Fifth-year option season has officially begun.
The Seahawks have announced that they have officially exercised the 2027 options on the first-round contracts signed in 2023 by receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
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Smith-Njigba, the 20th overall pick in 2023 and the 2025 NFL offensive player of the year, now has a fully-guaranteed salary of $23.852 million for 2027. Witherspoon, taken fifth overall, will make $21.161 million in 2027.
Both will be seeking new contracts, sooner than later. The fifth-year option gives them protection in the event of a fluke injury in the early portions of the 2026 offseason program, since the deadline for exercising the option doesn’t arrive until May 1.
Smith-Njigba has said he believes he should be the highest-paid receiver in the NFL. That would require an extension with a new-money average in excess of $40 million. To get Smith-Njigba to a new-money APY of $41 million, the Seahawks would need to sign him to a five-year, $148.4 million contract. That would equate to a total average from signing of $29.68 million, given what he’s due to earn over the next two seasons.
Regardless of the timing for their second deals, it’s no surprise that the Seahawks plan to keep Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon. In the coming weeks, other teams will be exercising the fifth-year options on 2023 first-round draft picks who have performed well enough in their first three seasons to justify it.
There were only 31 first-round picks in 2023. The Dolphins lost theirs as punishment for tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton.
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