Seahawks’ Tory Horton, back to full health, feeling good in training camp

RENTON — On the surface, it appeared to be the best moment of Tory Horton’s young NFL career.

In the eighth game of his rookie season, Horton caught a career-high four passes for a career-high two touchdowns to spark the Seahawks’ 38-14 win over the Washington Commanders last Nov. 2.

Those two TDs gave him six for the season, including a 95-yard punt return against the New Orleans Saints that set a franchise record.

Things could hardly have been trending better for a player appearing set to live up to all the talk he could be one of the steals of the 2025 draft after falling to the fifth round.

But Horton knew otherwise.

A shin/tibia injury he said dated to the Week 3 win over the Saints — when he had his punt return — was only getting worse even as he and the Seahawks were running all over the Commanders.

“It didn’t feel as bad as it got until after the Washington game,” Horton revealed after the Seahawks training camp practice Friday in his first comments to the media since last season. “Those couple weeks before, building up, there was always a little something there that I felt and over the weeks it got worse. I finally took the time to get it checked out and that’s when we found out.”

What he specifically learned was that there was a crack in the shin/tibia that was almost certain to heal only through surgery.

Still, with the Seahawks appearing headed to big things, Horton decided to try to wait it out and see if there was a chance to return to the field.

“I’d been playing with it since Week 3,” he said. “I always thought I was going to come back, and the initial plan was to come back for the playoffs. I was rehabbing so much, being extremely smart about it and trying to push through some things to come back for the playoffs. Of course that didn’t go according to plan.”

Finally, after weeks of hoping against hope, the decision was made that Horton would sit out the rest of the year and have surgery to repair the injury by putting a metal rod in his tibia.

“It’s something that you work through until you can’t,” he said.

Still, Horton said he couldn’t help but feel “like I let the team down a bit, not being able to go back out there as much as I wanted. There were times I still tried to go out there and run some routes and the trainers had to tell me to take it easy. Dealing with a bone thing, you have to let that heal. There’s no playing through that once you get to a certain point.”

Horton had surgery after the Super Bowl — a delay so he could at least take part in all the other events that went along with the game even if he couldn’t play — to put a rod in the leg.

“It’s not something that I wish happened, but it did and we got the issue solved and the leg isn’t going anywhere now,” he said. “I feel good.”

Indeed, after doing little on-field work in the offseason program, Horton was given a clean bill of health prior to training camp and not placed on the physically unable to perform list.

Coach Mike Macdonald said Horton’s workload will be managed some as he comes back, and he sat out one practice earlier during camp and his overall snaps still appear somewhat limited.

Still, his return has been noticeable, such as during Friday’s practice — the second in full pads — when he caught a pass about 20 yards downfield over the middle from Drew Lock.

“It’s a blessing to be back on the field,” he said. “Trying to take in every moment because like last year, you never know when it could be cut short. Trying to make the most of every opportunity and be there for my guys.”

Horton unfortunately has experience coming back from rough injuries.

He played only six games his senior year at Colorado State in 2024 before knee and hamstring injuries ended his season and college career.

Those issues were thought to be among the reasons he fell to the fifth round.

“Just going out there, playing every single snap like it’s my last because having something cut so short so quick, you look at that and take it for granted of like, ‘I wish I could have done more. I wish I could have done this,’” he said of his approach now. “Of course, everyone wants to make the most out of their opportunities. I feel like it just takes me to the next level of just how dialed in you’ve got to be on yourself and on your body to make sure you’re in the right condition and shape. Trying to make sure you are as stable and as in sync as you could be, just go out there and compete every day.”

The Seahawks had already been in talks with the Saints about acquiring Rashid Shaheed to bolster the receiving corps before Horton was sidelined.

Their urgency only increased after the team realized Horton would have to miss time. The Seahawks pulled off the deal two days after the win over Washington.

Now, Horton is back and Shaheed re-signed to a three-year contract.

That won’t make it easier for Horton to earn playing time and will also give the team some interesting decisions about who returns punts — each player returned one for a TD last season.

But Horton is looking only at the bright side of how difficult their presence — along with that of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp — could make life for opposing defenses.

“That’s a lot of speed on the field,” Horton said of he and Shaheed. “Me and him talk every day. We’re both from Cali (Shaheed from San Diego and Horton from Fresno) so we’ve got a lot to relate on. We talk about how crazy it is to finally get some of those practice reps together and just see two speed demons side by side going at it. It’s fun out there.

“Of course, we still got the OG General Coop (Kupp) out there coaching us on everything, and you got the technician, and all-around with JSN. It’s a lot of things out there that we’re trying to combine, see our roles, and see how much weapons and power we’ve got on the field. There’s a lot of things that we’ve got in the bag that we can switch it up from and I feel like it’s an exciting thing to have that.”