The difference Bump has seen in Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba

One of the silver linings in the Seattle Seahawks’ loss to the Los Angels Rams this past Sunday was the play of Jaxon Smith-Njgiba.

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With Seattle’s wide receiver room short-handed due to an injury to star DK Metcalf, Smith-Njigba broke out with the best game of his career and was one of the biggest reasons the Seahawks had a chance to win the game late.

The second-year wide receiver hauled in seven receptions for career highs of 180 yards and two touchdown, which included securing the touchdown pass in the final minute that forced overtime.

All 7️⃣ receptions for @jaxon_smith1. pic.twitter.com/UTrizXThn0

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 5, 2024

After being the first receiver taken of the board during the 2023 draft, the first-round pick had an up-and-down rookie year, so Sunday’s performance was encouraging for the Seahawks to see.

After digging deeper into the film, former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus noticed Smith-Njigba was consistently doing something he normally hasn’t seen from the second-year pro. Bumpus explained what that was during his Four-Down Territory segment Tuesday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

“He’s a smooth operator when he runs his routes,” Bumpus said. “He’s nice and smooth and all his routes are kind of flowy, and sometimes they need to be linear and radical and you need to be violent at the top of your routes. I saw some of that. … I’m not saying that he never does this, but (it was) the most consistent route running I saw out of him.”

Five of Smith-Njigba’s seven receptions went for at least 22 yards. Those type of explosive plays have largely been missing through his first season-plus in the league.

“He’s moving defenders at the top of his route,” Bumpus said. “There’s something called a nod. If I’m gonna run a post and you are a safety or a (defensive back) that’s in front of me, when I get to the top of my post, my last three steps, I might nod you, put you to sleep, lean to the right, then – boom – snap my foot in the ground as hard as I can and make a violent movement. It makes the (defensive back) respond. I saw that in him this past week. I don’t know what it was. I don’t know who he’s been talking to, but I need to see more of this.”

Smith-Njigba also wasn’t shy in letting Rams defenders know how good of a game he was having, which was an edge Bumpus liked to see.

“I love him getting up and talking that talk,” Bumpus said. “You can tell the Rams were trying to talk to him and he wasn’t backing down from nothing.”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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