Seattle Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba established himself as the best receiver in football in 2025. Smith-Njigba led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards, scoring 10 touchdowns en route to an All-Pro season. While that wasn’t enough to win him the MVP award, Smith-Njigba took home the next best thing: The offensive player of the year award … or so he thought.
Turns out, someone made a pretty glaring mistake on Smith-Njigba’s physical award. Upon first blush, you might think it had something to do with the receiver’s name, which isn’t the easiest to spell, but you would be wrong. It was more embarrassing than that.
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Smith-Njigba received the “2025 defensive player of the year” award … according to his trophy.
He was the one who called attention to the issue, sending out a short story on his Instagram page pointing out the error.
It’s an unfortunate mistake for all involved, as Smith-Njigba’s excellence extended far beyond the regular season. During the team’s Super Bowl run, Smith-Njigba caught 17 passes for 199 yards and two scores, including a 153-yard explosion that propelled the Seahawks past the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game.
Naturally, one has to wonder whether Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett — the actual defensive player of the year — erroneously received the “offensive player of the year” trophy. Garrett hasn’t provided any evidence suggesting there was a mixup on both trophies yet.
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Either the league got that one right or Garrett hasn’t noticed. He already has another defensive player of the year award sitting around his house, so you can’t fault him if he didn’t look too hard at his second one.
Given the mixup, it seems likely Smith-Njigba will receive a corrected trophy in the coming weeks.
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