2021 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: CB Jaycee Horn, South Carolina
CB JAYCEE HORN
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 205 lbs.
Class: Junior
School: South Carolina
A former four-star recruit out of Alpharetta, Georgia, where he was the 26th ranked Georgian recruit in the 2018 class. Horn amassed impressive statistics at South Carolina; in his three years, he had 101 tackles, 7 for a loss, three sacks, two interceptions, and 23 passes defended.
Pro Football Focus has him as the third-best cornerback entering the 2021 NFL Draft, only behind Alabama’s Patrick Surtain II and Virginia Tech’s Caleb Farley. By their metric, Horn ranked 28th in overall coverage in 2020 and only allowed eight catches on 24 targets for 116 yards in the seven games played.
Notables
Opted out of the 2020 season after seven games to prepare for the draft. He is the son of four-time Pro-Bowl wide receiver Joe Horn, who famously pulled out a cell phone from under the goal post padding during a Monday Night Football game against the Giants and pretended to make a call after scoring a touchdown.
Traits
Horn is a long physical cornerback who has good size and possesses excellent athletic ability. He’s quick, has very fluid hips to turn, and his lateral movement skills are impressive--he can turn and close width with excellent short-area burst.
He’s mostly a boundary corner but has played reps in the slot as well. Stance can be a bit high at times, and his center of gravity at the line of scrimmage could improve if I am nitpicking.
He is generally solid at the line of scrimmage in man coverage. He is very good at applying the inside jam and turn situations and has shown the ability to double hand jam, recollect, and gain advantageous positioning, which is a good sign of his play strength.
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Typically does a good job staying square, shuffling to the inside hip of receivers, and committing his hips once the receiver has declared their route.
I have seen false steps on tape, and I’ve seen Horn open his gate a bit early as well, but it wasn’t overly consistent in his game. He does a solid job squeezing receivers to the sideline and reacting quickly to back-shoulder throws. His excellent change of direction ability assists him against shiftier wide receivers near the boundary as well.
Good in horizontal man coverage when he trails the inside hip and gets himself into position to disrupt the catch point. Can hook high at times and draw flags--he has to lower his outside hand to mitigate that type of laundry. He stays in phase of wide receivers well, and his athletic ability makes him very valuable in forcing incompletions.
He plays with good vision in zone coverage, comes off routes while eyeing the quarterback, and attacks with solid timing and excellent aggressiveness. Possesses good mental processing when in zone coverage and uses good eye discipline.
Ball skills are very good in terms of disruption. He is very controlled with his hands and technique at the catch point to disallow easy completions - this was very much on display against Seth Williams and Auburn in 2020.
He plays with substantial competitive toughness and loves to jaw. He is solid in run support and plays with solid play strength. He is aggressive and has some intriguing highlights of him dominating opponents in this phase, but it’s not overly consistent, and he has missed several tackles.
Overall, Horn is a potential first-round selection who brings man coverage ability to a defense, as well as a ton of physicality. He should be an impact player in the National Football League.
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