The Seattle Seahawks added to their remade receiving room with a pair of Day 3 picks in the NFL Draft.
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They drafted Colorado State’s Tory Horton in the fifth round and UNLV’s Ricky White III in the seventh round, adding two more wide receivers to a group that includes Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Jake Bobo.
Horton and White both had highly productive careers in the Mountain West Conference, with both players topping the 1,000-yard receiving mark twice.
But that’s not where the similarities end.
Horton and White also have decorated backgrounds on special teams, which could serve them well as they look to make Seattle’s 53-man roster and carve out a role early in their careers. Here’s a closer look at the potential value each receiver brings on special teams.
Horton’s punt return talent
The 6-foot-2, 196-pound Horton began his college career at Nevada before transferring to Colorado State and posting back-to-back 1,100-yard receiving seasons for the Rams in 2022 and 2023.
Horton then dealt with a knee injury that disrupted most of this 2024 campaign, but he still finished with 3,615 receiving yards over his five-year college career – which was just 35 yards shy of the all-time Mountain West receiving record.
Along the way, Horton also showed his talent as a punt returner.
Horton had three punt return touchdowns during his time at Colorado State – a 72-yarder against Wyoming in 2022, a 79-yarder against Utah Tech in 2023 and a 78-yarder against Northern Colorado in 2024. He finished with an average of 16.3 yards per return on 26 punts.
Horton credited his punt return success, in part, to his baseball background as an outfielder.
“I started doing punt returns my junior year of college,” Horton said during rookie minicamp this past weekend. “It was a little new, but with my baseball history, I kind of got the tracking the ball down. So I’m excited to get back there and return some punts. Whatever I can do to help the team win, to help the team achieve that goal, that’s what I want to do.”
zooooooooooom @toryhorton11 https://t.co/lToh6Dgve1 pic.twitter.com/vQWSQFivGU
— Colorado State Football (@CSUFootball) October 8, 2023
Horton also has above-average speed, which benefits him both as a receiver and a punt returner.
At the NFL combine earlier this year, Horton tied for 14th out of 39 receivers with a 4.41-second 40-yard dash. It was particularly impressive given where Horton was in his recovery process. Horton told reporters in his post-draft media session that he’d only resumed running two weeks prior to the combine.
In addition to being in the receiving mix this fall, Horton also figures to contend for punt return duties with veteran kick/punt returner Steven Sims Jr., who signed with Seattle in March. The Seahawks’ return game was a massive problem last season, with a slew of mistakes that ultimately resulted in returners Dee Williams and Laviska Shenault Jr. being released.
When asked at rookie minicamp this past weekend about Horton’s fit in the receiving room, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald specifically also mentioned his skill as a returner.
“I’m excited about his punt return ability as well,” Macdonald said. “Possible gunner (on special teams coverage too). And then in the receiver room, the guy’s got legitimate speed, so he’ll be able to take the top off. He’s able to do that.
“But I think in this system you’ve got to be able to run all the routes too, so I think he has that ability on some of the intermediate stuff. And it’ll be interesting to see who kind of comes out of the pack on the catch-and-run, perimeter screen game. He’s right in the mix on that competition as well.”
White’s punt-blocking prowess
The 6-foot-1, 184-pound White began his college career at Michigan State before transferring to UNLV, where he totaled 3,143 receiving yards and 23 TD catches over his three years with the Rebels.
White put up particularly big numbers over the past two seasons. In 2023, he earned third-team All-American honors after finishing third in the FBS with a school-record 1,483 receiving yards. And in 2024, he had 1,041 receiving yards and 11 TDs – the latter of which was tied for seventh-most in the FBS.
However, White’s most impressive stat came on special teams.
White had a whopping four blocked punts last season, which by himself was more than any other FBS team. It made him an obvious pick for Mountain West special teams player of the year.
Special teams coming up big for the Rebels 😤@unlvfootball goes up 14-0 on @FS1 https://t.co/aw6yK1hfJ9 pic.twitter.com/mha9YHrJ56
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) September 28, 2024
White credited UNLV special teams coordinator James Shibest for developing his punt-return prowess.
“He gave me so much knowledge about punt blocking and just being a great special teams player,” White said during rookie minicamp. “Really, I learned so much technique and details from him that comes with, like, chasing the hip of the end-man, line-of-scrimmage defender and really just that get-off.”
Seahawks general manager John Schneider, who previously spent eight years in the Green Bay Packers’ front office, said White stirred up some memories of four-time All-Pro wide receiver Donald Driver.
“He kind of reminded me of Donald Driver,” Schneider said during a post-draft press conference. “(Green Bay) drafted him in the seventh round. He was one of the better special teams players in the league before he completely established himself as our number one receiver. That’s kind of who he reminded me of. He’s tough.”
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