Winning a major NFL Honors award should serve as the ultimate offseason highlight for any rising player. But for the Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, receiving the 2025 Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year award turned into a ‘disrespectful’ moment. He received the trophy in the mail, but it carried some significant errors. 

The trophy had “AP 2025 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR” engraved, with Smith-Njigba’s name on it.  However, the player is a wide receiver and officially is the recipient of the AP Offensive Player of the Year award. He did not hide his visible frustration with the league’s quality control department. He posted a video on his Instagram, visibly annoyed that the league could make such a careless mistake regarding its highest annual honors. 

“Now, I really wanna expose them though,” Smith-Njigba said. “It’s getting disrespectful, guys. Defense? Come on, bro. [Highlighting ‘THE YEAR’] One word?”

He posted another story and wrote, “Just keep the award at this point, leave it in the history books though.”

This careless manufacturing error understandably stings because Smith-Njigba fought hard to secure the award. He earned it by dominating opposing teams’ defensive units last season. The wide receiver recorded a staggering 1,793 receiving yards, completed 119 receptions, and made 10 touchdowns. These stats pushed him beyond stars like Christian McCaffrey and Puka Nacua. After all, his 36.2% target share was the best score in the NFL. 

On top of that, he had nine games with more than 100 yards this season. That’s the highest number in a single season in franchise history. He further became the third player aged 23 years or less in the league’s history to surpass at least 1,700 receiving yards in a single season. 

Furthermore, he completed 10 passes for 153 receiving yards in the NFC Championship game. And that took the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Ultimately, his performance led the Seahawks to a victory over the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl finale. 

“There’s a lot of great receivers in this league who don’t have as diverse of a skill set as he does,” the Seahawks’ head coach, Mike Macdonald, said of the wide receiver. “Anywhere from an intermediate route tree, catch-and-run stuff at the line of scrimmage, and then we’ve seen his ability to track the ball at the third level and keep his body position, all that kind of stuff.” 

But the honor is more significant since Smith-Njigba is the second Seahawk to win the award in 20 years. Shaun Alexander was the last Seahawk to win the award in 2005. Meanwhile, Kenny Easley and Cortez Kennedy won the Defensive Player of the Year awards ages ago. And by the looks of the trophy, we might have to count Smith-Njigba as the third Seahawks player to get the defensive player of the year honors.

His performances helped him earn his second Pro Bowl selection. While he was not happy about receiving the trophy, Smith-Njigba was extremely proud to be honored as AP Offensive Player of the Year.

Jaxson Smith-Njigba speaks on his journey to get to the trophy

Smith-Njigba came out of the Ohio State University as the 20th pick in the 2023 draft. He had a great college career and even broke the single-season receiving yard record at Ohio with 1,606 yards in 2022.

There were a lot of expectations when he made it to the league, and the 24-year-old delivered with some big performances in his rookie season. In a game against the Cleveland Browns, the player caught the game-winning touchdown pass. He repeated the same on a Monday Night Football game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

He had a stellar sophomore season as well with the Seahawks and finished with 100 receptions for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns. However, it was 2025 when Jaxon really took off, showcasing his offensive firepower to everyone in the league. After helping the Seahawks secure the NFC West championship, he was awarded the prestigious honor by the league.

“What an honor,” the wide receiver said after claiming the award. “I want to first give all the glory to God. Second, I want to give it to my teammates. I want to thank y’all. I love y’all. Y’all are who I do it for each and every week. I want to give this award to my father. Going into my last year [of college], he told me to pray for wisdom, and I did.”

During his speech, he also highlighted how his college career ended with some unfulfilled dreams.

“Before going into that season, I wanted to be a Top 5 draft choice, I wanted to be a Heisman candidate, a bunch of things, and ultimately, I wasn’t able to play,” he continued. “And I think with that time, I grew wise and figured out a lot about myself, and who I wanted to be and who I wanted to do it for. Ultimately dropping to the 20th draft pick, where I was selected by the Seattle Seahawks, and I can’t thank everyone involved enough.” 

This heartfelt acceptance speech from the NFL Honors ceremony highlights the emotional journey that preceded Smith-Njigba’s 2025 campaign. For football fans, his reflection on his final season at Ohio State shows how quickly an athlete’s career trajectory can change. After a hamstring injury forced him to miss nearly his entire final college year, the wideout used that time on the sideline to recalibrate his mental approach to the game. 

Despite falling to the 20th overall pick in 2023, the WR proved that he can thrive well in the NFL. But coming back to the error on the award, Smith-Njigba clearly took the mix-up with humor, but the message landed anyway. NFL players chase recognition for years, so when the trophy finally arrives with the wrong label, it does not really look good for the league.