Panthers select Jaycee Horn in NFL draft. Here’s why they took him over Justin Fields
The Carolina Panthers addressed one of the team’s key needs in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft.
With the eighth overall pick in the draft, the Panthers selected South Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn. With the selection, the team continues the defensive rebuild started a year prior and adds a dynamic starter to a position of need.
This marks the first time the Panthers have selected a Gamecocks player in the first two rounds of the draft. The team’s previous earliest pick of South Carolina was tackle Travelle Wharton in the third round in 2004.
Both Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II and Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields were still on the board when the Panthers made the selection. Multiple teams were also trying to move up, but Carolina did not believe there was a good enough offer on the table to pass up on the player they viewed as the top defender in this year’s class.
“We fielded calls, but there wasn’t anything that really kind of matched moving away from, Jaycee, who was top player on our board at that time,” general manager Scott Fitterer said. “He was just too good a fit for us. The offers didn’t match walking away from Jaycee, and that’s why we didn’t do it.”
The Panthers have now drafted eight straight defensive players dating back to last year’s draft. Carolina easily could have addressed multiple holes on the offensive side of the ball. There were still two top quarterback prospects available. The team, however, gave up a sixth-round pick this year and second- and fourth-round picks next year for quarterback Sam Darnold.
“We brought Sam here for a reason. We’re excited to see what he can do. Excited to give him an opportunity,” coach Matt Rhule said. “We traded for him because we believe in his potential.”
Horn, 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, was targeted 24 times through seven games in 2020, and allowed eight catches, three for touchdowns. He intercepted two passes. Quarterbacks had a 54.9 passer rating when targeting Horn. Run support is typically cited as one of his areas to improve. At his pro day, with Rhule in attendance, he ran a 4.39 second 40-yard dash and had a vertical jump of 41.5 inches.
“What he does so well is his man-cover ability, his quickness, the feistiness of him as a player, his ability to mirror and turn and run with the receivers, and that’s the exact fit that (defensive coordinator Phil) Snow wants on our defense,” Fitterer said. “We just saw the best fit with him.”
The Seattle Seahawks, where Fitterer spent the past two decades of his career, are known for drafting players with at least 32-inch arms. Horn measured in at 33 inches.
Horn is widely considered one of the best at his position in this year’s class and is often considered to have the highest ceiling. His father, Joe, was a 12-year NFL veteran receiver and four-time Pro Bowl selection.
“If you go back to last year, there were times we just couldn’t get off the field, and so it’s been an issue we tried to address in free agency. I think in the NFC South with the big receivers we have to deal with, this is a young man in Jaycee who, his dad was an NFL player, a great NFL player, he’s grown up with it his whole life. He’s played at the highest level,” Rhule said. “... He’s a rare physical specimen who also has the pedigree that’s hard to find.”
Horn, 21, is the fourth cornerback ever taken by the organization in the first round of the draft, and the first since Chris Gamble in 2004. This is the earliest the Panthers have ever addressed the position in the draft.
The expectation for Horn will be to play sooner rather than later. Cornerback is one of the largest holes on the team’s roster. Starter Donte Jackson is entering the final year of his rookie deal. The team acquired free agent A.J. Bouye this offseason, but he is suspended for the first two games of the season for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy. Last year, the Panthers used a fourth-round pick on corner Troy Pride, who is continuing to develop.
The team praised Horn’s ability to play man coverage, while the Panthers played a mixture of man and zone last season. Rhule said that the addition will give the team more flexibility on defense and help the team address the goals of this offseason.
“This off season has been all about how do we address third down, the red zone and two minute end of game. The ability, versus the quarterbacks we’re facing, to play zone on third down is really hard. We weren’t able to play much man on third down last year, we did play some, but this allows us to play more man on third down,” Rhule said. “But even within our zone coverages there’s a lot of man components that when you have a guy who can do it, really unlocks the coverages and allows you to do more.”
Horn is the fifth South Carolina defensive back selected in the first round since 1967 and the first since Rock Hill native Stephon Gilmore (No. 10 in 2012). He is the fifth Gamecocks player ever drafted by the Panthers and the fourth on the current roster, joining Joe Charlton, Dennis Daley and J.T. Ibe.
For Horn, landing in Carolina couldn’t have worked out much better and being picked by the Panthers did not exactly come as a surprise.
“When Coach Rhule came to my pro day, I kind of had an idea and then just talking to him throughout the whole process, I had an idea that they liked me,” Horn said. “I talked to Coach Rhule last night actually; he called me around 10 p.m. Coming into today, I was hoping they draft me at eight. That was the perfect landing spot for me. It all worked out the right way.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 9:15 PM.
