CHARLOTTE — Jaycee Horn has had a lot of special moments in his life. The kind of moments a person collects as memories and milestones, markers of a life well lived. He was named a freshman All-SEC at South Carolina, was drafted No. 8 overall by the Panthers in 2021, and made his first Pro Bowl last season.

None of it compares to the moment Horn had this summer, though.

"It was the best thing in the world," Horn told reporters on Wednesday following the first day of the Carolina Panthers training camp. "I tell people, like growing up, I always thought being drafted or going to the NFL or NBA would be like the best feeling, but you know, I first held my baby, that was the best feeling in the world."

The past offseason had already been one for the books for Horn. The corner signed a massive new contract and was promoted to a de facto leader on the defense, but the entire course and purpose of his life changed when his baby daughter was born.

"It's just fun to go home every day to her and see a smiling face and yeah, it just makes life a lot better," said Horn. "So give me a little different perspective on life, of knowing things that's really important, and just trying to lead in the right footsteps for her and give her a good example."

While the motivation behind everything Horn does might have changed, he's still the same disruptive corner the Panthers are depending on this season. He started his first training camp practice of 2025 much like he ended mandatory minicamp: in Bryce Young's face as loud as can be. Joined by Mike Jackson, the duo jumped into early quarterback drills, even if uninvited.

"Trying to get in their head a little bit, we was catching the ball, when they were warming up so they can get used to throwing it to us. It was a fun little warm-up," joked Horn.

"Just competitors," responded Young. "It brings the best out of both of us."

For Horn, it's all about maintaining consistency even as the world around him changes. And consistency means continuing to get in his quarterback's head, making him stronger for the Sundays to come and getting his own jokes off in the process. That consistency is something Horn hasn't had his entire NFL career. Simply maintaining the status quo has allowed him to open himself up more on and off the field.

"Just coming off a year where I finished pretty much healthy, getting a full offseason to train and rehab and then with the same coaching staff being back, on the defensive side of the ball and getting coach Canales back, you know, it's a lot of consistency and I feel like, we got a program now and, we understand what we're here to do," noted Horn.

Staying healthy and on the field was a huge goal of Horn's last season, considering his previous career high for games played in a season was 13 in 2022, and even that season was on-and-off. Technically, Horn only appeared in 15 games this past season, albeit with a hip injury that could have been played through if in the midst of a playoff run.

In an effort to maintain consistency, Horn kept his offseason program the same this summer as he did last.

"I went back to the same training facility and tried to do the same exact thing," Horn shared. "We did some of the same workouts, just try to stay with the same program because it worked for me."

The Panthers as a whole have been able to maintain the same program across the board. It's why Jaycee Horn feels so much more established this training camp, with the same being said for Young, Dave Canales, and the entire time. And it's why Canales felt confident telling reporters on Wednesday that, "I don't think people are going to want to play us by the style of football that we play," a statement Horn—one of the leaders on this team—echoed shortly after.

"I'm right on board with him," Horn declared. "That's just mentality, how this team is going to be branded, you know, a physical football team. Win, lose, or draw, when you go in there and see the Panthers, it's going to be a physical football game. You're going to be hurting afterwards, and that's just the attitude we've got to have, and that's got to be our brand of football when we travel and play.

"Super motivated, you know, anytime you're attached to that (2024) defense, I tell the guys all the time, you got to take that personal like even when we out here having fun talking trash, like—last year was last year but you know we still on the wrong side of history and we got to have that in the back of our mind every day. Prep the right way so we can come back this year and put good stuff on tape."

After an offseason during which everything changed in Horn's personal life, this part will remain the same; practices full of trash talk, a commitment to remaining healthy, and a promise to field a defense that can once again become feared.