One of the best gets paid like it
Cornerback Jaycee Horn has been extended by the Carolina Panthers with a contract that makes him the highest paid defensive back in NFL history. Horn will be making approximately $25M a year on a four-year, $100M deal with $70M in guarantees.
Before this extension, Horn was set to play under the fifth-year option of his rookie contract. That contract carried a cap hit of $12.4M for 2025. This extension will reduce that cap number for this season. How much it will save against the cap remains to be seen as the structure of each year of the contract has not been released or leaked. The Panthers are also banking on their current low contract load and an expanding cap in future years to make this giant contract seem more reasonable in the seasons to come.
Horn played his first full season in the NFL in 2024 and turned in an incredible performance with very little surrounding talent. Like Derrick Brown before him, the Panthers are hoping that Horn can anchor his position group while they also upgrade the talent around him.
When healthy, Horn has been one of the Panthers best defenders since being drafted 8th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. This contract is an obvious indication that the team thinks of the injury history as more of a fluke than something inherent to his future as a player. This is them locking up one of the best young players in the league, in their minds, who they believe has a bright future in the Carolinas.