The NFL is creating a new Offensive Player of the Year trophy for 2025 winner Jaxon Smith-Njigba after his first one included a typo, league spokesperson Brian McCarthy told The Athletic on Tuesday.Smith-Njigba posted a video of the trophy he received to his Instagram story on Monday night, in which he pointed out that it appeared to read “2025 Defensive Player of the Year,” instead of “Offensive.” The engraving also appeared to be missing a space between “the Year.” Along with the video, the Seahawks wide receiver included the caption: “Its getting disrespectful at this point.”McCarthy clarified that the mistake was actually a spelling error; the trophy’s engraving spelled “Offensive” as “Oefensive.”
“The league made the mistake. We sincerely apologize to Jaxon for the error and are in the process of creating and shipping him a new trophy,” McCarthy said. “Of course, like the teams he played against this year, we know how great an offensive player he is. We just had a problem spelling it.”Smith-Njigba was nearly impossible to stop for the Super Bowl-champion Seahawks last year. During the regular season, he caught 119 passes for a league-leading 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns. He led voting for OPOY honors with 272 points, followed by San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffery and Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua.At the NFL Honors ceremony during Super Bowl week in February, online personality Druski presented the OPOY award and mispronounced Smith-Njigba’s name.Smith-Njigba’s brother, Canaan, weighed in on X Tuesday, referencing the misspelling, the Druski mispronunciation and the league fining Smith-Njigba for a goal-post dunk celebration but then using images of it in promotions.“At some point, professionalism, respect and attention to detail should matter,” Canaan Smith-Njigba wrote in his post.Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett won Defensive Player of the Year after setting an NFL record with 23 sacks during the 2025 regular season. The Browns did not immediately respond to an email inquiry asking if Garrett received the correct trophy.
