From emerging from the shadows of star teammates at Ohio State, to dealing with an injury that cost him most of his final season with the Buckeyes, Jaxon Smith-Njigba's road to the NFL has already included a few twists and turns.
His journey is guaranteed to include a few more. His new team, the Seattle Seahawks, is aiming to make that path as smooth as possible.
The hamstring injury that cost Smith-Njigba all but three games in 2022 appears to be behind him. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll oversaw a measured acclimation period for the rookie receiver, whom Seattle selected 20th overall in April, and the results were encouraging. Smith-Njigba was able to move at full speed in the final week of organized team activities, giving the Seahawks a glimpse of what they're getting -- "just what we were looking for," according to Carroll -- in the former Buckeyes standout.
For that, Smith-Njigba is appreciative. And he can't wait to continue.
"I think we did it the right way," Smith-Njigba said Tuesday, via the Seattle Times. "I appreciate the training staff and the coaching staff for doing that. It's been a long time since I've really been out there since when I started OTAs, so I feel like we did it the right way, and I appreciate them just slowly building me up, and I feel like we are all ready to go and checked a lot of boxes."
Seattle has no reason to push Smith-Njigba, who joins a receiving corps already headlined by two upper-tier pass-catchers in DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. The Seahawks can take their time working Smith-Njigba into their offense. He is, after all, a long-term investment.
Such an investment should produce early returns with three-receiver sets including Metcalf, Lockett and Smith-Njigba, a nightmare trio for opposing defenses to defend. It will truly start to pay off, though, once the 30-year-old Lockett moves on from Seattle.
So far, the veteran speedster likes what he's seeing from his protege.
"I think he's going to be phenomenal, man," Lockett said. "It's always hard just being able to get adjusted when you first come in. But the way he runs routes, the way he's understanding the way that [receivers coach] Sanjay [Lal] coaches, the sky's going to be the limit. I think he's going to be really good at all the things that the Seahawks — that we — want him to be able to do."
Smith-Njigba is only taking his first steps in what he and Seattle hope will be a long and prosperous NFL career. He's already cleared one health hurdle, and he couldn't be happier.
"It's been awesome connecting with the guys, finally being in the building and not dealing with all the draft stuff and just being on my team and just moving forward with those guys and getting to know these guys better," Smith-Njigba said. "I've enjoyed it. It's what I've been looking forward to for a long time."
