One of the more intriguing names in the Seattle Seahawks’ receiver room is Tory Horton, and the excitement around him has only grown now that he’s healthy again. The 2025 fifth-round pick missed most of his rookie season, and because his year ended so abruptly, Seahawks fans never really got to see what he could become.
Horton’s path to this point has already included more than one serious injury. Before entering the draft, he dealt with a knee issue that cut short his final season at Colorado State. Seattle still brought him in after the DK Metcalf trade opened up more room for depth at wide receiver.
Now Horton says he’s past all of that and ready for whatever role the Seahawks have in mind. If he can stay on the field, Seattle finally gets a chance to see the player it believed it was drafting.
The strange part is how his latest injury unfolded. Horton’s season ended in Week 9 against the Washington Commanders, even though he was coming off one of his best games. In that Seahawks win, he caught four passes for 48 yards and two touchdowns.
At first, it didn’t look like a major problem. He was inactive for two weeks before landing on injured reserve, and there was no immediate talk of surgery. What was initially described as shin splints turned into something more serious when the issue kept getting worse and a scan eventually showed a cracked shin.
Horton described the whole thing recently on the Bump and Stacey podcast.
“The whole mindset was trying to get it to heal on its own," Horton said. "I actually started running back on the field again and moving, (but) getting it rescanned, it was never really healing even though I was feeling a little better.
The results just weren’t there. So, kind of took the next step of getting the surgery done.
It was weird. But I’m happy to be back out.”
He had already said the shin splints got worse each week, and the way it played out was clearly unusual. Even with a cracked shin, he was still out there running and moving before the decision was finally made to have surgery.
Still, the bigger picture for Seattle is simple: Horton is back, and he gives the offense a versatile option it can use in a few different ways. In eight games last season, he scored five touchdowns and also contributed on special teams as a returner.
How the Seahawks deploy him this year is still to be determined, but after the stop-and-start start to his pro career, Horton at least has a real chance now to show what he can do.
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