Jaxon Smith-Njigba is back in Renton and already moving like a player who has no interest in easing into anything. The Seahawks receiver was on the practice field for 2026 training camp running full-speed routes, and the NFL’s official account took notice, posting photos of him smiling on the sideline and sprinting with the ball on July 27 with the caption “back campin’ fresh off a Super Bowl,”
Smith-Njigba reported to camp with the rest of Seattle on July 25, and the message around the building has been clear: the Super Bowl is in the rearview mirror. Head coach Mike Macdonald has spent the offseason pushing the team to “run it forward” instead of running it back, and Smith-Njigba sounded like he was fully on board when he spoke to reporters.
“It feels like a revamp, a new energy in the building, honestly,” Smith-Njigba said, via the team’s website. “It feels good to put the past behind us and really focus on the future.”
That same tone has carried through the locker room. Ernest Jones offered a similar reminder to teammates, saying last year’s success “won’t help you this year,” per NBC Sports. Seattle is approaching this season with the reality that repeating is brutally hard, and the Seahawks open the year by raising a championship banner before a rematch with the Patriots, the same team they beat in Super Bowl LX.
Smith-Njigba’s camp arrival comes after a monster 2025 season that made him the clear centerpiece of Seattle’s offense. He finished with 119 catches for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns, leading the league in receiving yards and earning NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors.
He also delivered on the biggest stage, catching three passes for 24 yards in the Super Bowl before briefly leaving for a concussion evaluation. He returned in the fourth quarter and helped Seattle finish off a 29-7 win.
The Seahawks wasted little time paying for that kind of production. In March, Smith-Njigba signed a four-year, $168.6 million extension that made him the NFL’s highest-paid receiver at the time of the deal, with a new-money average of $42.15 million per year, according to ESPN. General manager John Schneider made the team’s view of him plain, saying, “Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a generational talent, and we’re thrilled to have him as the centerpiece of our offense for years to come,” per the team’s official site.
Seattle has another major contract situation bubbling, too. Cornerback Devon Witherspoon is in negotiations and is aiming to become the NFL’s highest-paid player at his position, with reports placing a possible deal in the $30-32 million-per-year range. Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon are both represented by Win Sports Group, and the Seahawks have made a habit this offseason of keeping their homegrown stars in place.
For now, the focus is on the field. Smith-Njigba is catching passes from Sam Darnold and working through camp like the season starts all over again, not like he just finished the best year of his career. Seattle opens the 2026 regular season on September 9 in Seattle, and its top receiver is already acting like the chase starts now.
In Other News...
Three New Seahawks Defenders Are Bringing Real Pressure To This Rotation
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The intrigue is in how those pieces sort themselves out once the competition starts in earnest. Clarks arrival gives the Seahawks another young defensive back to evaluate against the current holdovers, while Igbinoghenes fit in the secondary and Fowlers role up front could both reshape where the snaps go when the defense gets into its more obvious passing looks. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Just Handed Brian Fleury Their Biggest Offensive Headache
The Seahawks are heading into a familiar kind of offensive reset, this time with Brian Fleury stepping in as coordinator after Klint Kubiak left for the Raiders. Seattles issues near the goal line were already hard to ignore last season, when the offense finished 23rd in the league in goal-to-go success and lagged behind the NFC Wests better teams in that area. With key players unavailable or working back from injury, the margin for error in those tight red-zone snaps only gets thinner.
Fleury now inherits a job that will be judged less by structure than by execution, and Seattle does not have much room to experiment if it wants those stalled drives to start turning into touchdowns. The Seahawks have spent enough time chasing better answers in short-yardage situations to know this is where games and seasons can tilt, which makes the next step in the offense feel especially important even before the first snap of the new setup. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Camp Is Quietly Shaping Two Huge Week 1 Concerns
The early stretch of Seahawks camp has offered a little of everything the staff wanted to see, starting with a clearer sense of how Brian Fleurys arrival is smoothing the transition on offense. Rashid Shaheed has been one of the brighter notes as the team looks to expand his role, while the continuity in the system should help Sam Darnold settle in without starting from scratch. On the other side of the ball, Uchenna Nwosu, Derick Hall and Dante Fowler have all put together solid offseasons, and there is real anticipation around what Byron Murphy II and Drake Thomas can become if their next steps come quickly.
Still, the most interesting part of camp may be how many jobs are genuinely up for grabs as Seattle tries to sort out its depth before Week 1. The secondary is being pushed by young players trying to carve out roles, and the Seahawks are also keeping a close eye on the health of key pieces elsewhere on the roster. If the early optimism holds, the camp could end up being remembered less for any single headline and more for how it quietly clarified where this team feels strong, where it is still searching, and where the next few weeks could change the picture again. [Read more 🡒]