Dylan Samuel Horton (born August 21, 2000) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

New Mexico Lobos The New Mexico Lobos are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of New Mexico, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque. The university participates in the NCAA Division I in the Mountain West Conference (MW) since 1999 ...

and

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competi ...

Early life

Horton grew up in

Frisco, Texas Frisco is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Collin County, Texas, Collin and Denton County, Texas, Denton counties. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth In ...

and attended

Frisco High School Frisco High School is a public high school located in Frisco, Texas and is a part of the Frisco Independent School District. For the 2021-2022 school year, the school received a rating of "A" from the Texas Education Agency. History Frisco Hi ...

, where he played safety on the football team. He initially committed to play college football at SMU. Horton flipped his commitment to New Mexico during his senior year following the departure of SMU head coach Chad Morris.

College career

Horton began his college career playing for the

. The New Mexico coaching staff moved him from safety to outside linebacker. Horton played in 17 games over the course of two season. Following the end of the season he entered the NCAA transfer portal. Horton ultimately transferred to

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

. He was granted waiver to play immediately by the NCAA. Horton was moved from linebacker to defensive end in his first season playing for the Horned Frogs. He became a starter in 2021 and led the team with nine tackles for loss and tied for the team lead with four sacks. Horton was named honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference as a senior. He had four sacks, a forced fumble, and broke up a pass in TCU's 51-45 win over

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl.

Professional career

Horton was selected by the

in the fourth round with the 109th pick of the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

. On November 22, 2023, Horton announced he was stepping away from football due to a personal health matter, and was placed on the non-football illness list. He was diagnosed with Stage IV

Hodgkin lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

in December, which entered remission in March 2024. Horton completed

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a therapy, treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of treatment of cancer, cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignancy, malignant cell (biology), ...

in May. On July 18, 2024, Horton was placed on the active/ NFI list, and placed on reserves to begin the season. He was activated on October 5.

References

External links

Houston Texans bioNew Mexico Lobos bioTCU Horned Frogs bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Dylan 2000 births Living people Players of American football from Frisco, Texas American football defensive ends New Mexico Lobos football players TCU Horned Frogs football players Houston Texans players 21st-century American sportsmen