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Fifth-year option season has officially begun.
The Seahawks have announced that they have officially exercised the 2027 options on the first-round contracts signed in 2023 by receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Smith-Njigba, the 20th overall pick in 2023 and the 2025 NFL offensive player of the year, now has a fully-guaranteed salary of $23.852 million for 2027. Witherspoon, taken fifth overall, will make $21.161 million in 2027.
Both will be seeking new contracts, sooner than later. The fifth-year option gives them protection in the event of a fluke injury in the early portions of the 2026 offseason program, since the deadline for exercising the option doesn't arrive until May 1.
Smith-Njigba has said he believes he should be the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. That would require an extension with a new-money average in excess of $40 million. To get Smith-Njigba to a new-money APY of $41 million, the Seahawks would need to sign him to a five-year, $148.4 million contract. That would equate to a total average from signing of $29.68 million, given what he's due to earn over the next two seasons.
Regardless of the timing for their second deals, it's no surprise that the Seahawks plan to keep Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon. In the coming weeks, other teams will be exercising the fifth-year options on 2023 first-round draft picks who have performed well enough in their first three seasons to justify it.
There were only 31 first-round picks in 2023. The Dolphins lost theirs as punishment for tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton.
Continue reading...
The Seahawks have announced that they have officially exercised the 2027 options on the first-round contracts signed in 2023 by receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Smith-Njigba, the 20th overall pick in 2023 and the 2025 NFL offensive player of the year, now has a fully-guaranteed salary of $23.852 million for 2027. Witherspoon, taken fifth overall, will make $21.161 million in 2027.
Both will be seeking new contracts, sooner than later. The fifth-year option gives them protection in the event of a fluke injury in the early portions of the 2026 offseason program, since the deadline for exercising the option doesn't arrive until May 1.
Smith-Njigba has said he believes he should be the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. That would require an extension with a new-money average in excess of $40 million. To get Smith-Njigba to a new-money APY of $41 million, the Seahawks would need to sign him to a five-year, $148.4 million contract. That would equate to a total average from signing of $29.68 million, given what he's due to earn over the next two seasons.
Regardless of the timing for their second deals, it's no surprise that the Seahawks plan to keep Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon. In the coming weeks, other teams will be exercising the fifth-year options on 2023 first-round draft picks who have performed well enough in their first three seasons to justify it.
There were only 31 first-round picks in 2023. The Dolphins lost theirs as punishment for tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton.
Continue reading...
