Seattle Seahawks star Jaxon Smith-Njigba reaches a major milestone against the Minnesota Vikings

The Seattle Seahawks have a tough time competing against one of the NFC’s best teams. At halftime they trail the visiting Minnesota Vikings 17:14. The result could have been much worse, but Geno Smith simply led a very impressive scoring drive to end the first half, making it a one-point game at the break rather than a 10-point deficit.

Along the way, Smith completed three razor-sharp passes to second-year wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, some of which went against incredibly tight coverage. Smith was crazy to even try two of them, but he still managed to complete a pass to JSN for 13 yards, another for 25 yards, and finally an 18-yarder for the touchdown to top it off.

JSN touchdown against Vikings

Geno was busy with this two-minute exercise. Ends with a touchdown to JSN pic.twitter.com/TC05hLv9tU

— Dugar, Michael Shawn (@MikeDugar) December 22, 2024

That gives JSN 56 yards for the game, one shy of DK Metcalf’s team-high. That means he also has over 1,000 receiving yards this season with two and a half games to go. This makes him the tenth player in franchise history to reach this mark in a season. It’s also a huge improvement from his rookie season, when he totaled 628 receiving yards that year.

Needless to say, JSN will be used much differently than it will be in 2023 under former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Smith-Njigba clearly felt like he was abused by Waldron based on some comments he made — or didn’t make — on a podcast last offseason. Waldron has since been fired by the Chicago Bears, just six months into his new job as offensive coordinator.

Either way, the Seahawks are dominated in possession battles and can’t seem to slow down Sam Darnold, but they are still within striking distance and will get the ball early in the second half.

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