Huard: What to make of Seahawks’ Smith-Njigba’s surgery news

Some tough Seattle Seahawks news broke Tuesday morning with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting that wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, one of the team’s two first-round picks this year, is having surgery to repair a broken bone in his wrist.

Schefter reports that the injury happened on Smith-Njigba’s 48-yard catch against the Dallas Cowboys in Saturday’s preseason contest, and that there’s some belief that the rookie could be ready for Seattle’s Week 1 clash with the Los Angeles Rams.

Report: Seattle Seahawks’ Smith-Njigba getting wrist surgery; Week 1 status unclear

The news broke during Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, and former NFL quarterback Brock Huard shared his reaction to the injury report.

“Very concerning,” Huard said. “… Yet another rookie – that’s now six – that have been missing significant time.”

Fellow first-round pick Devon Witherspoon has missed a lot of time this offseason with a hamstring injury, center Olu Oluwatimi is dealing with an elbow injury, defensive end Mike Morris has a shoulder injury, running back Kenny McIntosh has a knee sprain and while he’s practicing and playing now, running back Zach Charbonnet dealt with a shoulder issue earlier in training camp.

As for Smith-Njigba, Huard said that he needs more details about the extent of the injury.

“Is this a Tyler Lockett-like broken wrist (last year) where you have a surgery and then Tyler comes back and misses one game and plays down the stretch of the season?” Huard said. “Is this a, ‘We’ve got to immobilize for six to eight weeks?’ I’ve seen speculation that that he could be back for the regular season, so that leads me to believe more of the former than the latter. You go and get it fixed – likely put a little screw or something in there to speed up the healing process. Is it his right or is it his left? Is it his more dominant hand or his non-dominant hand?”

Now, the promising rookie that has been the talk of the Seahawks’ offseason will face some adversity.

“There’s no question that he’s going to have to now fight through some of this and he’s going to be spending time in some of the rehab. And then even when he is back, doing the other things besides just running and catching like, I don’t know, blocking? Which is a part of playing receiver in this system and in the slot as well,” Huard said. “So not great news, (but) not a season-ender. The fact that he’s having surgery immediately says they think they can remedy this and speed up the healing process. But there’s going to be a little bump in the road here early as it has been for Devon, as it has been for Olu, as it has been for Kenny McIntosh, as it has been for Mike. I mean, just go down that list. This rookie class has been bitten by the bug, that injury bug, a little more than their predecessors.”

Listen to the full fourth hour of Tuesday’s Brock and Salk at this link or in the player near the top of this story.

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