The Pittsburgh Steelers could be looking to draft a cornerback this year and especially on the heels of the team parting ways with veteran cornerback Steven Nelson on Tuesday. One cornerback they might consider in this year’s draft if still available to them is South Carolina’s Jaycee Horn, who declared as an underclassman back in November.
Horn, who is the son of former NFL wide receiver Joe Horn, had 16 tackles and two interceptions in 2020. He finished his three-year career at South Carolina with 101 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions.
During his Tuesday pro day media season, Horn, who measures in at 6’1″, 205-pounds, according to the South Carolina website, was asked if he’s had any contact with the Steelers so far.
“I actually met with the Steelers today,” Horn said.
Horn is expected to be a first-round draft pick this year, according to several major media draftniks and several of those also expect him to be gone by the time the Steelers pick at 24th overall in the first round.
As for Horn being known in college as a cornerback who possessed a high level of “chirpiness” toward opposing wide receivers he played against, he said Tuesday that was a result of both his upbringing and being raised in Atlanta, GA.
“Why I play that way, man, it’s a combination of my dad, you know, the way I was raised,” Horn said. “A real competitive household. It just always has been that way growing up – on a video game, whatever we were doing, competing. And then also just growing up in Atlanta, Gwinnett County. At camps, even since park ball, they take football real serious and for stars and rankings or anything, it didn’t mean anything in Georgia. So, everywhere you go, you have people at your neck competing. So, even with me being a high name recruit coming out of high school, I just loved knowing that people was at my neck, like me being Joe Horn’s son. I love people wanting to knock me out just because of that. So that’s where the chirpiness and all that comes from.”
The South Carolina pro day will take place on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see if Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert attend it. In the meantime, however, below is the scouting report on Horn that Wesley Cantliffe put together for the site not too long ago.
https://gamecocksonline.com/sports/football/roster/jaycee-horn/7990
