CHARLOTTE — Jaycee Horn has never apologized for his desire to be the best.

And the former Top 10 pick, Pro Bowl corner, has spent his first five years in the league making that name for himself.

"I feel like I should have made a Pro Bowl every year if I was playing," joked Horn back in February, after suiting up for his second Pro Bowl, and referencing his first three years in the league being shortened due to injury.

"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. Maybe I can catch up, and I won't even think about the three I missed before," he laughed. "But yeah, I know it's just still a blessing to be in this league and make money playing a kids' game.

"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."

Now, Horn has another accolade to add to his resume: a top 100 player in the NFL. The ranking system, determined by votes from players in the league in 2025, voted Horn as the 76th overall player in the league last season.

The honor comes after a 2025 season for Horn that saw him finish with a career-best five interceptions. That number was the best amongst cornerbacks and tied for second across the entire league. He had eight total passes defensed, 37 tackles, and finished with a 66.1 coverage grade in zone.

"The shutdown corner man and the boundary, hard to beat, can't really beat him," noted teammate Robert Hunt, who has had a front row seat the last two years to watch Horn's ascension.

"Love the game, wants to be good. Speaks for itself."

Rams receiver Puka Nacua, who had to face Horn last season, knows what a menace Jaycee Horn can be on a snap-to-snap basis. Horn, at 6-1 and 200 pounds, is one of the few corners that can physically match up against bigger receivers like Nacua.

"I always think if I were to be a GM or to build a corner," began Nacua at this past year's Pro Bowl, "I'm like you want him to look like Patrick Surtain or Jaycee Horn. Or you want them to have a bigger (frame) like Mike Jackson, you want them to be bigger."

There is something to be said for Mike Jackson's play in helping Horn reach his highest level over the last two seasons; the Pippen to his Jordan. Ever since the veteran Jackson was traded to the Panthers ahead of the 2024 season, the other big corner has played the field, locking down opposing offenses there and allowing Horn to terrorize the boundary.

"Man, I think especially being a safety when you got two shutdown corners like those two guys, it almost makes your job a lot easier because then you can just kind of play free, read the quarterback's eyes," said Patriots (and former Bears) safety Kevin Byard III back in February.

But it is Horn's ability as a ball hawk that makes an indelible mark in the minds of other players around the league.

Said Byard of Horn, "He's a really good, obviously a phenomenal player."

While Horn has always been aware of and proud of the legacy he is creating, now supported by a place in the top 100, his maturation as a leader on the Panthers has turned his focus towards making an impact roster-wide.

"For me, I'm mainly just thinking team. Like we had a successful year this year in going to the playoffs, and I feel like we kind of figured out how to win and figured out what winning feels like," shared Horn.

"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.

"And I'm so excited for next year to get back and go and be going to these games with everybody actually believing, actually believing we can get it done and seeing how next season goes."

Next season, though, if last year was any indication, it will inevitably be shaped at some point by the play of Jaycee Horn. His teammates have always known they could go as he does, and now his peers around the league have acknowledged it as well.

For the man who coaches him, defensive passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley, the reason is simple.

"He gets the ball," said Cooley, "and people fear him every week."

The NFL Top 100 series is debuting on X each weekday. Each episode will feature two new player reveals (one at 10 a.m. ET and one at 11 a.m. ET) through Friday, Aug. 21. The top 10 will be announced over the course of two weeks, with a player revealed each day at 10 a.m. ET from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4.

Panthers players thus far on the Top 100:

No. 98 — Quarterback Bryce Young

No. 90 — Defensive tackle Derrick Brown

No. 87 — Wide Receiver Tetairoa McMillan

Episodes will air later on NFL+, as well as other NFL-owned-and-operated social media, and we'll have all the latest for you here at Panthers.com.