Jaxon Smith-Njigba Receives Trophy Misengraved as Defensive Award

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba received his 2025 NFL Offensive Player of the Year trophy only to find it incorrectly engraved as the Defensive Player of the Year award. The player expressed his frustration publicly, calling the error disrespectful.

Smith-Njigba posted a video to his Instagram story showing the trophy, which bears his name but is labeled for the defensive honor. In the video, he pointed out the mistakes, stating, "I really want to expose them. It's getting disrespectful, guys." He specifically highlighted the word "Defensive" and the incorrect formatting of "THEYEAR" as one word. In a subsequent caption, he wrote, "It's getting disrespectful at this point. Just keep the award at this point. Leave it in the history books tho."

The Associated Press conducts the voting for the annual NFL Honors awards, but the league is responsible for the production and distribution of the trophies. The error is believed to have originated with an engraver hired by the NFL, and the mistake was not caught before the trophy was sent to Smith-Njigba. The league is expected to issue a corrected trophy.

The award recognizes a dominant 2025 season where Smith-Njigba led...