Albert Breer’s Notes: Inside Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s Market-Moving Contract

Jump to a topic

Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Cooper Kupp
Puka Nacua
Trent Williams
Lavonte David
Atlanta Falcons
Indianapolis Colts
George Pickens
New England Patriots

After a busy wave of free agency it looks like the NFL is poised for a slower week ahead. Here’s what we have for you …

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

The Jaxon Smith-Njigba contract was inevitable—you don’t draft and develop a guy at a premium position, who wins AP Offensive Player of the Year, and not do all you can to keep him in the fold over the long-term. And so the Seahawks giving JSN a four-year, $168.6 million extension this offseason should come as a surprise to no one.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to take away from, and even learn from, the deal.

Here are a handful of notes on Seattle’s market-moving contract …

1. Too often, people read these contracts wrong, and really, that’s probably our fault as reporters. The above numbers are the “new money” metric—basically measuring the amount in a deal above what the player had remaining. Smith-Njigba is actually signing a six-year, $195.17 million deal, with the roughly $26.6 million he was due over the next two years folded into the total. Why report it that way? It’s probably the easiest way to create an apples-to-apples comparison, if you’re looking at players who get deals two years early, a year early and as free agents.

2. As such, this isn’t like other sports where the contract “kicks in” when the old contract expires. And because these contracts generally aren’t fully guaranteed, the cash flow on a deal is vital, and Smith-Njigba’s is strong. His full guarantee is $69.13 million, the entirety of the first two years of the deal. That’s $42.5 million more than he would’ve made playing out the final year of his original contract and his fifth-year option next year. That raise is a record for nonquarterbacks, as is the $62.5 million in new money he’ll get through his first new year (with the three-year total sitting at $89.07 million), topping the $62 million Micah Parsons got last year on what was an extraordinarily strong deal.

3. JSN getting this deal after only three years counts for something, too, shifting the injury risk from the player to the team. The top second contracts done over the past few years for nonquarterbacks went to Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Parsons and Aidan Hutchinson. Jefferson, Chase and Parsons waited until after Year 4 to get their deals. Hutchinson’s deal came in the middle of his fourth season. So, by comparison, Smith-Njigba got his contract ahead of the other guys.

4. It benefits the Seahawks to do this deal early, to be sure. The salary cap jumped $25.7 million in 2022 (to $208.2 million), $16.6 million in ’23 ($224.8 million), $30.6 million in ’24 (to $255.4 million), $23.8 million in ’25 ($279.2 million) and $22 million this year (to $301.2 million). And Jefferson is a good example of how that changes things. The Vikings offered Jefferson a deal at $28 million per year in ’23. He turned it down. Nick Bosa signed a $34-million-per-year deal that summer. The next year, Jefferson got $35 million per year. So what Smith-Njigba gets now is a lot less than what he’d ask for in ’27.

5. The other piece is the two existing years that are folded in, which reduces the total damage. JSN’s new-money average of $42.15 million ($168.6 million/four years) flows into a practical average of $32.5 million ($195.17 million/six years). Let’s say then, for argument’s sake, the Seahawks had to go $46 million per year if they waited an extra year (my guess, based on how the market jumped for Jefferson in 2024, Chase last year and JSN this year). Folding in his $23.852 million fifth-year option, and assuming a four-year, $184 million extension, you’d be talking about a practical average of $41.6 million. That’s almost $10 million more per year on your cap.

6) This is going to resonate with other players in Smith-Njigba’s draft class, including Texans DE Will Anderson Jr., Falcons RB Bijan Robinson, Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs, Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez, Rams WR Puka Nacua and JSN’s teammate, Devon Witherspoon, among the guys at the front of the line commanding monster money.

So, good for JSN, good for the Seahawks, and as we all should have expected.

Cooper Kupp

It’s worth noting that the Seahawks are now very invested at receiver. Cooper Kupp’s deal is just under $15 million per year, with $13.5 million in cash coming this year and $14 million on the contract for 2027. Rashid Shaheed was retained at $51 million over three years, or $17 million per year. And now the JSN deal. Then, Seattle matched the Jaguars’ two-year, $5.5 million offer for fourth receiver/special teams ace Jake Bobo.

It’s a vivid example of where the league is in regard to the position. The world champs just let their bellcow back and Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker III, go for less on an APY basis than Smith-Njigba, Shaheed and Kupp are making.

• One last Smith-Njigba note. This has to be a proud moment for USF coach Brian Hartline, who first identified the Texas prep standout as Ohio State’s receivers coach when JSN was a three-star prospect. And it wasn’t the only time Hartline bet on JSN. Before the 2021 season, Hartline had a blunt conversation with Jameson Williams on his role, after Williams had been part of the Buckeyes’ three-receiver sets with Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave.

Hartline told Williams that Smith-Njigba, who had 10 catches as a true freshman, was about as natural a slot receiver as he’d ever seen, and as such, the plan was to move Wilson, the slot in 2020, outside and into a rotation with him and Olave. Williams decided to transfer, became a first-team All-American, and was drafted 12th by Detroit in ’22.

While we’re here, I dug up an ESPN College GameDay feature from 2021, when Kirk Herbstreit had Olave, Wilson and JSN together, and brought up how Wilson said he thought JSN could be the best ever. “Yeah, I stand on that,” Wilson responded. “It’s one of those things where you see people catching balls and it just looks natural coming into their hands. When they drop one, it doesn’t happen. That’s how it is with Jaxon. He’s super natural.”

Puka Nacua

Of the players we listed, Nacua is most likely to be affected by Smith-Njigba’s new deal. In comparison to his Seahawks counterpart, Nacua had 10 more catches, only 78 fewer yards and the same number of touchdowns last year.

So generally, as these things work, the 24-year-old Nacua could now ask for a tick more than what JSN got. But will the Rams simply fork that over?

It’s interesting that last week the Eagles suddenly had a stalking horse for their trade negotiations with the Patriots on A.J. Brown, in the Rams. It seems doubtful that Philly GM Howie Roseman would deal Brown away to a team that looms as one of the Eagles’ biggest hurdles, if not their biggest hurdle, to making it to a third Super Bowl in five years. Unless, perhaps, there was a win-win here, where the Rams wanted to send a message to Nacua, who has some growing up to do, that he’s not irreplaceable.

And then, the Rams would hope that growth comes, and the contract is something everyone’s comfortable with.

Trent Williams

Trent Williams’s situation is one to watch because he is, in my mind, the most indispensable player on the 49ers’ roster—and that’s no affront to anyone else.

First, let’s go through the mechanics of his option bonus being declined last week. It was, more or less, a cap mechanism. The Niners had the option to make $10 million of his base salary a bonus, which would have spread the cap hit out over four years (this year, and three void years), taking $7.5 million off this year’s cap. Declining it pushed his base salary from $22.21 million to $32.21 million and his cap hit from $38.89 million to $46.39 million.

Why do that? Well, once that $10 million is spent, San Francisco can’t get it back. So if they are going to trade him, or do an extension, declining the option gives the 49ers more flexibility to do whatever they need to with his money (the bonus money, if picked up, would be paid out during the season regardless, so Williams gets the money at the same time either way).

Which, to me, means the Niners are keeping their options open. But I’d still be surprised to see the team move on from Williams. He’s too valuable, even at 37.

Lavonte David

The Buccaneers have a press conference scheduled for 2 p.m. ET, where it’s expected that Lavonte David will announce his retirement after 14 seasons with the franchise.

His legacy is more than secure. He’s been a Buccaneer for as long as legendary linebacker Derrick Brooks. He’s started all 215 games he played in. He was a captain in 12 of his 14 seasons, and Tampa’s leading tackler in 11 of those years. On top of that, he trails only Brooks in postseason tackles in franchise history and made All-Pro three times. He was, effectively, the bridge between the existing Bucs and the guys who came in with Tom Brady in 2020, as Tampa embarked on a run to the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy.

But there’s more to it than even that. And we’ve got a good example of it. In the Buccaneers draft room, there’s a mural on the wall with the silhouette of a player and big bold words—“I am that man”—above it, with “accountable, competitive, confident, passionate, resilient” listed underneath. It’s a reminder to the scouts of what the team is looking for.

The silhouette, it turns out, is of David. For years, even he didn’t know that. When the Bucs told him, he got emotional. Which showed, of course, how much it meant to him, and also, just how much he meant to the people there.

Happy trails, Lavonte.

Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons’ signing of Trevor Siemian is a nice one. The 11-year vet played for the Vikings in 2018, a season that Kevin Stefanski started as quarterbacks coach and finished as interim offensive coordinator. So the background that Siemian has with Stefanski is on a big-picture level, and that experience should make the 34-year-old a good resource for Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa.

Indianapolis Colts

I still think there’s an interesting opportunity for a quarterback in Indianapolis. In Atlanta and Kansas City, an injury to the starter means the backup will get a lot of reps as the starter through spring and summer. In Atlanta and Kansas City, the Colts have strong quarterback coaching infrastructures for players to learn from. So for the same reasons I like the Falcons’ fit for Tagovailoa and the Chiefs’ fit for Justin Fields, there’s a good opportunity with the Colts for someone.

George Pickens

I still think there’s the likelihood that George Pickens plays this year out on the one-year tender attached to the franchise tag. After everything that happened with the Steelers and the reasons he fell in the draft in 2022, it makes sense to make sure that ’25 was more a sign of real growth than a blip on the radar, before handing him the kind of money that JSN got.

New England Patriots

James Hudson’s signing in New England is an interesting under-the-radar deal. He has real starting experience from Cleveland, and because Mike Vrabel worked hands-on with the offensive line in his season as a Browns consultant in 2024. Hudson had a rough year with the Giants, evident in that he was still on the market two weeks into free agency. But clearly, Vrabel thinks there’s still plenty to work with there.