By Dave Holcomb
SouthernPigskin.com

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As the consensus best press corner in the draft, the question for Horn becomes whether he can also learn to press while not getting penalized and also excel in a soft zone scheme.

Evaluating college football players for the next level isnt an exact science. Players that have given every indication that they will be stars dont work out and vice versa. Theres also a group of players that receive labels during the draft process such as chigh ceiling,d clow floor,d and cboom or bust.d

Consider South Carolina cornerback Jaycee Horn part of that group for the 2021 draft class.

In addition to those groups, players see their draft stocks rise and fall yearly during the offseason. Horn is in that group too, as he has risen from being considered a late first-round pick to a possible Top 10 selection. But is his stock now too high to be worth the risk?

A three-year starter at South Carolina, Horn comes into the NFL experienced and yet also possessing a unique combination of size and length. Hes physical and, per Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, coffers immediate starting help with a high upside.d

The potential for an immediate impact should be appealing to teams in the Top 10 such as the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys. Outside of the Top 10, the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals seem like logical fits. All of those teams could use upgrades at cornerback, missed the playoffs in 2020 and have coaches entering at least their third season who may be feeling the pressure to get to the postseason sooner rather than later (Mike McCarthy in Dallas is entering his second season, but the Cowboys head coach is always seemingly on the hot seat).

But theres a bit of a buyer be warned sign attached to Horns draft stock.

cHorn can play with solid technique, but he became too reliant on the college games tendency to allow mauling beyond five yards and that must be cleaned up moving forward,d wrote Zierlein.

Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus gave an eerily similar evaluation:

c[Horn] is the press-man cornerback you want in this draft class. He allowed only eight catches from 24 targets in the SEC last season. The issue was that even with the relatively lax college rules, Horn was still flagged five times. Hell need to reel that in at the next level.d

Even still, Renner ranked Horn as the second-best cornerback in the class behind only Patrick Surtain II. NFL.com positioned him as a distance second after Surtain at cornerback but still second. The latest mock draft from The Draft Network has Horn going 10th overall just two picks after Surtain II.

cHorn is a delightfully physical press corner who has a better projection to Year 1 play at the line of scrimmage than Surtain does,d wrote Benjamin Solak. cFor Dan Quinn, who figures to deploy a Seattle Cover-3 style defense with the Cowboys, thats a snug fit.d

As the consensus best press corner in the draft, the question for Horn becomes whether he can also learn to press while not getting penalized and also excel in a soft zone scheme. Quinns scheme included, NFL defenses rarely play one style. Cornerbacks — really all NFL players — have to display a multi-skill set to truly excel.

Horn is the type of player who can make or break a general managers career in the NFL. Unless, of course, that GM is Jerry Jones, but Horn has all the makings of either being a player who can help a secondary immediately improve or struggle to validate he was worth a selection in the first half of the first round.

From game to game, he may even be both. Press man cornerbacks can shut down an opposing receiver for 50 minutes or more and then all it takes is one long defensive pass interference penalty to change the outcome of a game.

Horn posted 101 total tackles, including 7.0 tackles for loss with 23 pass defenses, 3.0 sacks and 2 interceptions in 30 games at South Carolina. Both of his interceptions came in seven games last year. Horn took advantage of the COVID opt out to forgo the final three games of the season, sitting out after the Gamecocks fired Will Muschamp.

Theres plenty of intrigue on which quarterback San Francisco traded up to select at No. 3 and the multiple directions Atlanta could take at No. 4. But dont forget about Horn. As one of the biggest boom or bust non-quarterback prospects in this class, there are a plethora of places where he can fall on draft night.