The San Francisco 49ers are getting ready for Week 5 against the Seattle Seahawks in what is the most important game of the season thus far. If you take the rosters and make a list of the top 10 players between the two of them, Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba would definitely be on that list.
Turns out, he was on Shanahan’s radar for a brief moment in 2021.
During his Friday press conference, Shanahan repeated a story about when he got his first glimpse of Smith-Njigba—when the wide receiver
was playing at Ohio State. 2021 was the year the 49ers traded three first-round picks and change to move up to pick No. 3 in the 2021 NFL Draft. While the 49ers ultimately went with Trey Lance, Buckeye quarterback Justin Fields was seen as a distant possibility.
“We were going to Pro Days looking at Fields,” Shanahan recalled. “I just remember that it was a long workout and there was a freshman running all over the place.”
That freshman was Smith-Njigba. Upon seeing the wide receiver, Shanahan might have been less interested in the quarterbacks.
“I just ended up asking [John] Lynch halfway through the end; I was just like, ‘Who the hell is that kid?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s some freshman.’”
Knowing that was a freshman might have been the end of it. A freshman isn’t going to declare for the draft, and Shanahan’s primary focus was on what quarterback to select from what was (thought at the time) an impressive draft class for the position.
“We got his name and I had forgot the name at the time, like I usually do.”
Smith-Njigba was drafted in the 2023 NFL Draft. There was little Shanahan could have done to snag the player if he wanted to; that was the final year of the 49ers not having a first-round pick due to the Lance trade, and they wouldn’t make a selection in the third round. Their third-round pick, 87th overall, went to safety, Ji’Ayir Brown. You know the 2023 draft as the “Jake Moody Draft,” because he was the next pick of the 49ers, also in the third round.
All Shanahan could do was recall watching him a few years earlier. Lynch pointed out who Smith-Njigba was to Shanahan, and Shanahan didn’t forget.
“He was just running around everywhere, catching everything, and that was extremely impressive.”
