The NFL has made Jaxon Smith-Njigba the face of its official record book entering the Seattle Seahawks’ championship defense.
Smith-Njigba appears on the cover of the league’s 2026 Record & Fact Book, which identifies him as a Super Bowl LX champion and the 2025 Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year. The league publication was compiled by the NFL Communications Department with statistics from Elias Sports Bureau, and its printed information is current through July 14, 2026.
It is a promotional honor, but hardly an arbitrary one.
And, yes, the NFL did correctly identify JSN as the reigning AP Offensive Player of the Year.
Smith-Njigba’s cover selection follows a season in which he established himself as the most productive receiver in Seahawks history, led the NFL in receiving yards and helped Seattle win its second Super Bowl. As the Seahawks prepare for another season with championship expectations, the NFL is using one of their central stars to promote its official statistical archive.
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Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s Historic Season Earned NFL Spotlight
Smith-Njigba finished the 2025 regular season with 119 receptions and 1,793 receiving yards, setting Seahawks single-season records in both categories. Those marks surpassed every season produced by a franchise receiving lineage that includes Steve Largent, Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
He also led the league with nine 100-yard receiving performances. No other NFL player had more than seven during the regular season.
The production continued during Seattle’s postseason run.
Smith-Njigba recorded 153 receiving yards in the Seahawks’ 31-27 NFC Championship Game victory over the Los Angeles Rams. That performance brought his combined regular-season and postseason total to 1,965 yards, the most by an NFL player before his 24th birthday, according to the league’s record book.
Seattle then defeated the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. Smith-Njigba became only the fourth player to lead the NFL in receiving yards and win the Super Bowl during the same season.
The others were Drew Pearson, Jerry Rice and Smith-Njigba’s Seahawks teammate Cooper Kupp, who accomplished it with the Rams in 2021.
NFL Cover Reflects Seahawks’ Return to Prominence
The cover is also a broader acknowledgment of what Seattle accomplished.
Smith-Njigba won Offensive Player of the Year honors from the Associated Press, The Sporting News and the Professional Football Writers of America. He was also selected to the AP and PFWA All-Pro teams.
His AP award made him the first Seahawks player to win Offensive Player of the Year since running back Shaun Alexander in 2005. Smith-Njigba joined Cooper Kupp and Justin Jefferson as the only wide receivers to win the award since its current historical listing began in 1992.
General manager John Schneider also received Executive of the Year recognition after assembling Seattle’s championship roster.
That combination matters entering 2026. Smith-Njigba is no longer simply a promising former first-round pick or one component of Seattle’s offense. The NFL is presenting him as a league-wide headliner and the most recognizable representative of the reigning champions.
The Seahawks will face the difficult task of following a Super Bowl season, and opponents will build their coverage plans around limiting Smith-Njigba. His place on the league’s record-book cover captures both sides of Seattle’s new reality: the Seahawks are champions again, and their top receiver will begin the season with considerably more attention than before.
NFL Announces Major Jaxon Smith-Njigba News Before Seattle Seahawks Season