Jaxon Smith-Njigba has given the Seattle Seahawks exactly what they needed at the top of the passing game. Through three weeks, he’s already joined a tiny slice of NFL history, becoming just the second player ever to reach 400 receiving yards and six touchdown catches in the opening three games of a season.
But behind him, Seattle is still looking for a true second option at wide receiver.
Cooper Kupp leads the rest of the group with eight catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Rashid Shaheed has six receptions on 12 targets for 53 yards. And after what Tory Horton did Sunday, Michael Bumpus believes the Seahawks should stop waiting and start feeding the second-year receiver now.
Horton made the most of a limited role in Seattle’s 33-31 loss to the Washington Commanders. In just 15 offensive snaps in his second game back from injury, he caught three passes on three targets for 48 yards.
Every grab moved the chains. On two of them, he had to adjust to balls thrown behind him and still came down with them.
“I understand that you paid Rashid Shaheed a lot of money and you’ve got to get some more bang for your buck, but get (Horton) in the football game immediately and start using him,” Bumpus said during a Four Down Territory segment on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.
“He’s a better route-runner than Rashid Shaheed. He has good hands. If he can stay healthy, he could be the number two.”
Health, though, remains the big swing factor.
Horton was a 2025 fifth-round pick who flashed right away last season, putting up 13 catches for 161 yards and five touchdowns in his first eight games. Then a cracked tibia wiped out the back half of his rookie year. He came into this summer with momentum, only to be slowed again by a hamstring injury that kept him out of Week 1.
He returned in Week 2, then matched his career high in receiving yards against Washington.
Bumpus thinks the ramp-up period should be over.
“Tory Horton is ready to go,” Bumpus said. “Give him the ball.”
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