It may be the highest compliment a receiver can receive: when his own head coach admits there’s no clean way to stop him. This comes from one of the sharpest defensive minds in football. As the Seattle Seahawks prepare for Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots, head coach Mike Macdonald was asked a playful but revealing hypothetical during Opening Night. How would he defend his own star wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba?
Macdonald paused, smiled, and delivered a line that instantly turned heads: “Can I put three guys on him?”
The quip captured the reality of Smith-Njigba’s 2025 breakout better than any stat sheet. Under offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Seattle has weaponized JSN in every possible alignment. They have leveraged him outside, in the slot, in motion, and even briefly out of the backfield. His ability to separate, read coverage on the fly, and punish mismatches has turned him into the centerpiece of every defensive game plan.
That evolution powered a historic Seahawks season. Seattle finished 14-3. They earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed and rode a league-best scoring defense plus a revived offense to Super Bowl LX. The postseason run included a 41-6 dismantling of San Francisco and a dramatic 31-27 NFC Championship win over the Rams. Another dominant Smith-Njigba performance highlighted that win.
Individually, Smith-Njigba’s 2025 campaign bordered on wild. He led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards and 119 catches. JSN shattered franchise records once held by Steve Largent. Of course, he also earned unanimous First-Team All-Pro honors. He carried that form into January, torching coverage schemes designed solely to slow him down.
If Macdonald, who’s the architect of Seattle’s top-ranked defense, doesn’t have a real answer for stopping No. 11, New England may be facing an even tougher puzzle on football’s biggest stage.
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