Play like a Raven: Jaycee Horn

In this series of posts, I explore the prospects in this year’s class that play like a Raven – the guys I think could have a red star against their name on the draft board in the Castle.

Gone are the days when the Ravens take a premium player in the first round at a position where they have absolutely no need at all, while neglecting other positions of need. I don’t believe we have selected a player in a long time that fits this description, a need of some kind is usually addressed even if it isn’t the primary one.

The undoubted strength of this current incarnation of the Ravens is at cornerback, where we have elite play at the top of the depth chart and pretty good strength in numbers too. We couldn’t keep a developing Darious Williams around, who is now one of the better cover corners in the league with the Rams.

A cornerback in the first round would neglect several other needs and the guy I’m looking at in this piece would only be available with our first pick. So I’m here to say, I know this would be a deeply unpopular pick and we would likely have by-passed some excellent players at positions of need but the Ravens always seem to think you can’t have enough corners. But more important than that, man, does Jaycee Horn play like a Raven.

First things first, the Ravens don’t have to have outstanding length at the position but they do need to have good size and Horn definitely ticks that box. He also looks to be much more comfortable in man than he is in zone. The Ravens are of course multiple on defense but you have to be able to hold up in man and it comes more naturally to Horn.

The first thing you realise once you stand back and think about his body of college work, is that this guy got the opposition’s best every week. He doesn’t always start there when teams he faces have multiple weapons but you can bet that by the end of the day he’s going up against the guy that’s having the most success against their defense.

Against Florida, Kyle Pitts ripped off 3 catches for 53 yards and a touchdown on the first drive alone and it looked like we might see the same sort of monster performance that we had seen week one. The Gamecocks moved Horn and plastered him to Pitts for much of the rest of the game and he only had one more catch the rest of the way. I do think this accounts for some of his relative statistical underperformance against his peers.

I think the other reason for that statistical underperformance is one of the few areas for development in his game and the one thing that gives me pause on thinking he could be a red star. His tackling is not as consistent as you would like, and he has put some missed tackles on tape where his technique is not as it should be. He can do it, you can see him make hard and form tackles on all different types of ball carrier. He just needs to be more consistent with this – I’m sure this would be a debate in the Ravens war room – Harbaugh and his staff love corners who tackle properly, they may not take this potential deficiency lightly.

Getting away from his areas for development though and you see why this guy might be designated as a Ravens red star.

Smart and physical. Horn’s tape absolutely screams both of these things. You can see it immediately at the line of scrimmage when he will rock receivers back in press. He has decent length so he will throw out a hard punch at the line and clock the receiver in the upper chest, remaining physical at the start of the route, mirroring well with it too. His physicality is complemented well in this regard with his smarts, he has excellent route recognition and remains stuck to the receiver’s hip pocket.

His physicality shows up on tape over and over again, like when he throws aside wide receiver blocks like they’re nothing but an irritant to him (honourable mention to Racey McMath from LSU who managed to stick a few blocks on him). But the best part of his physicality is at the catch-point. It’s not a physicality that will get called for interference, its more of a competitive nature that shows up in his desire to fight harder and jump higher than the other guy when the ball is up for grabs. In this way he’s made for today’s NFL as a guy who could compete against the opposition’s best physical threat at receiver. He refuses to be dominated by receivers in one on one situations.

It’s not all physicality and competitiveness that make him so good at the catch-point either, it’s the explosion he exhibits in his leap – that also shows up in other areas of his game. And it’s his ability to consistently snap his head back to locate the ball and track it in the air. He is proficient at getting his hands on the ball when locked up in man coverage – at the catch-point, he really is a sight to see.

For Wink and his defense, I think this strength at the catch-point is something they don’t have at an elite level in their current corners and would be another weapon to deploy against passing attacks. The Ravens look for who they have to beat to get to the next level, last year it was shoring up the defensive line so we could stop Derrick Henry.

At some point we will have to work out a way to stop the Chiefs offense. Both times we’ve played in the last two years Kelce has gashed us, but they’ve also always spread the ball around with Watkins and Hardman both getting over 50 yards on both occasions as well as Tyreek Hill being back in this year’s contest. Adding a corner like Horn might be one way to match up better with them and could be a guy you try on Kelce, especially given the potential he showed when covering the closest thing to Kelce in college this year, in Pitts.

His smarts show up in his route recognition as already mentioned but also in knowing when to go to make a play and attack the football. He is explosive and this combined with his football intelligence, accounted for his interceptions in college. He was so often locked up in man coverage though, doing what the team needed of him, he didn’t get to utilise this ability to its fullest potential. If he joins a solid secondary at the next level, an inventive defensive coordinator may be able unleash even more playmaking potential.

His break on the ball is excellent and this comes mostly from his explosion and his athleticism. In terms of pure coverage though, he looks a little tight and choppy in his technique, often seeming off-balance through his turns and in his backpedal but nothing egregious.

The missed tackles might give the Ravens pause, and he may well not be a red star because of it. They would also be giving up on players at positions of greater need if they were to take him at 27, which would be a slide for him if it were based on my board. But I suspect that would also be the case for the Ravens too and I think they would find it hard to pass up a talent like Horn at a premium position.