The Seattle Seahawks likely would have traded for wide receiver Rashid Shaheed anyway, but the injury to rookie wideout Tory Horton certainly made the move a necessity. Horton hurt his shin in Week 9 and didn't play the rest of the season, but he still isn't ready to return for the spring, either.
While speaking with the media at the NFL combine, head coach Mike Macdonald addressed a couple of key injuries, including Horton and running back Zach Charbonnet. Charbonnet tore his ACL in the Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers and had surgery this offseason. His status for Week 1 next season is still to be determined.
Horton also had surgery, the head coach confirmed. He also won't be involved in spring workouts, just as Charbonnet won't. Macdonald said, "We’re just working through it. He’s not going to do anything in the spring."
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tory Horton nowhere ready to return to football
The problem is that a shin, clearly, is not a joint like a knee or shoulder. Those types of injuries don't normally linger for months, but there is no indication of the exact nature of Horton's injury. Simply calling it a "shin" could mean lots of things, including a broken fibula.
Horton was a fifth-round draft pick in 2025, mostly because of a knee injury he suffered in his final year of college. Teams were not sure the wide receiver would be ready to play soon, but Horton surprised many by being ready by training camp. In the first half of the season, he made the most of his limited chances.
In total, he had six touchdowns in eight games (five receiving and one on a 95-yard punt return), and flashed the high-end of what general manager John Schneider thought he could be when he chose him. Horton can be impactful in two phases of the game, just as Rashid Shaheed does.
Hopefully, the last two seasons are not an indication of how the rest of Tory Horton's career will go. If he is a constant injury risk, the team is going to give him fewer chances and look elsehwere for wide receiver help to pair with Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The team, though, might simply being cautious with him because there is zero reason to rush him back in the spring.
Should Horton recover fully from his shin injury and stay healthy for a long stretch of time, and should the Seattle Seahawks re-sign Rashid Shaheed in free agency, they would help form one of the most explosive wide receiver groups in the NFL when JSN is factored in. Let's hope that is what happens.