Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba has opened the 2026 season with production few players in NFL history have matched through three games.
Smith-Njigba leads the league with 405 receiving yards and six touchdown catches. He is tied for the NFL lead with 27 receptions. He has topped 100 yards in every game so far.
The Seahawks are 2-1 after a 33-31 loss at Washington on Sunday. Smith-Njigba caught 10 passes for 128 yards and two scores in that game. The defending Super Bowl champions have leaned on him as their primary offensive weapon.
On Tuesday the team highlighted how rare the start is.
“JSN joined Jerry Rice as the only players in NFL history with 120+ receiving yards and one or more receiving touchdowns in each of the first three games of a season,” the Seahawks announced.
He is also the first player to post at least eight receptions, 120 yards and a touchdown in each of his team’s first three games. Those thresholds put him in a small group of receivers who have ever started a season this way.
Smith-Njigba is the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with six receiving touchdowns through three games. The others are Calvin Johnson in 2011, Marvin Harrison in 1999 and former Seahawk Daryl Turner in 1985.
Only Smith-Njigba and Harrison have combined 400-plus yards and six or more touchdowns in the first three games of a season. Harrison last did it more than a quarter-century ago.
His 135.0 yards per game would set an NFL single-season record if maintained. Wes Chandler averaged 129.0 yards in the strike-shortened 1982 season. At the current rate Smith-Njigba would finish with 2,295 yards, well above Calvin Johnson’s 1,964-yard mark from 2012.
He is also on pace to break Randy Moss’ single-season touchdown reception record of 23, set in 2007, and Michael Thomas’ receptions record of 149 from 2019. Those projections assume a 17-game schedule and continued health.
Last season Smith-Njigba led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards on 119 catches and 10 touchdowns. He won Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year and helped Seattle win Super Bowl LX. The 24-year-old signed a four-year, $168 million extension in March that made him the highest-paid receiver in the league.
The start has generated early MVP conversation for a non-quarterback. CBS Sports ranked him second behind Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen after Week 3. Receivers have never won the award.
Smith-Njigba scored three times against Arizona in Week 2, including an 82-yard touchdown that was the longest of his career. Backup quarterback Drew Lock started that game. Sam Darnold returned against Washington and the numbers did not drop.
The Seahawks next play at home. Opposing defenses have already begun treating Smith-Njigba as the focal point of the passing game. Through three weeks he has shown no sign of slowing.
