ClutchPoints
In the 2024 NFL offseason, a clip of Jaxon Smith-Njigba — the Seattle Seahawks’ former No. 20 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft — went viral after he awkwardly worded what seemed to be an endorsement of the Seattle Seahawks’ former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Smith-Njigba was teammates with the Chicago Bears’ former quarterback Justin Fields, and members of the CHGO Bears team wanted to know what kind of OC they were getting when they hired Waldron. Njigba fumbled over his words, eventually becoming a meme over the viral clip.
The silence was LOUD when we asked Jaxon Smith-Njigba about new Bears OC Shane Waldron pic.twitter.com/r7beJgxEMq
— CHGO Bears (@CHGO_Bears) February 7, 2024
And on Los Angeles Chargers receiver Laviska Shenault’s podcast — Athlete’s Aura — Smith-Njigba tried to clear the air on his comments about Waldron.
However, it didn’t go as well as he might’ve liked on the second attempt of endorsing his former offensive coordinator.
“I would love to clear it up,” Smith-Njigba said, holding back a smile. “Bruh, I’m in Vegas, bruh. That’s everything you really need to know. But I’m in Vegas. I’m doing a lot of appearances, I’m doing a lot of interviews, and I’m everywhere. I blame my people for not letting me know what I was walking into, sadly. And then I walked in, did a little interview. Like, ‘Oh, y’all boys from Chicago?’ I didn’t really know what was going on in the interview, to be honest.
“Like, I didn’t know if it was live, I didn’t know if this is a recording, but my mind was everywhere. My mind was in Vegas, and I haven’t talked about the season at all. Then, they hit me with a Shane Waldron question. I’m like, ‘Woah!’ You know, my first year, bruh, I didn’t want to disrespect the man. There should be no disrespect towards him, you know what I’m saying? I mean, I really do think he was a good offensive coordinator.”
This is where the interview had a bit of déjà vu from the last instance, as Jaxon Smith-Njigba just stared at Shenault after saying Shane Waldron was a good offensive coordinator, creating a bit of an awkward — yet, hilarious — silence.
Shenault busted out laughing after maybe a second of silence, and Smith-Njigba likely felt a similar feeling when CHGO interviewed him in 2024.
“Okay, don’t put it in like that,” JSN said, followed by laughs of his own. “No, no, no. But I did think we had a good season, but — me as a competitor — I’m like, we didn’t make the playoffs. I didn’t even feel like we threw the ball well. Like, I just wanted more, and we didn’t succeed to that. We didn’t get to that. And so, no one had asked me how I felt after the season, and that was like the first time, so I was just caught off guard, and I knew I couldn’t say what I wanted...
