{"id":481747,"date":"2026-02-21T10:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481747\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T10:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T10:38:07","slug":"seahawks-smith-njigba-i-deserve-to-be-leagues-highest-paid-wr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481747\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahawks’ Smith-Njigba: I deserve to be league’s highest-paid WR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly crowned Super Bowl champion Jaxon Smith-Njigba revealed the title he wants next: the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver.<\/p>\n

“I believe I deserve to be the highest paid in my position,” the Seattle Seahawks wideout told WFAA’s Jonah Jovad<\/a>. “What I give to the game and the community, I give it my all. I think that’s worth a lot more. I would play this game for free – I love this game so much – but you don’t have to. And I’m learning to be a good businessman, and we need that check at the end of the day.”<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old is coming off the best season of his career. He totaled 10 touchdowns and a league-leading 1,793 receiving yards on 119 receptions en route to earning the Offensive Player of the Year award and his first All-Pro selection.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Bengals star Ja’Marr Chase reset the wide receiver market last March by signing a four-year, $161 million contract extension. The record deal put him ahead of the next highest-paid wideout – Justin Jefferson – by over $5 million in average annual salary.<\/p>\n

Despite being eligible to sign an extension when the new league year begins in March, Smith-Njigba says he isn’t in a rush to get a new contract done after helping the Seahawks secure a Lombardi Trophy.<\/p>\n

“I’m really not too pressed right now to get it done,” he added. “I know my time is coming, and when we get it done, it’s gonna be a great deal.”<\/p>\n

Seattle has $63.4 million in cap space, the sixth most in the league, according to Spotrac<\/a>. Seahawks players scheduled to hit the open market include Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, fellow wideout Rashid Shaheed, and linebacker Boye Mafe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newly crowned Super Bowl champion Jaxon Smith-Njigba revealed the title he wants next: the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-481747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}