Jaxon Smith-Njigba Camp Update — August 23: Winning Reps in Nashville, Test Pending

Jaxon Smith-Njigba spent Friday's joint practice in Nashville doing what he did all last season: winning. He beat Titans cornerback Alontae Taylor down the sideline for a completion from Sam Darnold and added another catch at the one-yard line, per Ari Horton and John Boyle at the team's website, with Ben Arthur at Fox Sports logging the same sideline win in his own account of the practice. On a day when Darnold threw two interceptions and the Titans' defense gave Seattle's offense real trouble, Smith-Njigba was the part of the operation that kept working.

That's the whole individual file for the week, and it's the good kind of thin. He carried no injury note, and Seattle's approach to the preseason — starters pointed at the New England opener rather than August snaps — has kept him out of game action so far. The Titans game is today in Nashville, after this episode is filed, and whether the first offense plays a series is an open question each week.

A joint-practice win over a good corner says the reigning Offensive Player of the Year is healthy, sharp, and still Darnold's first idea; what it cannot say is whether last season's efficiency — 11 yards every time they threw at him — travels into games that count. Back in June the preview split his season into sticky volume and that far less sticky altitude, and the altitude test starts in September, where yards per target is the number we check first. What to watch this week: any starter series today or in the finale, and otherwise the countdown to New England. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._