Who Should I Start? Miles Sanders or Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Friday, May 17, 1:52 PM

The Carolina Panthers were saying there was still room for running back Miles Sanders in the RB room after trading up in the second round of last month's NFL draft to take Jonathon Brooks as the first RB off the board. But that was before the team signed former Seattle Seahawks RB Rashaad Penny, who was with Panthers head coach Dave Canales in Seattle. Sanders lost the starting job to Chuba Hubbard last year amid the worst season of his career. It's hard to envision another team wanting to trade for Sanders and his contract, although the Panthers showed this offseason that they're willing to eat money to move on from underperforming players. The 27-year-old Sanders is now listed as third on the team's RB depth chart behind Hubbard and Brooks, making him undraftable in standard 12-team leagues this fall.

Monday, January 8, 5:25 AM

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught three of his five targets for 14 yards in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals. The receptions were tied with tight ends Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson for the team lead but made for a quiet end to a modest debut season for the Ohio State product. Selected 20th overall in the 2023 draft, there were hopes that Smith-Njigba would replicate the first-year successes of his former college teammates Garrett Wilson and Christian Olave. As it was, Smith-Njigba proved to be firmly entrenched as the third receiver on Seattle's depth chart and was probably lucky to see the amount of work that he did. His production was also hindered by the routes designed for him, as his average depth of target of 5.8 yards was among the lowest in the league. His rookie year will conclude with 63 receptions for 628 yards and four touchdowns in 17 games.