Name: Jaycee Horn
Position: CB
Height: 6’1 ”
Weight: 205 lbs
2020 Statistics: 7 games, 16 tackles, 1 loss tackle, 2 interceptions, 6 defended passes
Much of the conversation around the cornerback class in this draft was centered on the top two – Caleb Farley and Patrick Surtain II. But Jaycee Horn, of South Carolina, emerged as the favorite to leave the board after the two.
Horn is the son of former NFL wide receiver Joe Horn, whose 12-year career with the Chiefs, Saints and Falcons produced four Pro Bowl selections and an incredibly memorable touchdown celebration. Much like the aforementioned Surtain, who also grew up with a former NFL player as a father, Horn of South Carolina has been prepared for football his entire life.
Horn started in the slot in his first year for Gamecocks, and he recorded 45 tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and eight defended passes. He moved out the following year and scored 40 tackles, two loss tackles, one sack, nine defended passes and two forced fumbles. Entering his junior season in 2020, Horn was starting to show great growth as a coverage curve, but he chose to leave in the middle of the season when his head coach was fired. Horn now hopes to stand out in the recruitment process.
Man cover: It will be a common topic throughout this report, so let’s just get that out of the way now: aggressive can be a very tame term for Horn’s game. He likes to be aggressive and it shows up on male coverage. When Horn manages to take the receivers off the line, he looks invincible. He is strong and decisive in hitting his guy, although Horn often goes too far and is overly physical. It is unlikely that he will get so much contact in the NFL. On the other hand, Horn is a little more inconsistent when covering off-man. He seems to trust the contact to stay with his man instead of mirroring the route, so if he doesn’t press the receiver he can get lost in the better route corridors.
Zone coverage: It’s a little Catch-22 here, because Horn’s lack of mirroring instincts suggests that he is a better quarterback, which is more accurate; Horn is very good at maintaining his spacing while reading the quarterback and playing well in the zone. However, it also takes away its best feature, its physicality. Horn really thrives on that aspect of the game, so leaving him in the zone minimizes those opportunities. To that end, however, he manages to fit in well with Dan Quinn’s scheme, which usually covers the journalist and coverage of the deep thirds zone.
Ability to create parts: Horn is aggressive at all stages of the game, especially when the ball is in the air. If Horn has a chance with the ball, he is doing everything possible to get his hands on it. The problem is that Horn is not exceptionally good at holding the ball – he did not register an interception until his 27th career game in South Carolina – and he can often attack the receiver in the process. He seemed to be improving in this area before giving up, but it is an area where he really needs to work on the next level.
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Photo by Frederick Breedon / Getty Images
Athletics: Horn’s athletics is a microcosm of his overall profile: full of raw talent, but largely unrefined. He has a lot of athleticism and speed to keep up with just about anyone who is covered, but poor techniques limit what he can do. Footwork gets clumsy at times, and Horn’s inconsistent pad level gets him in trouble too. But when he starts using the extra equipment, Horn can really go.
Execution support: This is the most disconcerting part of Horn’s game for me. In 2018, he played out of the slot machine and showed a consistent tackler with potential as a blitzer. This tape suggests that your best fit in the NFL is out of the slot. But in the next two years, where Horn threw it away, it looked like he forgot how to attack well. Horn makes bad angles, fails to close consistently and just seems disinterested. In addition, that aggression that arises elsewhere seems to be absent when Horn is needed for race support. It would be less confusing if he hadn’t already shown his talent as a running defender in 2018, but it’s a problem anyway.
Processing: Horn is a very instinctive player, and it appears a lot in the film. He usually has a good idea of what’s going on and diagnoses the moves with great speed. But there are times when his instincts betray him and he ends up running out of the play. As in other areas of his game, Horn needs a little more discipline here, but he is more right than not.
Toughness: Aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. In case you’ve lost, Horn is a aggressive man, sometimes with a failure. He is not afraid to climb on the receiver’s grid and plays with this kind of mentality; he and Donovan Wilson would be best friends in Dallas. As mentioned, this seems to go away in support of the race, which is confusing, but Horn is a baller on the roof.
Intangible: The scouts will have many questions for Horn regarding his decision not to participate during the season, rather than before starting. Horn announced his decision the day after South Carolina fired the head coach, and later comments about the team’s poor game did not sound right. He already received a lot of repercussion from the fans at the time, with complaints of having left the team, which will be a concern in the minds of many scouts.