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Smith-Njigba has never been a stranger to the big moment. He arguably holds the greatest receiving performance in Rose Bowl history when he caught 15 passes for 336 yards with three touchdowns in Ohio State’s victory over Utah four years ago.
Having already registered one of the greatest postseason performances in modern college football history, the question now is where Smith-Njigba’s landmark outing in the NFC Championship Game stands among the pantheon of iconic NFL playoff performances.
Smith-Njigba was unsurprisingly PFF’s highest-graded player of championship weekend with a 92.2 overall PFF grade. Fellow superstar wideout Puka Nacua, as always, gave Smith-Njigba a run for his money with a 165-yard performance and a 91.5 overall PFF grade.
Nacua capped an incredible season in his own right, becoming just the second player in the last decade to eclipse 2,000 receiving yards over the course of a full season (including playoffs) following former teammate Cooper Kupp in 2021.
Meanwhile, Kupp’s current teammate, Smith-Njigba, requires just 35 more yards in the Super Bowl to join the party as the third player to share the distinction.
Nacua and Smith-Njigba have been neck and neck all season long atop the league rankings in ‘yards per route run’. After the conclusion of Sunday night’s thriller, they are now separated by less than 0.01 on the leaderboard.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba versus Puka Nacua in the 2025 regular season and playoffs
Jaxon Smith-NjigbaPuka NacuaReceiving Yards1,9652,047Routes Run550574Yards per Route Run3.5733.566Touchdowns1212Sunday night was the first time opposing receivers have each accumulated over 150 receiving yards in the same playoff game since Gabe Davis and Tyreek Hill achieved the feat in the classic Buffalo Bills–Kansas City Chiefs divisional round game from four years ago.
The deep connection has returned
Smith-Njigba had already amassed 150 yards in two previous games this season, but Sunday was notably his first double-digit reception haul of the season, highlighting just how much bang Sam Darnold gets for his buck when he throws the ball in Smith-Njigba’s direction.
Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has built his offense around chunk play connections between Darnold and Smith-Njigba all season long.
Darnold has gone 33-for-58 on deep pass attempts (20-plus yards downfield) this season. His 56.9% deep completion percentage is the highest in the NFL.
Smith-Njigba has accounted for 17 of Darnold’s 33 deep completions. His 656 receiving yards on deep completions are the most of any player in the league this season.
However, it’s worth mentioning the pair hadn’t connected on a deep completion for over two months (Week 12 versus the Tennessee Titans) when they took to the field for the NFC Championship Game this past weekend.
Seahawks fans will therefore be optimistic that their 42-yard completion in the final minute of the first half on Sunday night can rekindle the same spark that led Seattle to the NFC’s top seed.
Nobody to blame on the other side
Looking at the defenders in coverage for Smith-Njigba’s ten receptions proves he was truly winning all over the field against the Los Angeles Rams defense, no matter who it pitted against him.
He caught passes against seven different primary coverage defenders, including two safeties, both starting linebackers and all three starting cornerbacks. No single Rams defender was responsible for more than 50 of Smith-Njigba’s 153-yard haul.
This can be attributed to Klint Kubiak's ever-creative approach. Smith-Njigba’s only touchdown of the game came on a corner route out of the backfield — a route Smith-Njigba has run less than five times all season long.
Kubiak has drawn up numerous standard hitch/curl routes out of the backfield for Smith-Njigba this season, including two during Seattle’s Week 16 matchup against the Rams, and once again on their very first dropback of the NFC Championship Game.
To then fool the Rams with a corner route from the backfield is just one of the many ways Kubiak sets up his opponents to take the bait and then trusts his players to execute when they get the look they want.
Smith-Njigba among the best receiving performances of the PFF era
So, where does this game by Smith-Njigba stack up among the greatest games in PFF postseason history?
His 92.0 PFF receiving grade from Sunday is the sixth highest of any wide receiver with at least 20 receiving snaps in a playoff game in the PFF era (since 2006).
As far as championship weekend performances are concerned, Smith-Njigba delivered the second-highest receiving grade ever awarded by PFF, just behind Julio Jones’ historic 180-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Green Bay Packers in the 2016 playoffs.
Depending on the qualifiers used, Smith-Njigba’s game is surprisingly not the highest grade awarded to a Seattle Seahawks receiver in the postseason.
If we instead count all wide receivers with at least five targets in their respective game, that distinction belongs to Chris Matthews’ Super Bowl XLIX performance, where he caught four passes for 109 yards and a touchdown on just eleven total receiving snaps. It remains the highest Super Bowl receiving grade in PFF history.
Beyond just receiving grades, Smith-Njigba’s nine first downs are tied for the third most in a postseason game in the PFF era.
With just three receptions for 19 yards in Seattle’s divisional round victory over the 49ers, Smith-Njigba would require a similar standout performance in the Super Bowl to be in the mix for any single-season playoff records.
Among wide receivers to reach the Super Bowl, only two (2016 Julio Jones and 2008 Larry Fitzgerald) have a higher playoff receiving grade than Smith-Njigba does currently.
It’s still all to play for, and the Seahawks superstar undoubtedly doesn’t care for personal accolades if his team cannot get over the line in Santa Clara.
However, we should appreciate the greatness we are experiencing in real time, one of the best postseason games we have ever seen.