Jaxon Smith-Njigba got real with Maria Taylor. Sitting down with the NBC Sports host, the newly crowned Super Bowl champion looked back on his journey from Ohio State, and the conversation soon turned personal as the wide receiver opened up about his brother, Canaan, and a difficult stretch of his career.

“Oh man, I learned a lot,” Jaxon Smith-Njigba said to Maria Taylor on NFL on NBC. “Honestly, looking back at it, I’m super blessed. I was able to grow something that I really wanted very, very badly. (It) was taken away from me but shaped me to be stronger, to be, you know, wiser and understand how to take care of myself, understanding what it takes to be at this level and to take it as far as I want. So God is good; he makes no mistakes, and to see this journey is very cool, to unwrap it, and my story is something that’s very precious to me.”

That quote hits differently once you know what came before it. His sophomore year at Ohio State was about as good as it gets for a college receiver. He broke the Big Ten record with 1,606 yards, then closed it out with a Rose Bowl and Rose Bowl Offensive MVP title. That’s the kind of season that gets NFL scouts circling a guy a year early.

Then came his junior year, and things fell apart. He got hurt in the season opener against Notre Dame, a hamstring injury that never fully went away. By October, he was still trying to work his way back, playing limited snaps through three games and finishing with just five catches for 43 yards all season. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day never rushed him.

Even with the Buckeyes rolling with 11 wins, Day held to his usual approach of not risking a player’s NFL future to win a few extra games in college.

Eventually, the decision made itself. Doctors told Smith-Njigba he wouldn’t be ready for the College Football Playoff, and he announced he was turning pro before the Buckeyes even played their Peach Bowl semifinal against Georgia.

“The decision to turn pro was made after I was unable to come back on multiple occasions during the season and the doctors determined I would be unable to participate in the playoffs,” he told ESPN at the time.

It’s easy to see now why teams still trusted him in the 2023 draft despite such a short junior season.

However, draft analyst Todd McShay openly questioned whether Smith-Njigba was even a first-round talent, pointing to the CFP absence as a real red flag.

“Now, the fact that he’s not playing certainly isn’t going to help his cause,” McShay said at the time.

The doubt didn’t hold him back for long. The Seahawks took Smith-Njigba 20th overall in the 2023 draft anyway, betting on the sophomore tape over the lost junior year.

Since arriving in Seattle in 2023, he’s turned into the best receiver in football. In 2025, he led the NFL in receiving yards, earned First-team All-Pro honors, and became Offensive Player of the Year. Add two Pro Bowl selections in 2024 and 2025, plus a Super Bowl LX ring, and Smith-Njigba did not prove to be a bust by any stretch of the imagination.

Whatever that lost season took from him—a Peach Bowl appearance, a shot at a title with Ohio State, and perhaps even some draft stock—he has since built something bigger than all of it.