Over the course of his initial three NFL seasons, Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn played a combined 22 regular season games.
In his last two, he's played 31 and been voted to the Pro Bowl Games each year.
The 26-year-old believes that it was the injuries that prevented him from being recognized as one of the game's elite earlier in his career. But he's healthy and on the rise now.
"I feel like I should have made a Pro Bowl every year if I were playing," Horn said Monday from the Pro Bowl Games, via Panthers.com’s Kassidy Hill. "So, I'm so focused on just trying to keep my game at a high level and just seeing where it falls at the end of the day."
Selected eighth overall as the first defensive player taken in the 2021 NFL Draft, Horn played just three games as a rookie after suffering multiple fractures in his right foot. He missed another four in 2022 and played in just six in 2023, thanks in most part to a hamstring ailment.
"Obviously, you go through the type injuries and stuff like that, it comes up in the back of your mind," he said, "but I'm so focused on, I feel like I missed out on three Pro Bowls being hurt."
In his first Pro Bowl campaign of 2024, Horn ran up career bests of 68 tackles, 13 passes defensed and two sacks. This past season, his career-high five interceptions helped the NFC South-champion Panthers to their first playoff berth since 2017 -- and the first in Horn's career.
The uplifting year ended with a bitter 34-31 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round, but left Horn and Co. with a foundation to build on and plenty of reason to believe better autumns are ahead.
"Obviously, you're upset when you lose a playoff game at home, and it was a tough loss, last second," he said. "But, when you sit back and just look at where we were, like a guy like me, my rookie year, and the years after that, to see how far we came, that this past season was definitely a win to get to the playoffs, but we can make that next level jump, and I think we will."
Having begun his career with such tumultuous times, Horn knows success isn't instant, but he's realized it and he's ready for more.
"I've been healthy the last two years, been to two Pro Bowls, and now I'm just trying to keep that going and maybe just keep racking them up year after year after year," he said. "Maybe I can catch up, and I won't even think about the three I missed before. But yeah, I know it's just still a blessing to be in this league and make money playing a kids' game."
