Regardless of whether the Seattle Seahawks win Sunday’s Super Bowl, Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 2025 season will rank as one of the greatest NFL seasons of all-time by a former Ohio State player.
It’s already one of the greatest seasons ever for an NFL wide receiver from any school. His 1,793 receiving yards during the regular season led the league in 2025 and were the eighth-most in a single season in NFL history; among the seven receivers who finished a season with more yards, only one of them (Cooper Kupp in 2021) went on to play in the Super Bowl (where Kupp’s Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals) in the same season.
Smith-Njigba followed up his 119-catch, 10-touchdown regular season by catching 13 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns in the Seahawks’ first two playoff games, highlighted by a 10-catch, 153-yard performance in the NFC Championship Game vs. the Los Angeles Rams.
For the season as a whole, Smith-Njigba has accounted for 44.1% of the Seahawks’ receiving yards – the second-most ever for an individual player on a team that made the Super Bowl, behind only fellow Ohio State alumnus Paul Warfield for the Miami Dolphins in 1971.
Smith-Njigba’s performance this year earned him the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award, making him just the fourth former Ohio State player to win an NFL Player of the Year award. He’s the first Buckeye ever to make the Super Bowl in the same season he was named an NFL Player of the Year.
| Year | Player | Team Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Denver Broncos LB Randy Gradishar | Lost in divisional round of playoffs |
| 2019 | New Orleans Saints WR Michael Thomas | Lost in wild card round of playoffs |
| 2022 | San Francisco 49ers DE Nick Bosa | Lost in NFC Championship Game |
| 2025 | Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba | Made Super Bowl, result TBD |
Also a unanimous All-Pro this season, Smith-Njigba is just the eighth former Ohio State player to earn first-team All-Pro honors and make the Super Bowl in the same year (Orlando Pace, Jim Tyrer and Paul Warfield each did it twice). If the Seahawks win the Super Bowl on Sunday, Smith-Njigba will become the sixth Buckeye to win a Super Bowl and earn All-Pro honors in the same season, joining Jim Tyrer (1970), Paul Warfield (1973), Pepper Johnson (1990), Jim Lachey (1991) and Orlando Pace (1999).
| Player | Year(s) | Result(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas City Chiefs LT Jim Tyrer | 1966, 1969 | Won in 1969, Lost in 1966 |
| Miami Dolphins WR Paul Warfield | 1971, 1973 | Won in 1973, Lost in 1971 |
| Denver Broncos LB Randy Gradishar | 1977 | Lost |
| New York Giants LB Pepper Johnson | 1990 | Won |
| Washington Redskins LT Jim Lachey | 1991 | Won |
| St. Louis Rams LT Orlando Pace | 1999, 2001 | Won in 1999, Lost in 2001 |
| New England Patriots OLB Mike Vrabel | 2007 | Lost |
| Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba | 2025 | TBD |
As you’d expect from a program that’s produced nine Pro Football Hall of Fame players and 95 first-round NFL draft picks – the most of any school – there has been no shortage of stellar seasons from former Ohio State players in the NFL.
While ranking seasons across positions and eras requires a great deal of subjectivity, the following seasons stand out as some of the best by former Ohio State players in the NFL, listed in chronological order:
- Cleveland Browns K Lou Groza, 1954: Groza was Sporting News’ first-ever NFL Player of the Year – becoming the only Buckeye to win an NFL MVP award – as he led the NFL in field goal percentage (66.7%, 16-of-24) and led the Browns to a league title.
- Baltimore Colts LT Jim Parker, 1958 and 1959: Parker earned his first two of eight straight first-team All-Pro honors as he led the Colts to back-to-back NFL championships.
- Miami Dolphins WR Paul Warfield, 1971: Warfield caught 43 passes for 996 yards and 11 touchdowns, earning first-team All-Pro honors and finishing sixth in the MVP race as he helped the Dolphins win the AFC championship with the highest-percentage of receiving yards ever for an individual player on a Super Bowl team.
- Denver Broncos LB Randy Gradishar, 1978: Gradishar recorded a whopping 286 tackles – unofficially, as tackles didn’t become an official statistic until 2001 – and became Ohio State’s first NFL Defensive Player of the Year as the centerpiece of the Broncos’ “Orange Crush” defense, which ranked second in the league with 12.4 points allowed per game.
- New York Giants LB Pepper Johnson, 1990: A first-team All-Pro, Johnson was the star of the NFL’s best defense, recording 115 tackles and leading the Giants to a Super Bowl championship.
- Minnesota Vikings WR Cris Carter, 1995: Carter caught 122 passes for 1,371 yards and a league-leading 17 touchdowns, still tied for the sixth-most in a single season in NFL history.
- St. Louis Rams LT Orlando Pace, 1999: Pace earned first-team All-Pro honors as the starting left tackle for “The Greatest Show on Turf” – which NFL.com ranked in 2017 as the best offense in NFL history – leading the way up front for the Rams to win their first Super Bowl championship.
- Dallas Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott, 2016: In his NFL rookie season, Elliott led the league with 1,631 rushing yards and rushed for 15 touchdowns, earning first-team All-Pro honors and tying for third in the NFL MVP race.
- New Orleans Saints WR Michael Thomas, 2019: Thomas broke the NFL’s single-season receptions record with 149 catches for 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns. He became Ohio State’s first NFL Offensive Player of the Year and led the Saints to a 13-3 season.
- San Francisco DE Nick Bosa, 2022: Bosa became Ohio State’s second NFL Defensive Player of the Year as he led the league with 18.5 sacks and 48 quarterback hits for a 49ers defense that led the NFL in both points and yards allowed per game.
Gradishar, Pace and Thomas all have a strong argument for the best season ever by an NFL Buckeye, and each of the others listed above belongs in the conversation. But no previous Buckeye has ever combined making a Super Bowl with winning one of the NFL’s three most prestigious individual awards – the Super Bowl didn’t exist yet when Groza won the MVP and the NFL championship – the way Smith-Njigba has this year.
If Smith-Njigba leads the Seahawks to a Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots with a standout performance on Sunday, the question of which former Ohio State player had the best individual season in NFL history may have its clearest answer yet.
