Seattle Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba Breakout Game? 'Just a Matter of Time!' - DK Metcalf

Seattle Seahawks rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba has had a slow start to his NFL career, but fellow receiver D.K. Metcalf says it's only a matter of time before his breakout game comes.

Seattle Seahawks rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been a slow burn through the first month of his NFL career as he still finds his place in Shane Waldron's offense.

With the Seahawks sitting nicely at 3-1 and having the sixth-ranked offense for points scored per game (27.8), there are still many things going right.

But as far as the criticism of Smith-Njigba's slow start, his fellow receiver, D.K. Metcalf, says it's only a matter of time before the former Ohio State star announces himself on the NFL stage.

“Football is an ultimate team game, so you really can’t just pinpoint one person in the offense and say his stats don’t look right because we are 3-1 right now," Metcalf said.

"It’s just a matter of time before he just pops and comes on the scene and has a 100-yard game or two touchdowns or three touchdowns here. It’s just a matter of time, like I said, man, we’re four games into the season. The fifth game is going to be big, we’ll see what he does next week, and if next week is not his game, then the next week will be. He’s a great receiver. He’s going to keep his head up and just keep battling.”

D.K. Metcalf has faith that Smith-Njigba's breakout game is coming soon / © Junfu Han, USA TODAY

Through the first month, Smith-Njigba has only caught 12 passes for 62 yards as he adjusts to life as an NFL receiver. But perhaps what is a silver lining is that the Seahawks offense has still been putting up good numbers.

After the Week 1 debacle against the Los Angeles Rams, the offense has found its groove, scoring totals of 37, 37, and 24 in the beatdown of the New York Giants while only having one turnover in the opening month. 

Currently riding a three-game winning streak as things start to click, Metcalf says the team is trying to calm things down coming off the bye and focus on what they need to do against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Just take it one game at a time, Pete (Carroll) has done a great job of trying to get us back in the game week mindset," Metcalf said. "After a week of not playing and just watching football games, today is going to be a big day for us. Just to get back to the basics, just to get back to honing in on our skills and just competing against one another.” 

Seattle has been good through the first month, and it will get a true test of what it is as a football team on Sunday against Joe Burrow and the Bengals in their house.

With the offense humming nicely and the defense forcing turnovers, the Seahawks have every chance to roll into Cincinnati and emerge with a win, with perhaps Smith-Njigba announcing his arrival on the NFL stage as an added bonus.