Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba gets his trophy -- but for wrong award

Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times on May 19, 2026

Published in Football

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SEATTLE — First Druski, now this?

By now, Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba might almost wish he’d never even won The Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

The Seahawks receiver revealed on social media Monday night that once he got the actual trophy for the honor, which he won last February, there was just one slight problem — it read “Defensive Player of the Year" and not offense.

Oh, and “THEYEAR" was printed as one word.

“It’s getting disrespectful guys," Smith-Njigba says as he points out the errors after first saying, “I really want to expose them."

“Defense? C'mon bro," he says before pointing to where it says THEYEAR. "One word? Man."

Man indeed.

If you recall, when Smith-Njigba was named as the winner during the NFL honors awards show on Feb. 5, comedian Druski botched the pronunciation of his name.

Druski later said it was an apparent comedy bit gone awry saying, “I just like to mess around and sometimes you can go too far." (He said he reached out to JSN to apologize but never heard back).

If the NFL couldn’t necessarily be blamed for that error, it can apparently take the blame for this one.

According to Pro Football Talk, while The Associated Press conducts the voting, the NFL handles the making of the awards. As PFT noted, the worst part may be that no one at the NFL managed to catch the error after receiving the awards and sending them off.

“Just keep the award at this point," Smith-Njigba wrote in a caption. “Leave it in the history books tho.”

It will indeed be kept in the history books as Smith-Njigba became only the second Seahawk ever to win the award after leading the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards, joining running back Shaun Alexander, who captured it in 2005.

In a close vote, Smith-Njigba got 272 points to beat out San Francisco running back Christian McCaffrey (223).

Smith-Niigba later won an even more prestigious award — a Super Bowl ring, which Seahawks players will be presented later this year.

He signed a new contract with the Seahawks in April, making him the highest-paid receiver in NFL history, paying him $168.6 million through the 2031 season.

Some might say that, at least, was the ultimate sign of respect.