Jaxon Smith-Njigba is simply too good for the Seattle Seahawks right now. His greatness is overshadowing some of his teammates. JSN leads the NFL in receiving yards with 948, which is 117 more than Cincinnati Bengals receiver Ja'Marr Chase, and Chase has played one more game.
But Smith-Njigba doesn't lead Seattle in touchdowns. Instead, another wide receiver does. If anyone were to ask a casual fan who leads the Seahawks in TDs, the answer almost certainly wouldn't come back as "Tory Horton." But Horton would be the correct answer.
The rookie has five receiving touchdowns and another touchdown on a 95-yard punt return. Mind you, he has six touchdowns, which is tied for 13th in the NFL, but on only 29 touches. His five receiving touchdowns have come on just 13 catches.
Rookie Tory Horton is making the most of his chances with the Seattle Seahawks
In other words, 38.5 percent of the time Horton catches a pass, he scores a touchdown. In Week 9, the rookie had four catches, but two of them were scores. He began the game as the obvious target that the Washington Commanders forgot about when worrying about JSN. Horton scored Seattle's first two touchdowns.
Surely, Tory Horton is due to start getting a lot more targets from quarterback Sam Darnold. The problem is that he gets limited reps for a reason. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's scheme calls for a lot of two-wide receiver sets, and, when healthy, veteran Cooper Kupp is going to play more because he is a far better blocker.
Horton can't do much more than what is being asked of him, however. His touchdown-to-catch rate is ridiculous. Of the 13 passes he has caught, only one didn't go for a first down or a touchdown. His 14.9 yards per return average is fourth in the league.
Clearly, the rookie is another in a long line of fifth-round draft steals for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider. Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor are two others. Will Horton have the overall impact those players did? Maybe not. That is a lot to live up to, but he is also clearly outplaying his draft value.
Plus, he is likely only going to get better with more experience while also having much focus taken off him by the brilliance of Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Cooper Kupp might be a two or three-year rental, but Seahawks fans should get used to the leading duo of the wide receiver group being JSN and Tory Horton.