BREAKING: JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA IS UNGUARDABLE — SEATTLE’S NEW SUPERSTAR HAS ARRIVED

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, the Seattle Seahawks offense was fresh off of a 56-yard rushing performance with 3 turnovers against the San Francisco 49ers. Their 2023 first-round draft choice, wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, was fresh off of his fifth sub-60 yard performance in six games to start the season. In his seventh contest, he'd post three catches for nine yards.

This year, it's a whole different stratosphere for the former Ohio State star. Now the leading man in Seattle's passing attack, Smith-Njigba has posted more 100+ yard receiving performances (4) than he had all year last year (3). His worst single-game performance from a yardage perspective through six games is 79 yards.

But what if I told you the yardage numbers are only half the story? The efficiency numbers put Smith-Njigba into a class of his own.

Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is shredding every coverage variation known to man

Seattle's star receiver is averaging nearly four and a half yards receiving per route run through the first six weeks of the season. There are no other NFL receivers within a yard of that mark on a per-route basis thus far, with Puka Nacua ranking second in the NFL. Only four other receivers other than Nacua are within two yards of Smith-Njigba's 4.43 yards per route run total.

It's an incredible pace. And even if the monster performances stop coming so freely, it's hard to imagine a healthy Smith-Njigba not landing amongst the league leaders with this rate of production through the first third of the season.

And again, it's what he's doing against all kinds of coverage variations that makes this performance that much more sensational.

2025 NFL Receiving Leaders Through Week 6

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle: 696 receiving yards
Puka Nacua, Los Angeles: 616 receiving yards
George Pickens, Dallas: 525 receiving yards
Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay (R): 469 receiving yards
Ja'Marr Chase, Cincinnati: 468 receiving yards

https://youtube.com/shorts/3ng5qNSWspk?si=kejPRGVzbjgPlLbm

Among the top-20 wide receivers in football for yards per route run, Smith-Njigba ranks third in yards per route run against man coverage. He's first against zone coverage. Press him at the line of scrimmage? No problem, he's first there, too. And don't you dare play him soft and give him space — where he's averaging nearly two and a half yards more per route run than any other qualifying receiver through six weeks.

To put it plainly, Jaxon Smith-Njigba is in his own universe right now. And no one has figured out a way to stop him.

Kellen Moore's 0-4 start is the worst for a first-year Saints coach since 1967

This isn't the kind of company Kellen Moore expected to keep. The New Orleans Saints head coach is now the team's first full-time coach to start 0-4 in his debut season since 1967. You have to go all the way back to the Saints' inaugural 1967 campaign to find the last head coach who started 0-4. That was Tom Fears, who didn't win a game until Week 8, finishing his first year at 3-11. He went 13-34-2 before being fired midway through the 1970 season.

Of course this doesn't count interim coaches like Aaron Kromer, who went 0-4 in 2012 before stepping aside for Joe Vitt. When you put Moore up against the other head coaches who were hired to the same role with the same expectations in Saints history, his start is there with Fears at the bottom. Here's how every first-year Saints head coach performed in their first four games:

Sean Payton, 2006: 3-1
Dick Nolan, 1978: 2-2
John North, 1973: 1-3
Hank Stram, 1967: 1-3
Bum Phillips, 1981: 1-3
Jim Mora, 1986: 1-3
Mike Ditka, 1997: 1-3
Jim Haslett, 2002: 1-3
Dennis Allen, 2022: 1-3
Tom Fears, 1967: 0-4
Kellen Moore, 2025: 0-4

But that's not to say we'll be here forever. The team that lost to the Buffalo Bills in Week 4 looked like a different squad than the one the Seattle Seahawks blew out a week earlier. They showed a lot of fight in a rare moral victory, playing a Super Bowl favorite close throughout the game. Better execution and smarter decisions in a couple of moments would have made a difference. What's most important is that they didn't give up. For a rebuilding team in their position? You'll take that.

Sure, standards should be higher. They will be. Once Moore has had time to build this team up with his own players and a viable starter at quarterback, we'll look at him a little differently. He isn't there yet. It's vital he make the changes now -- benching chronic underperformers and penalty-prone players -- to insure he gets to that point. Or else he'll stay at the bottom.