Field Gulls
Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, it’s time to get into why fifth-round rookie receiver and returner Tory Horton has become a key part of the Seattle Seahawks’ offense and special teams… in ways that nobody really saw coming.
The Seattle Seahawks came into the 2025 season with two sure answers at receiver: Third-year man Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and former Seahawks killer Cooper Kupp, signed to a three-year, $45 million contract this past offseason with $26.5 million guaranteed. Beyond that, after the trade that sent D.K. Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers, everything else was up in the air.
We knew that new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak was going to run a ton of condensed formations, because that’s his history, and in fact, the Seahawks lead the NFL through the first three weeks of the 2025 season with a 59% condensed formation rate. When you have inside/outside hybrid receivers like JSN and Kupp, condensed formations allow an offense to test a defense without the need for a true X-Iso receiver like Metcalf was in previous Seahawks offenses.
But there are still times when you need someone to win outside, and the guy for the Seahawks this season has been fifth-round rookie Tory Horton. The Colorado State alum went as low as he did in the draft for two reasons: concerns about strength of competition, and the knee injury that cost him half the season in 2024 for the Rams. Horton had been productive both with Nevada and Colorado State after a 2022 transfer, but few really knew how he’d hold up to the rigors of the NFL.
Horton wasn’t even an original pick — the Seahawks got the 166th overall selection they used for Horton in a trade with the Cleveland Browns that gave Cleveland the 144th pick overall, and the right to select Shedeur Sanders. So, there’s that.
Right now, it’s obvious that the Seahawks got the more pivotal player in that deal. Horton has lined up outside on 82% of his snaps this season so far, and the 6’3, 185-pound rookie doesn’t seem to have any issues with NFL competition. In Sunday’s 44-13 bombing of the New Orleans Saints, Horton caught three passes on four targets for 32 yards and a touchdown; he also had a 95-yard punt return which is the longest in franchise history, and the first punt return for a touchdown the Seahawks have had since Tyler Lockett had one in Week 1 of the 2015 season.
“Shoot, green grass,” Horton said, when asked what he saw when he caught the punt. “I just made the most out of the opportunity. The core guys, the hold-up team, the corners, they did a great job on that play. That’s something we repped, and they went out there and put all 10 toes down on that play, and just made the best of...
