and I feel like I'm going crazy that nobody is mentioning it.
Comparing anyone to Jerry Rice in this thread is a choice I would not have made but okay
What nobody is talking about yet is the week-to-week adjustment teams are going to make now that he's being crowned publicly. That changes everything. The real test is what he does when every defensive coordinator in the league has "stop JSN" at the top of the whiteboard.
The person above who said "credit the scheme" clearly has not watched what JSN does when the play breaks down. That's when scheme goes out the window and you find out who a player really is.
That's a fair point about Rice actually. We knew who he was in the regular season. The January argument is a little bit of a logical trap now that I think about it.
The person who said "credit the scheme" and the person who said it's not a flex against that secondary are both doing a lot of work to avoid just saying the guy is great
if you disagree with the january argument, explain how you square that with the fact that CeeDee Lamb has already been there and done that in high-stakes games while JSN still hasnt
the person asking about top-5 defenses has a point that nobody up here has actually addressed yet
That's actually the most interesting thing anyone has said in this thread. The adjustment game is where you find out who survives the hype.
someone earlier asked about his numbers against top defenses and I looked it up — 8 games against top-10 defenses over two seasons, averaging 89 yards and 0.7 touchdowns per game. That's not a weakness but it's also not dominant. Thought people should have an actual number in the conversation.
The broadcaster who said it out loud should probably wait until at least October before making career-defining proclamations. Just saying. These things have a way of aging very badly.
genuinely curious what his contested catch rate looks like because the highlights always seem to show him wide open
ok but what are his numbers against top-5 defenses though. thats the actual question nobody is answering
I changed my mind halfway through typing this comment. JSN might actually be the guy.
jaxon smith njigba is 23 years old and people are already debating his legacy. the internet is cooked
Is it wrong to choose not to have children just because you don't want to?
110 comments
Would you still eat meat if you had to kill the animal yourself?
109 comments
Are dating apps genuinely harder for men or for women?
108 comments
Would you tell your closest friends exactly how much money you make?
108 comments