Approaching the midway point of the 2025 season, a wide open Offensive Rookie of the Year race had a surprise contender emerge from the Seattle Seahawks’ potent top-five scoring offense in the form of Tory Horton.

Falling into the fifth round after missing a significant chunk of his senior season at Colorado State with a knee/hamstring injury, Horton bounced back from the setback to quickly become one of Sam Darnold’s favorite targets on his new team. Though he only had caught 13 passes in nine games, five of those receptions put points on the scoreboard, including a pair of touchdowns in a 38-14 blowout win over the Commanders on Sunday Night Football in Week 9, tying him with superstar Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the team lead in receiving touchdowns.

Despite playing the entirety of the blowout win in Landover, Horton unexpectedly dealt with shin soreness in the days that followed the victory, first missing a handful of practices with hopes the injury wouldn’t sideline him for long. However, after missing a Week 10 win over Arizona, the shin showed no signs of improvement, leading to a stint on injured reserve that transitioned from being a projected four-week absence initially into the season-ending variety, keeping him out all the way through Seattle’s Super Bowl run and even into the offseason program this spring as he recovered from an injury far worse than anyone expected.