Know your Chiefs draft crush Part 3: WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Looking at a receiver who plays with a ton of intentionality and is seemingly always open (plus a few thoughts on Substack Notes).

Draft season is officially here.

Well, for many people, it’s been here for a while. Dane Brugler (the undisputed king of draft coverage) has issued a bit of a preview of his annual “Beast” draft guide. Danny Kelly with The Ringer (one of my favorite analysts) has got his own interactive guide up and running. And our friends at the

KC Sports Network

are about to drop their now-annual Chiefs-centric draft guide (a must-have I’d urge anyone to order).

But for guys like me, who don’t follow college football (or the draft) year-round? It’s just getting started. Which means it’s time for one of my favorite yearly traditions.

That’s right, “know your Chiefs draft crush” is back!

As we continue to sift through draft crushes, here’s where we’ve been so far:

Part 1, WR Quentin Johnston and the methodology for wide receiver reviews.

Part 2, DL Adetomiwa Adebawore and the methodology for DL reviews.

Today, we’re going to continue to look at wide receiver prospects, this time talking Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba (or “JSN” for the sake of my typing). While he’s widely considered the top WR prospect in the draft, JSN isn’t physically a standout player and that creates perhaps a small chance he ends up within striking distance of the Chiefs.

(Twitter is currently not allowing embedding on Substack, so here’s a link to the above-pictured tweet. Kent does terrific work and deserves a follow)

Again, check out the Johnston article (which is unlocked) if you want to review the methodology here. We’ll always start with a look at the player’s height/weight and college attended. Then I’ll take a look at every snap in multiple games, then write up about the same traits for each wide receiver I examine. Those traits are as follows: Speedy/acceleration/agility, release at the line, route running, hands/strength at catch point, YAC ability, and an overall takeaway.

Let’s talk JSN’s film, shall we?