Seahawks camp day 16: Jaxon Smith-Njigba is...human? Needless injury; Pete Carroll runs
Since the Seahawks drafted him this spring, it’s happened about as much as snow in Seattle.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba dropped a pass.
The team’s ultra-smooth first-round draft choice from Ohio State has put on a daily show of expert route-running, deft catching the ball away from his body and overall savvy. His play belies the fact he’s 21 years old and still weeks from playing his first real NFL game.
But Wednesday, the 16th day of training camp — in the fourth month of offseason and now preseason practices, position drills, 7-on-7 drills and full-team scrimmages — Smith-Njigba finally showed...well, that he’s human.
Another of his sharp cuts inside beat his defender across the middle. But Seattle’s new third receiver with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett let the pass from Geno Smith bounce off his hands to the grass.
It’s the first time in the 25 Seahawks practices plus a few more morning walkthroughs open to the media since May that The News Tribune has seen Smith-Njigba drop a pass.
Smith, the quarterback, has seen just about every rep the rookie wide receiver’s had, including the team’s closed, indoor walk-through practices every morning.
Was Wednesday the first time his QB has seen Smith-Njigba drop a pass?
“It might have been. It might have been,” Smith said.
“But I don’t expect that to happen for a long, long time.
“It happens every now and then for all of us.”
Smith is 32. He’s an 11-year veteran. He’s been throwing to rookie receivers in the NFL since Smith-Njigba was in fifth grade growing up outside Dallas.
The Seahawks’ franchise quarterback is impressed with how professional Smith-Njigba already is.
“Just with his assignments and knowing what to do,” Smith said. “You come in as a rookie receiver, you are picking up the playbook, learning new things, a new way to run routes and a new way to schematically beat defenses.
“And then, as the weeks go by you can just tell he’s getting more and more comfortable.”
Smith-Njigba’s professionalism extends beyond normal practice or even normal meeting or being-awake times.
The rookie had 12 snaps, with three catches on four targets from backup quarterback Drew Lock for 25 yards in the Seahawks’ first preseason game last week against Minnesota. Smith said following the game, Smith-Njigba wasn’t happy with some of the finer points of his route-running against the Vikings.
Early the next morning, Friday, the rookie was inside the team’s facility catching passes alone out of a Jugs machine. He was simulating bringing the ball in with his hands at the top of his routes.
“You see guys doing the little things to get better, that’s what I’m talking about being a pro,” Smith said.
Smith saw his rookie receiver on the indoor practice field Friday already working when the veteran QB got to work. What time was that?
“Pretty early,” Smith said.
During practices, Smith said Smith-Njigba is thinking along with him. He’s anticipating defenses, coverages, blitzes and hot reads like, well, an 11th-year NFL quarterback.
“We’ve got option routes where he’s making quick decisions. He’s seeing the same things we’re seeing as quarterbacks,” Smith said. “He’s in the right spots.
“Then, after that, he’s just being himself.”
For years, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and offensive play caller Shane Waldron have not had a lethal third wide receiver to keep defenses from bracketing their coverage of Metcalf and/or Lockett. It’s been steady looks of a cornerback short and a safety deep over the top.
They’ve tried to find a third weapon. Remember Josh Gordon? Brandon Marshall? Dee Eskridge? Heck, for a spell last season Laquon Treadwell was their third receiver.
With no third threat to worry about, when defenses have gone five and six defensive backs against the Seahawks they’ve sometimes bracketed both Metcalf and Lockett.
Now, Seattle has that potentially lethal third wide receiver.
Waldron has put Smith-Njigba in the slot inside Metcalf and Lockett since the first day of the first OTAs in May. If defenses want to double Metcalf and/or Lockett, Waldron and Smith will send Smith-Njigba one on one down the field against a safety or a nickel defensive back.
The Seahawks’ thinking: Good luck to defenses trying that.
If that happens, Smith-Njigba could have a huge rookie season. It might take targets and numbers from Metcalf and Lockett, but it would be perhaps the most dynamic and productive set of top-three wide receivers the Seahawks have had in 13 seasons under Carroll.
Even if Smith-Njigba drops a pass once every four months.
Carroll’s 100-yard sprints
It was 95 degrees, or hotter, on the practice field again Wednesday. The heat advisory around Western Washington continued.
Yet there was the 71-year-old Carroll — in khaki pants, long-sleeved shirt and Air Monarchs — yet again running 100-yard sprints down the sideline to coincide with kicks and punts his players ran down the center of the field to cover during special-teams drills.
Oh, yes, his players notice.
“That’s Pete, man,” Smith said. “He’s the ageless wonder, man.
“When you look at him, he motivates you every, single day. You see your head coach out there running sprints — it doesn’t matter how old he is, he’s out there. He’s gettin’ it. It’s hot out here, and he’s working as hard as we’re working.
“When you’ve got a head coach like that, man, it’s not hard to come to work and give it your all.”
Needless injury late
The 16th practice of camp ended with an unnecessary injury on a play that should have ended long before it did.
Rookie third-string quarterback Holton Ahlers ran left trying to throw. He got tagged, like kids playing in a backyard, by free-rushing defensive end Jordan Ferguson. It should have been a sack. Play, and practice, over.
Yet Ahlers continued to run, deeper left. He ran behind about 10 players not in the scrimmage who were standing behind the huddle. That could have been an injury — or three — right there.
Ahlers then threw a wild, jump-ball pass deep to the goal line into a mass of a receiver with multiple defenders. They all leaped for the ball. Jonathan Sutherland, an undrafted rookie who started the first preseason game and continues to get first-defense reps at nickel with Devon Witherspoon (hamstring) missing his seventh consecutive practice, landed hard on his hip and back.
As three horns sounded to end practice, Sutherland stayed down injured along the sideline. Trainers helped him limp into the facility. The rest of the players gathered around Carroll in the center of the field.
There was no immediate word on how injured Sutherland was or is.
Drew Lock, play of the day
The play of the day was a beautifully soaring pass of at least 60 yards from Lock down the left sideline in a 7-on-7 drills of receivers and defensive backs.
Matt Landers, an undrafted rookie from Arkansas with size (6 feet 4) and speed (4.37 seconds in the 40-yard dash), sped past second-year free-agent cornerback Chris Steele. Lock’s pass arrived perfectly onto Landers’ hands for a touchdown.
Landers and Bobo
Landers is intriguing.
But how many undrafted wide receivers will Carroll and Waldron keep on the 53-man roster?
Jake Bobo from UCLA has been impressive. He’s getting first-team reps. He’s become a locker-room favorite. Wednesday Smith said the same thing Lock said following the game last week: The locker room’s saying this summer is: “More Bobo!”
He caught the go-ahead touchdown pass from Lock in the preseason opener. But Bobo (6-4, 207) runs a 4.99 40.
Landers (200 pounds) is a 4.37 guy. That makes Landers more attractive for special teams.
What special-teams unit could Bobo play on?
“What can’t Bobo do?” Carroll joked.
“He’s looking for his spots in special teams. He’s competing in all of them. He’s not going to be on the field-goal block team. I say that but, you never know.
“He’s really an exciting football player. We don’t know yet. We’ve played one game. We need much more stuff.”
Special teams is the way undrafted rookies make Carroll’s teams, particularly at wide receiver. Ask Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse from a decade ago.
Landers got injured jumping for a pass and getting landed on by safety Ty Okada in the middle of Wednesday’s practice. He watched the end of it.
What about Landers’ special-teams work?
“He’s working at it, too. It’s just a really important part for him,” Carroll said. “The guys in the backup receiver role, their value doubles in their ability to do teams. Dareke (Young) was a great example of that last year. He did a fantastic job on teams for us last year (as a rookie).”
Levi Bell impresses, but...
Another undrafted rookie who has been bullish and impressive is 5-11 Levi Bell, an edge rusher from Texas State. He’s listed as a linebacker but getting end work, too.
The key for him? Yes, special teams.
“I was hollering at him (Tuesday): He’s got to get on the punt team. And he’s not on the first punt team yet,” Carroll said.
“He’s done some pretty good things so far.”
This story was originally published August 16, 2023 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Seahawks camp day 16: Jaxon Smith-Njigba is...human? Needless injury; Pete Carroll runs."
