Jaxon Smith-Njigba fantasy football insight from Hayden Winks - PPR Rankings

JSN arrived in a huge way without DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett in his way. He was the WR2 on WR7 usage, averaging 99.6 receiving yards per game including the postseason. His 35% target share dwarfed the next closest, Amon-Ra St. Brown (32%). And he didn't do it as a screen merchant either. Only 8% of his targets were screens. Smith-Njigba's explosion was entirely tied to being a better downfield threat. His average depth of target as a rookie was 6.1 yards downfield, then 8.6 as a sophomore, and then finally last year jumped to 11.1. He had 20 yards per game more than he did in 2023-24 on his targets 15+ yards downfield. Some credit belongs to Sam Darnold for being 2nd in completion percentage over expected (+10.0%) on these deep targets, but Darnold is back with the same OL. Other credit belongs to OC Klint Kubiak, who called an offense 10th in play action rate and played at the 3rd-fastest pace in neutral situations. The hard part with JSN's 2026 projection is baking in the new play-caller after Kubiak took the Raiders head coaching gig. Enter new OC Brian Fleury. He might be the least talked about new play-caller this year because he hasn't been a play-caller before. Nobody knows. Fleury comes from the Shanahan tree, and he's coached with Kyle Shanahan himself with the Browns in 2014 and then for the past 7 seasons with the 49ers. He didn't directly know coach Mike MacDonald to my knowledge, yet got the job. Former QB Brock Huard, who has connections to the team, said this about Fleury: "I know he crushed the whiteboard. I can say that confidently ... I know in the in...