2021 NFL draft: Bengals DB coach trains Jaycee Horn on South Carolina professional day

The lack of a Scouting Combine this year has forced NFL teams to rely on professional days for standardized athletics tests. Coincidentally, many draft candidates have also had incredible professional performances.

South Carolina’s cornerback Jaycee Horn is no exception.

As the main attraction of South Carolina’s professional day, Horn ran a 4.39 and 40-yard run, jumped 41.5 and 133 inches in the vertical and wide jump, respectively, and did 19 reps on the bench press, all after measuring the 6- 1 and 205 pounds.

This speed and explosion of this size are not normal. Some would say it is genetic! Horn is the son of former Pro Bowl recipient Joe Horn.

On hand not only to watch Horn surprise himself in the test exercises, but also to guide him in the position exercises, was a member of the Bengals technical team. According to senior Bowl director Jim Nagy, he was a defense technician from Cincinnati.

The Bengals have two assistant coaches on the defensive back and, considering that the coach in question was there to work with Horn, he was probably cornerback coach Steve Jackson.

Horn proved why he is likely to become a first-round pick in next month’s NFL draft, so the Bengals are unlikely to beat him at the top of the second round. Even if it were available, the recent acquisitions of free agent Chidobe Awuzie and Mike Hilton’s cornerbacks would not leave Horn many current or future opportunities as a starter.

Why was Jackson himself there to work with Horn? Because he was probably scheduled to be there before the team hired Awuzie, Hilton and Eli Apple as well. The cornerback is not a position that the Bengals are expected to recruit early – if they will – next month, but if the free agency did not work as it did, Horn would be more on his radar.

The Cincinnati team has been busy working with some of the best candidates in this year’s draft class. Horn is just one of many in which they have done due diligence.