Le Journal

The Seattle Seahawks will not have their promising rookie wide receiver for at least the next four weeks. Fifth-round pick Tory Horton, who is tied with Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the team lead in receiving touchdowns, has been placed on injured reserve as of Saturday. Seattle did not sign anyone to replace him on the 53-man roster, although it’s probably not urgent to do so until after Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans. Horton scored two touchdowns in Seattle’s 38-14 blowout win over the Washington Commanders back in Week 9, but suffered a shin injury that only became known during Week 10’s practice for the Arizona Cardinals. After several consecutive days without practicing, it became clear that Horton wasn’t particularly close to a return. Mike Macdonald told reporters on Friday that Horton’s shin needed to “calm down.” Well, there will be plenty of time to calm down. It’s worth noting that Horton won’t be eligible to return until Week 16 against the Los Angeles Rams, but that’s a Thursday night game and Horton cannot practice until after Week 15 versus the Indianapolis Colts. Those practices typically are walkthrough sessions. It seems more than likely he’ll not return in Week 17 at the Carolina Panthers, if at all this regular season. Perhaps the Horton injury is what really necessitated the Rashid Shaheed trade, and his skill set is badly needed now that the former Colorado State star is out of commission for longer than expected. In other news, Seattle incidentally elevated Patrick O’Connell and Jamie Sheriff to the active roster from the practice squad, which may be an indicator that Ernest Jones IV may not be available for the Titans game. Jones is questionable with a knee injury and did not practice on Friday.

The Seattle Seahawks’ loss against the Los Angeles Rams needs to generate lessons learned, but it can’t reverberate forever. The focus needs to be on the Tennessee Titans. The Tennessee team has only one win this season, against the Arizona Cardinals, in a bizarre game. The last 8 Seahawks-Tennessee games have been decided by one possession. The idea is that this game will be different, but in sports anything is possible, especially in a highly competitive league like the NFL.It’s a game to regain confidence and get back in the hunt for a playoff spot. Let’s Go! Titans Roster Analysis There are no 100% bad rosters in the NFL. The Titans have Jeffery Simmons, one of the best DTs in the league. Furthermore, there are other useful/interesting players on the roster. Cody Barton is a good LB, Arden Key a good EDGE, rookie safety Kevin Winston has stood out. On offense, Elic Ayomanor and Chimere Dike are good receivers, as is rookie Gunnar Helm. On the offensive line, there’s still Kevin Zeitler and Peter Skoronski. Both were in the conversation about being traded, including to Seattle, but both remained with the Titans, especially Peter, who is a young player to protect Cam Ward in the future. Causing discomfort for the rookie QB The Seahawks are among the teams that apply the most pressure in the league. The pressure, even if it doesn’t result in a sack, disrupts the processing of QBs, especially rookies. The center allowed the most sacks at his position, Dan Moore is the offensive tackle with the most sacks allowed, and JC Latham, with half the snaps of Moore, is in the top six in sacks allowed. Good opportunity for the edge rushers. Here we have the example of Jayden Daniels. Deebo Samuel’s route, #1, is open behind Tyrice Knight. Easy read and simple pass, but Daniels was under pressure so many times during the game that it makes him hesitate, and this allows the sack to happen. This affects even more experienced QBs. Matt Stafford, seeing no options due to the good work of the secondary, tries to trigger the checkdown, but without success, due to the pressure. Here we see Cam Ward’s processing. He basically has two open routes. He hesitates, and this allows the pressure to arrive and turn what would be a gain into a sack. Again, with the free dig, Ward tries to improvise nonsensically, and still manages to connect, but in a much more complicated play, throwing from his own end zone. Another opportunity for the offense The Seahawks have 20 turnovers. If that number doesn’t change, their playoff run will be threatened. Even in easier games, the offense has found ways to give the ball away to the opponent. The Seahawks are the favorites, but one way to try to complicate this game is with turnovers. Furthermore, it’s another opportunity to attack with outside zones and finally create CONSISTENCY in the running game. The interior of the Seahawks offensive line should have problems Jeffery Simmons may not play, but if he does, he will be the biggest obstacle for the interior of the offensive line. Olu Oluwatimi is a backup, Anthony Bradford is one of the worst starters in the league, and Christian Haynes couldn’t even beat Bradford in the competition for the starting RG. Despite the imminent nightmare, I wouldn’t rush Grey Zabel’s return in this game. Final Thoughts The Seahawks need to focus on this game. The only way they can lose is with turnovers or by going in with the idea that everything is already won. The team has demonstrated this focus before, let’s see if they can do it again. I believe the defense has already shown that it deserves the trust. They played good games even with absences. Now it’s time for the offense to show if it’s capable of keeping this team in the game when necessary.

The Seattle Seahawks have won every game they’ve played this season except for the ones wherein catastrophic turnover timing has doomed them. Actually, they’ve won a couple of those as well. At 20 turnovers, the Seahawks now lead the NFL in the least-desired category that exists, except losses, I suppose. Sam Darnold has already called it “unacceptable” – which it is for a team that has been competitive in a 10-0 attempt. Falling short a couple of times and making two others much closer than they need to be, the final obstacle that faces Seattle’s playoff outlook this season is their own inability to keep the football. And the Tennessee Titans aren’t going to help. After the Rams' 4 interceptions against Seattle in Week 11, they now own the league’s 2nd‑best turnover differential: pic.twitter.com/cNZ2fYAlEa— Wyatt Miller (@wymill07) November 18, 2025 It’s been rather popular in the Seattle sports scene this week to call the upcoming match against the Titans a “get right game.” Multiple outlets from 710 radio to the Sea Hawkers Podcast – whom I like very much, by the way – have used the popular sports idiom. I’d like to present one counter-argument before the events of this weekend leave the Seahawks with another 15+ point victory and the NFL’s top point-differential heralds them as just fine. Simply that Tennessee sucks so bad that Sam Darnold won’t get any meaningful growth out of the game. During his lament this week, Darnold said the first phrase that really bummed me out all season. Here, again as I’m sure you’ve seen it, is the quote: “Just having a better understanding when the ball’s snapped [of] what the coverage is and when a guy is going to come open and when he’s not. When I say ‘get stuck on a progression,’ I mean just seeing one side of the field and feeling like there’s a chance that someone’s going to get open over there rather than just moving on and clicking through my progression as I normally do.” Darnold has been a true champion of team-oriented leadership this season. I’ve loved the change at QB, as it sounds much of the roster has as well. He takes responsibility, doesn’t boast, doesn’t give things away. This though was a worry because it’s the closest thing to confirming fears that many have had all season. In the most meaningful games, against the most challenging teams, will Sam Darnold play differently? Did not like the admission from the quarterback that he did. Did not like it at all. And here’s why the Titans do absolutely nothing to solve this. They’re bad. Specifically, they’re just not a complicated, cohesive, blue-chip defense at all. And so the Seahawks can go out there and “solve” their run game with 185 yards for three TDs, or Darnold can have a turnover-free 300 yards and we can all come back here next week proclaiming “fixed!” But that is not the real issue, is it? Darnold destroys bad teams. In fact, he plays pretty well against good teams, too. Since beating them, the Houston Texans have become the NFL’s number 1 defense, and it was just four weeks ago that the offense was (mostly) unbothered by Will Anderson and Darnold made Derek Stingley look more like Tedric Thompson. What Darnold has suffered against is not something that will be fixed against the Titans. Tennessee has only forced 5 interceptions, 26 sacks, and just two fumbles. They don’t disguise anything particularly well, their only true top-end talent on defense is Jeffery Simmons, just coming off injury. Injuries in the secondary have further exacerbated a consistency communication problems. Their most interceptions come from Cody Barton (3) and their second-most sacks from Dre’Mont Jones (4.5), who was traded to the Baltimore Ravens. In short, this is one of those lose-lose scenarios as far as what it will tell us or how it will help Seattle. Specifically because Darnold and the offenses’ only red flag is turning the ball over against high-complex and cohesive defenses (the Rams) or fumbling against elite pass rush (Nick…

On Friday, the Seattle Seahawks announced their selection of Week 12 game captains ahead of Sunday’s matchup vs. the Tennessee Titans. This week’s captains are wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, linebacker Derick Hall, and long snapper Chris Stoll, the latter two of whom will be making their debuts as game captains this season. JSN will be a captain for the second time in 2025, having previously earned the nod back in Week 4. Smith-Njigba’s monster of a season needs no introduction. The 23-year old wideout currently leads the league in receiving yards (1,146), and at the time of this writing, he is the only receiver with 1,000 yards this year. JSN ranks fourth in receptions (72), just seven away from the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase, who holds the top spot. Smith-Njigba has had seven 100-yard games this season, surpassing Steve Largent’s franchise record of six in one year. Hall has appeared in eight games for the Seahawks in 2025, totaling 17 tackles and six QB hits through Week 11. The third-year linebacker missed two games after suffering an oblique injury vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in Week 5, but returned to the lineup following Seattle’s bye in Week 8. This will be Hall’s second game as a captain and his first since Week 8 of the 2024 campaign. Last but not least, we have some special teams representation for this week’s game. Stoll will be a captain for the second time in his career, following Week 12 of last year. An interesting coincidence for Stoll to be a captain in the same week two years in a row, and a bit symbolic considering the “12th Man” nickname for the Seahawks’ fan base. The 27-year-old long snapper has appeared in every game for Seattle since Week 1 of the 2023 season, taking part in the final rookie class of the Pete Carroll era. The Seahawks will take on the Titans at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium at 10:00 a.m. PT on Sunday.