There’s no two ways about—if the Carolina Panthers want to contend for their first playoff berth in five years, they’ll need Jaycee Horn to do it. And according to one NFL analyst, he may need to do it like the game’s top cornerback.
Andy Benoit, head of football analysis for The 33rd Team, recently tabbed Horn as Carolina’s biggest X-factor for the upcoming 2023 season. In doing so, he notes that the guidance of new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero should give the third-year corner quite the featured role:
The Vic Fangio-style system Evero deploys is predicated on matchup zones and nuanced disguise. To propagate this, the defense lines up in the same split safety look on almost every snap. Which means cornerbacks do not travel. But because so many of the matchup zones are built around handling receivers inside and on the passing strength side, a No. 1 corner is immensely valuable because he’s needed to play on an island on the weak side. In Denver, Surtain did that, often aligning to the boundary.
Benoit, however, goes on to bring up Evero’s prior position with the Los Angeles Rams—where he coached up a fella named Jalen Ramsey:
Don’t be surprised if instead of using Horn like Surtain, Evero, who was the Rams’ secondary coach in 2021, actually uses him like Jalen Ramsey. The L.A. superstar played boundary corner like Surtain, but in many nickel (4-2) and penny (5-1) packages, he slid to the slot, where he thrived as a zone defender, tackler and occasional blitzer. Horn has already played outside and inside under the previous Panthers coaching staff.
While he’s shown he can be the shutdown boundary defender the Panthers drafted him to be, 2021’s eighth overall selection has also displayed some promising versatility. Horn, per Pro Football Focus, has played 172 of his 452 coverage snaps out of the slot.
But, with an alarming lack of depth behind Horn, will Evero and his staff be able to comfortably move No. 8 around? Well, we’ll see if they can get it straight between now and Week 1.
