Seahawks’ Macdonald says Tory Horton’s rehab window is part of the club’s early camp plans

The Seattle Seahawks closed out mandatory minicamp Thursday, and one familiar name remained off the practice field. Second-year wide receiver Tory Horton was not present during team work, extending the wait for a return that head coach Mike Macdonald framed as something Seattle is watching for early in the training-camp stretch.

Horton’s absence is tied to a shin injury that sidelined him during the back end of Seattle’s season. While the team has moved through its spring workload, the receiver’s recovery is clearly still in progress, at least enough that Horton was not part of this week’s mandatory practices. For a young player, that matters because minicamp is one of the clearer moments to establish timing with quarterbacks and build consistency with routes and spacing before camp-wide reps begin.

Mandatory minicamp itself has a different weight than the rest of the spring. It is a coach-controlled checkpoint that helps teams evaluate the foundation of their offseason plan, from conditioning to position fundamentals, and it also sets an immediate baseline for depth charts that will be tested again once camp opens. With Horton out, Seattle’s coaching staff faces the same practical question teams always have in that situation: who covers the reps and how quickly the offense can recreate the look the receiver is expected to bring.

Macdonald’s comments, as reported by Yahoo Sports, cast Horton’s potential return in terms of a timeline rather than a guarantee. The phrasing suggests Seattle is monitoring whether the wideout can get back to full team work early enough to matter for the early phases of training camp, rather than waiting until later summer when the roster picture becomes more settled and the learning curve tightens.

For Seattle, Horton’s status also intersects with the broader receiver development arc. As a second-year player, he is in the window where the playbook is expected to speed up, route concepts become more detailed, and the difference between being “available” and being “ready” shows up in how accurately and quickly a player can execute in team periods. Missing a chunk of time, even if it is only spring work, can affect that progression in ways that are not always visible on paper.

At the same time, teams often treat shin injuries with particular care because they can linger and can be sensitive to workload spikes. That does not mean Horton is not progressing, but it does mean the Seahawks likely have to balance his readiness with protecting him from setback risk as the intensity rises from spring to camp. In that context, being absent from mandatory minicamp is less a statement about his long-term availability than it is a snapshot of where his recovery sits today.

The next key moment for Seattle will be when Horton is able to rejoin practice in a full-team capacity, not just individual drills. If he returns early in training camp, it gives the offense more opportunities to work timing and chemistry before preseason preparation compresses the available reps. If he does not, Seattle’s staff will have to keep evaluating alternatives and adjust the depth picture as camp moves toward roster decisions.

For now, the Seahawks are preparing to manage the offseason without Horton’s presence for as long as the injury timeline requires. Macdonald’s emphasis on an early camp return keeps the door open, but with minicamp already complete, the focus quickly shifts to whether Horton can close the gap in time to contribute when training camp ramps up.