South Carolina’s defensive back Jaycee Horn it seems to be gaining traction outside the season on the NFL recruiting boards. Pro Football Focus has Horn as one of the most talented players eligible for the draft, and also has data to prove it.
Pro Football Focus launched its first Top 100 NFL Draft Big Board and Horn appears in 24th in the ranking. It should be noted that this is not a draft mock, but only a classification based on the level of talent, as judged by the PFF.
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Here’s what PFF wrote about Horn in his story: Horn has the athleticism and mentality of an NFL-level corner man – he will not give up on anyone. He only allowed eight receptions from 24 targets for 116 yards in seven games this year.
The website, which evaluates each player on each play and assigns a score to that player, says that Horn proved to be the country’s elite defender in a category in the 2020 season. Alpharetta, a native of Georgia and son of the former wide receiver of the New Orleans Saints Joe Horn had the largest number of coverage photos per capture allowed this year.
Jaycee Horn averaged 27.4 clicks of coverage per allowed catch in 2020.
Most in college football. pic.twitter.com/YIrQxlGf24
– PFF College (@PFF_College) January 17, 2021
Also reaching the top 100 on the Gamecocks player list is the defensive side Kingsley Enagbare, who became player number 61 on the list. Enagbare, who recently announced his intention to return to the program, finished tied for fifth in the SEC in total sacks this season with 6.0 and was second in the league in sacks per game with 0.75. Only Georgia outside the linebacker Azeez Ojulari (0.85 with 8.5 bags in 10 games) had more.
South Carolina Wide Receiver Shi Smith did not enter the top 100.
Over the course of three seasons, Horn started 29 games during his South Carolina football career and played in another. This season, he had 16 tackles in total, with one losing yards. He also has a couple of interceptions, both against Auburn, when he beat the defensive player of the week in the SEC, and had six past separations to his credit. Horn announced that he was opting out of the rest of the season on November 16, the day after Muschamp’s resignation.