The NFC West just proved itself to be the best conference in the NFL by a wide margin. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Rams on a great season and a well-fought title game, but it’s the Seattle Seahawks
advancing to Super Bowl 60!
The division also hosts the two best receivers in the game, and it’s helping to rekindle a rivalry that just hasn’t had much fire over the last decade.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua put on an absolute spectacle Sunday night, and are the new future of wide receiver in the NFL.
JSN & Nacua: unrivaled rivals
They are finalists for AP Offensive Player of the Year.
They were the two league leaders in receiving yards. Numbers 1 and 4 at receptions.
They were two of the NFC All-Pros at receiver.
They were two of just five receivers with 10+ TD.
Smith-Njigba led all starters with 11 yards per target; Nacua was 4th at 10.3.
And they had the best performances of the postseason. In the same game. To determine who will win go to the Super Bowl.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 10 receptions, 153 yards, 1 TD, a 42-yarder, 12 targets.
Puka Nacua: 9 receptions, 165 yards, 1 TD, a 44-yarder, 14 targets.
No other game this postseason has seen two receivers break 150 yards. In fact, only one game had two receivers break 100. The best performance in the playoffs prior to this Championship Game was 8/144/1 by Christian Kirk against a useless Pittsburgh Steelers team.
But – and I mean no disrespect to Kirk or any other fallen WRs – none of them were this cool:
Nacua and JSN are young, recognizable, and in the same division for elite football teams. The San Francisco 49ers are on the verge of blowing up, but the Rams are good. This game was awesome. Sean McVay vs. Mike Macdonald is awesome. Nacua….is maybe not an awesome person but these two have the star power to take a rivalry that has been a simmer and turn it into an inferno.
Smith-Njigba is only 23. Nacua is 24. Each of them doing things rarely or never done by players their age.
The rivalry has flipped in an instant, with the Seahawks now back on top – and even trending upwards – with San Francisco in shambles and Los Angeles hoping to stay apace.
But think now of what the NFC West has. Whenever someone mentions the best young coaches in the NFL, it’s McVay and Macdonald. Next year, Nacua and JSN will be two of the first WRs off the board in fantasy football. Smith-Njigba finished as the fourth best-selling jersey by the end of the season.
Rivalries need a few things to become noteworthy. Generational longevity can do it, like the Packers and Bears. But these are newer, re-located teams. Rivalries need success (NFC Championship Game), at least some back-and-forth (three games decided by a total of three points), notable coaches, and franchise faces.
They’ve got all that and more, and these will continue to be highlighted, high-powered games next season as well. Go win the whole thing and a Super Bowl winning coach to each sideline and, well, there’s not another matchup that can come close to these two next year.
Go Hawks.
