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The numbers are officially in for wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s record setting $168.6 million contract extension via PFT and this really is a big one for the wide receiver market. While many will paint this as a modest jump from Jamarr Chase’s $40.4 million to $42.15 million per year, the reality is far bigger.

The cash commitment from the Seahawks is truly stunning in this contract. What I consider his “year 0” salary (his raise over his existing rookie contract salary) is a gigantic $42.65 million. The other high end players on the market are all around $18 to $11 million. While some of that is influenced by the fact that many were signed with one year rather than two remaining on their rookie contract, that typically is taken into account when doing an extension. Here are some of the comparisons of the other top contracts:

Player Year 0 New Money Pct of Contract

Jaxon Smith-Njigba $42,563,000 25.2%

CeeDee Lamb $21,159,000 15.6%

Garrett Wilson $18,000,000 13.8%

Justin Jefferson $18,320,000 13.1%

Ja’Marr Chase $19,354,000 12.0%

Those numbers continue into the first year of the contract where he will have earned $62.5 million when no other player is above $53.2 million, which is about 17.5% growth in salary. This again sets new high water marks compared to the rest of the market both in terms of overall salary and salary paid as a percentage of the total contract value.

Player Year 1 New Money Pct of Contract

Jaxon Smith-Njigba $62,500,000 37.1%

CeeDee Lamb $49,009,000 36.0%

Justin Jefferson $50,250,000 35.9%

Ja’Marr Chase $53,184,000 33.0%

Garrett Wilson $42,500,000 32.7%

This trend continues through year two and really only slightly falls by year 3 when he drops on a percentage basis to 75.2% of his contract having been paid out compared to Lamb’s 76.5% and Jefferson’s 75.7%.

Player Year 3 New Money Pct of Contract

CeeDee Lamb $104,009,000 76.5%

Justin Jefferson $106,000,000 75.7%

Jaxon Smith-Njigba $126,800,000 75.2%

Garrett Wilson $97,500,000 75.0%

Ja’Marr Chase $116,184,000 72.2%

One of the big comparisons here is the Chase contract in terms of overall cash. Chase’s contract followed a pattern that has been common in receiver contracts where the final year salary is higher than the APY of the contract in an effort to spike the annual value of the deal. Chase’s 3 year value is $38.8 million while Smith-Njigba’s is a more legit $42.3 million.

This is why this contract is really more like an 8.6% increase over the market rather than the 4.7% one if we use Chase’s $40.25 million per year. It would seem that this contract was really pegged off the Jefferson one and inflated for salary cap growth. The Seahawks don’t fully guarantee salary beyond the existing contract years of an extension which may have helped with those big early salary numbers, but that should rub off on the rest of the market even though those teams will often guarantee three years at signing.

The new money guarantee on the contract is $93.5 million which beats Jefferson’s $90.257 million and Chase’s $82 million. His full guarantee of $69.13 million does trail Jefferson’s $88.74 million and Chase’s $73.9 million but that is part of doing business with the Seahawks and their guarantee structures. He does get early vesting dates (typical of the Seahawks) so he is pretty well protected from being released. While he does have $850K per year in per game bonuses I would consider that standard for the position.

His cap charge for this year will increase by $5.78 million while his 2027 cap charge will drop by $8.22 million. His cap charges should be $10.37 million in 2026, $15.63 million in 2027, $32.937 million in 2028, $36.5 million in 2029, $48.8 million in 2030, and $50.3 million in 2031. Those backend numbers could be slightly different as I am making an assumption that the team used one void year.

The salary cap structure is strong for Smith-Njigba. Once the team exercises the first option his 2028 dead money will spike to $45 million in 2028, which would make him pretty hard to release prior to his vesting date just a few days after the Super Bowl. In 2029 that number would be $42 million and Seattle would need at least $10 million in remaining 2028 salary cap room to cut him prior to that early vesting date. So all of the injury guarantees are pretty well protected by the cap structure. 2030 would be the first year really open to debate if his play were to decline.

This is a really strong player contract that really moves the needle for the receiver market as the next group of players gets ready for an extension. This position is always a risk, but my opinion is if you are not willing to walk off the rookie deal (and there Is no reason Seattle should considering how good he has been) you get the extension out of the way early and keep your fingers crossed that no injury or other issue comes up that limits the productivity of the player. Seattle did that and then some with this extension.