The San Francisco 49ers travel to face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, where their defence will have to deal with the league’s most in-form wide receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Smith-Njigba has racked up 481 receiving yards and six touchdowns through his opening four games following a Super Bowl and Offensive Player of the Year-winning season. There has simply been no stopping the former Ohio State Buckeye.
Heading into the game in the Pacific Northwest, Kyle Shanahan has admitted that Smith-Njigba did actually catch his eye as a freshman during an Ohio State Pro Day. The Niners head coach shared the story of how he spotted a young Smith-Njigba years before he ever made it to the NFL Draft.
Kyle Shanahan recalls first seeing Jaxon Smith-Njigba during Ohio State visit
The 49ers have made an electric start to the season as they head to Seattle still unbeaten but they will face a serious test against Smith-Njigba. There has been no team able to stop the wideout so far and Shanahan is all too aware of just how much of a threat he will provide.
“Yeah, we were going to Pro Days looking at quarterbacks, and we were down there looking at [Justin] Fields. I just remember that it was a long workout, and there was a freshman running all over the place. I just ended up asking John halfway through, “Who is that kid?” They’re like, “Oh, some freshman,” and we got his name,” said Shanahan.
“I had forgotten the name at the time, like I usually do. A few years later, when we were getting ready to watch him in the draft, John was like, “That was that kid that you were asking about. He was catching balls for Fields all day. He was just running around everywhere catching everything, and that was extremely impressive.””
The 24-year-old had a down day last Sunday by his standards and still managed to tally up 76 yards against the Los Angeles Chargers. Despite the Seahawks’ struggling run game, Smith-Njigba was only targeted six times by Sam Darnold in that game.
Clearly the road to success for Seattle runs through throwing the ball to Smith-Njigba. With Shanahan all too aware of how good the wide receiver is, it will be interesting to see how he deploys his defence to deal with the Seahawks star.
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