Seahawks have best QB-WR duo in the NFL

Jaxon Smith-Njigba making history and Sam Darnold repeating it

My “last thoughts” as I lay me down to sleep lately have been Sam Darnold throwing picture perfect passes to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. That’s my sleeping aid and my strategy to have good dreams every night.

JSN leads the NFL with 696 yards, putting him atop a leaderboard that Seahawks fans so rarely get to experience as one of their own being the alpha receiver. Seattle has had excellent receivers like Darrell Jackson, Tyler Lockett, Doug Baldwin, and DK Metcalf, but so rarely one of the league’s “top-5” receivers (or top-1) since Steve Largent led the league in 1979 and 1985 and retired as the all-time leader in receiving yards.

Even this early in the season we can call JSN the best receiver that the Seahawks have had…at least in a few categories:

• JSN’s 696 yards has crushed Seattle’s previous record for most receiving yards through 6 games: Lockett held the record at 542

• JSN has 5 catches of 40+ yards already, which is 3 more than anyone else in the NFL right now

• JSN has 13 catches of 20+ yards, which is 3 more than second place George Pickens

• JSN has caught 30 first downs, which is second to only Puka Nacua (33)

• JSN has 4 games with 8+ receptions, the most ever by a Seattle player through six games (Lockett is the only other player with more than 2)

• JSN has 4 games with 100+ yards, the most ever by a Seattle player through six games (DK is the only other player with more than 2)

• JSN has 4 games with 8+ catches AND 100+ yards — this ties Koren Robinson for the most by a Seahawks player in an entire season

Yes, you read that right: With 11 games left in the season, JSN has already tied the franchise record for most games with 8+ catches and 100+ yards.

Smith-Njigba is averaging 12.4 yards per target on 56 targets and nobody else with more than 25 targets is above 11.5 in that category.

Aside from Nacua, who unfortunately looks like he will miss some time with an ankle injury*, the only other receiver who seems to be in JSN’s vicinity right now is surprisingly George Pickens (32/525/6 and 10.9 YPT). And then there’s Justin Jefferson, who continues to dominate but is suffering from a lack of something that JSN is showering himself in right now:

Throws by Darnold.

*no sarcasm, I don’t like that Nacua is injured, although it will help JSN grow the gap between him and the rest of the league

Darnold leads the NFL with 9.6 yards per attempt, 8.92 net Y/A, and 9.42 adjusted net Y/A. He’s third in passing yards (1,541) and t5th in touchdowns (11) despite being 19th in pass attempts (161).

His passer rating of 116 ranks third behind Lamar Jackson (another injury absence) and Jared Goff. Darnold has the fifth-best sack rate in the NFL (4.17%), a career-best number and half of what his sack rate in 2024 with the Vikings was (8.09%).

Since the beginning of last season, Darnold ranks 3rd in yards, 4th in touchdowns, 5th in passer rating, and 4th in Y/A, a fact I mention because it still amazes me that one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks and a former top-3 pick (which I mention because people tend to overrate those players) was allowed to hit free agency and was greeted by a tepid market when he got there.

Need I remind you that BROCK OSWEILER got a $72 million contract from the Texans IN 2016!? He got $37 million fully guaranteed: SAME AS DARNOLD!

The NFL let two games — one of which included extremely poor pass protection against the Rams — distort a season in which Darnold had a higher passer rating than Josh Allen, more touchdowns than Patrick Mahomes, and higher Y/A than Joe Burrow from a “breakout” to a “fake out”.

In a league where QBs are so consistently overpaid and overrated, players like Darnold and Baker Mayfield have somehow been allowed to fly under the radar and make far less money than the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love, Kyler Murray, and Kirk Cousins. Both quarterbacks even make less than Geno Smith.

Is there a wake up call coming for Sam Darnold? I mean, anybody could get one of those, but there is no reason to believe at this point that Darnold is more likely to fail than say, Drake Maye or Dak Prescott or Lamar Jackson.

• Darnold is first in Completion Percentage OVER Expectation (+9.4%)

• Tied for 4th in Estimated Points Added per Dropback (Love, D. Jones, Allen tied for first)

• Darnold has the most yards on deep passes (13/18, 513 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT)

• Darnold leads the NFL with 6 TDs on intermediate passes (133.7 rating)

• According to Next Gen Stats, Darnold has a 133.4 passer rating from a clean pocket, third-best in the league

If this was Darnold after six games in 2024 and he had spent the previous season on the 49ers bench, we could understand the skepticism. But this is Darnold in 2025, with a completely new team, after having already spent last season as one of the league’s best quarterbacks.

Skepticism isn’t understandable. It’s diabolical.

Let’s review some of your comments from the post-game after the Seahawks beat the Jaguars 20-12 on Sunday.

I don’t do this very often anymore, but today is the 2,415th consecutive day of Seaside Joe sending AT LEAST one newsletter about the Seattle Seahawks. This commitment takes a lot of time and there has not been a day off in over six and a half years; if you find this to be a worthy investment of your time, please consider joining the Regular Joes club for $5 per month or upgrading to Super Joes for $10 per month. You’ll also get bonus content + comments.

Seth: So I’m thinking last week was an outlier for our d(with several key injuries)...back on track

I don’t think the Jaguars are nearly as good on offense as the Bucs and Trevor Lawrence could be the most overrated quarterback in the league (and he’s not even rated that highly) but it was nice to see 30+ pressures and keeping Travis Etienne under 3 yards per carry. Those were definitely the highlights in a game where Brian Thomas Jr. had his best outing of the season and the Seahawks got away with allowing a 54-yard touchdown to him that was only negated because Travis Hunter was standing in the wrong spot.

That was a troubling moment for the defense that doesn’t show up because of offsides.

Luckily for Seattle’s ailing defense, the Texans are not much better and then the Seahawks have a bye week.

John DeLorie: but after today, do you still think that we don’t have a top-tier edge in Demarcus Lawrence?

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a scout or a coach, I can share my opinions of players but hopefully what I do more than anything else is find information that we can all agree is true and then let everybody form their own opinions based on the empirical data and context. If you feel that Demarcus Lawrence is now a “top-tier edge rusher” because he had 2 sacks and 5 QB hits against the Jaguars, that’s cool and you could be right!

I don’t want me countering that point with context that I find to be important to be seen as a “hard disagree”.

Lawrence entered Week 6 having done almost nothing as a pass rusher all season (0 sacks, 1 QB hit), he’s 33 years old, he missed 13 games last season, and he has already missed time this season. He faced one team, a Jaguars offense that did a terrible job of protecting the QB in general, and I think he got tremendous help from the attention diverted to Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.

My opinions from last week haven’t changed at all.

Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, and Derick Hall have played in a combined 21 games. Out of 21 combined games, they have had 17 games with 0 sacks. Mafe and Hall have 0 sacks in their 11 combined games and Nwosu is pretty much the sole reason that Seattle’s edge rushers have any production.

“Does it matter if the sacks come from the edge rushers or the defensive tackles?” That’s like asking if it matters that the Chiefs don’t have a running back: Sure they might be able to win in spite of their weaknesses, but wouldn’t Kansas City also like to have a great running back? Of course! Aaron Donald never won a Super Bowl without Von Miller and Miller was only his teammate for a half-season*.

*And he was EXTREMELY important in those playoffs!

If these edge rushers haven’t given us reasons to believe there’s a long future with them, the Seahawks have to be exploring their external options.

Scott M: If you’re implying that after the bye we might get back a bunch of help on defense and possibly Ouzts and others on offense, I’m all ears.

All I can really say is that there was a little bit of optimism about Julian Love and Devon Witherspoon last week (not much though) and by not putting them on IR, Seattle is implying that they think the Moons game in Week 9 is a worst case scenario. If Love or Witherspoon had gone on IR, they wouldn’t have been able to return until Week 10.

Ouzts has missed the required 4 games, so I would imagine his name at least comes up this week although it’s not guaranteed.

Chris H: JSN is amazing, but the taunting penalty hurt. He’s very, very confident, to the point of cocky, and backs it up. But, you can’t spin the ball at the feet of an opponent.

Spinning the ball would be cool if it didn’t seem like something that literally anyone could learn to do. I’ve never tried to spin a football but I feel like there’s a 20% chance I could get it on the first try. If you’re going to get a taunting penalty, you better do a backflip in the opponent’s face or something.

Brian Welcker: Watching the Niners now, the Rams now look like our #1 obstacle to make the playoffs.

Let’s say that hypothetically if the Seahawks don’t win the division and need to compete in the wild card, who are the biggest threats out there now?

• NFC East 2nd place (Eagles or Moons)

• NFC North 2nd and 3rd place (Lions, Packers, Vikings)

• NFC West non-winner (Rams or 49ers)

Right now the Panthers are in second place in the NFC South. I’ll wait to see more of the Falcons before deciding if they’re anything. But I really don’t think the Seahawks are a worse team than any non-division winners in the NFC. So if the Eagles and Lions win their divisions, I think the Seahawks are better than all of those other teams I mentioned.

Seattle is legitimately a couple of better plays away from being 6-0 with wins over the Bucs and 49ers — and I really don’t like to do those “what if” games, I just think that’s really something.

On the Rams, Puka Nacua is expected to miss some time and that injury could lead to an IR stint. Matthew Stafford’s QBR is 97 on throws to Puka and 40 on throws to everyone else.

Rusty: Ok. I’m gonna call out Drake Thomas for having a really good game. He’s one of those guys who’s considered too small for an inside backer. He’s one of the names mentioned early in the season as to why we had inadequate depth at that position. Yet he made a lot of positive plays today. First sack, helped Jones stop the 2 pt. conversion attempt. He just seems to have a nose for the ball.

Before the game there was debate about Nate Tice not including Devin Lloyd on his “Defensive Player of the Year” candidates.

As of today, Drake Thomas has one fewer tackle (27 to 28), 2 sacks (Lloyd has 0 sacks), one more TFL (3 to 2) on 50 fewer snaps than Lloyd. Essentially the entire argument is that Lloyd has 4 interceptions.

However, Thomas has been blamed for 4 missed tackles. That’s too many. For a waiver claim in 2023 though, Thomas is way more valuable than he has any business being.

Bill H: JSN is All World as a receiver and along with Cooper K and AJ B they spread the ball around nicely.

Another note: A.J. Barner’s 61-yard catch is the longest by any tight end this season. His 78.9% success rate is the highest by any kind of receiver in 2025. Barner’s 89.5% catch rate is the highest by a TE, right ahead of former teammate Noah Fant.

“Ah, Fant is GOOD then!”

Barner is averaging almost twice as many yards per catch (Fant is at a paltry 6.7) and has scored 4 touchdowns (Fant had one in Week 1). To be fair, Fant is not playing with Joe Burrow like the Bengals expected.

IdahoFred: So here is my shot at trying to get in the newsletter. Some original thoughts and some plagiarized. First, great job by the special teams.I don’t think Sam looked as sharp today as the previous games…We lost the TOP 26:39 to 33:21...I think the contributions we are getting from the youth movement on this team are as good as the early teams of Pete. Amazing balance between the new and old.

I shortened your post but the important thing is that you made it in!

Yeah, I’m pretty glowing about Darnold today but what’s exciting is that we know that there’s an even better version of him in there somewhere.

Barry R Carlson: Just three words: Demarcus Lawrence is a difference maker.

First of all, “just three words” followed by six words is the funniest comment I’ve read all season.

Secondly, I’m going to get lambasted in the comments today for not putting respect on Demarcus, aren’t I?

Paul G: In short, the offense averaged 7.9yds to go on third down because the preceding second downs averaged 0.7yds. While I haven’t gone through the others games to see how the offense did on second downs that preceded a third down, I am nonetheless seeing a red flag here.

Great note. I think I wrote about needing to play better on 2nd down at some point going into the season and this is a great example of the importance.

Stu Wilson: Maybe it is me, but it seems Kubiak’s run game calling is not as good as I would like. The fact our 3 RBs only ran for 58 yards is disappointing. Coupled with this is the fact that too many wide runs were for losses.

The Seahawks are tied with the Raiders for the worst rushing EPA (estimated points added) in the entire league. Does it make us feel any better that at least Seattle didn’t draft a top-10 running back this year? (No.)

However, the Seahawks are facing a stacked box on 39.1% of their rushing attempts, which is by far the highest rate in the league. Teams still don’t seem to be respecting the pass — or to be honest I don’t exactly know what’s happening there. I guess this is just how they expect to defend Kubiak’s offense the best.

Seattle has run outside the tackle on 58.6% of their attempts, the sixth-highest rate in the NFL. That puts them 26th in runs between the tackles.

We can also have a conversation about Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet: The Seahawks average 2.32 yards after contact per rush, third-worst in the league.

Given Walker’s reputation as elusive and Charbonnet’s as punishing, that’s really weird.

How is the crowd feeling about these two backs?

Seaside Joe 2415