{"id":536166,"date":"2026-03-21T05:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536166\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:54:08","slug":"seahawks-exercise-5th-year-options-for-wr-jaxon-smith-njigba-cb-devon-witherspoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536166\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahawks exercise 5th-year options for WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, CB Devon Witherspoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mar 20, 2026, 11:12 PM ET<\/p>\n

The Seattle Seahawks<\/a> exercised the fifth-year options for wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba<\/a> and cornerback Devon Witherspoon<\/a> on Friday, the team announced.<\/p>\n

The moves put the two young stars under contract through the next two seasons. However, with both players now being extension-eligible after completing their third NFL seasons, the Seahawks are expected to engage both players in talks on long-term extensions.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

The option for Witherspoon, selected fifth in the 2023 draft, is expected to be worth approximately $21.2 million, per OverTheCap.com, and the option for Smith-Njigba, picked 20th in 2023, is expected to be worth approximately $23.9 million. The salaries for the options, which are for the 2027 season, are fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n

They are the first players drafted in the 2023 first round to have their options exercised. The deadline for teams to exercise the options is May 1.<\/p>\n

Both players starred this season in helping the Seahawks win the Super Bowl last season.<\/p>\n

Smith-Njigba, 24, set career highs in receptions (119), receiving yards (1,793) and touchdown receptions (10) en route to being named a first-team All-Pro. In the playoffs, he had 17 catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns in three games.<\/p>\n

Witherspoon, 25, is the Seahawks’ No. 1 cornerback and was named a second-team All-Pro last season, during which he had an interception and 72 tackles. He had a sack and 17 tackles in Seattle’s three postseason games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mar 20, 2026, 11:12 PM ET The Seattle Seahawks exercised the fifth-year options for wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-536166","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\/536166","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=536166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}