Every year, real football comes along to ruin our fantasy football hopes and dreams. That proved true once again as ESPN's Adam Schefter reported today that Seattle Seahawks first-round rookie wide receiver out of Ohio State, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, suffered a broken wrist that he will have surgery on today in Philadelphia. 

He reportedly hurt it against the Dallas Cowboys in the Seahawks' Week 2 preseason game on Saturday as the NFL injury monster claims another one. You can see all of our takeaways with a brief recap from the second week of preseason games here but, for now, let’s take a look at how the injury might affect fantasy football ADP and our fantasy football rankings in terms of JSN, Geno Smith, Tyler Lockett, and DK Metcalf. 

 

Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba Injury Outlook 

The success of the surgery will determine everything but there are reports that he MAY be ready to go for Week 1 of the NFL season. Even then, he is losing crucial time to earn the trust of Geno Smith and gain ground in the battle for snaps and targets. Right now we expect DK Metcalf to maintain his role as the split end given that he’s a bigger-bodied outside receiver. In the first preseason game, Jaxon Smith-Njigba primarily played slot and came out for two WR sets. But, in the second game, he actually played nine snaps out wide to five in the slot, which made us hopeful that maybe JSN could be the full-time wideout opposite DK Metcalf, with Tyler Lockett being the part-time player. This injury puts those hopes on the back burner for now. The earlier he can return, the better.

Fantasy Football Impact of Jaxon Smith-Njigba Injury News

We already weren’t fading DK Metcalf since his role should be unchanged regardless. And we liked DK Metcalf. Even if JSN were to miss significant time, this injury wouldn’t make anyone else from down the depth chart fantasy relevant in all but the deepest leagues (guys like Noah Fant weren’t particularly relevant last year regardless). It really boils down to Tyler Lockett vs. Jaxon Smith-Njigba which, based on our composite ADP, JSN at pick 85 was starting to gain ground on Lockett (69). 

Things may swap down the stretch with JSN taking snaps away from Lockett but we actually predicted more of a “Chris Godwin” type start to JSN’s career. In the early going, Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson were the split-end and flanker with Godwin relegated to a part-time share in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. Once Godwin became a full-time player, it was wheels up. With the injury to Smith-Njigba, that’s now a more likely scenario than ever in his rookie season. So we are still more comfortable drafting DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett at ADP than Jaxon Smith-Njiba. And it might make more sense now to draft other rookies with a clearer path, like Jordan Addison or Zay Flowers, ahead of JSN. Especially until we have a timeline.

 

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