Jaycee Horn Week 1 injury update

A quick, but not very illuminating update from the team on Horn’s injury

Speaking to the media today, Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich confirmed that Jaycee Horn injured his hamstring yesterday in the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons. He said the team will “continue evaluating the injury” and offered no timeline for Horn’s return.

Horn worried fans when he pulled up on the artificial turf field with a non-contact injury and initially appeared to be holding his knee. The team later stated and has now confirmed that he injured his hamstring, not any of the ligaments in his knee.

At this point, Horn has played in—and started—17 games out of a possible 35 since he was drafted in the first round, 8th overall, in the 2021 NFL Draft. While “fewer than half” looks and is bad in terms of Horns availability over his career, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Horn fractured his foot in Week 3 of the 2021 NFL season and missed the rest of that year. He fractured his wrist and missed the last four weeks of the 2022 season, but had otherwise started and finished every game up to that point. This hamstring injury is his first soft tissue injury and likely results from going full speed for the first time since rehabbing an offseason ankle sprain. None of these injuries made the next one more likely, with the exception of the strain caused by rushing back to play.

Call him injury prone if you want, but I expect he’s as likely to get hurt again as anybody else on the team. The important thing is to figure out what his timeline for return to the field is. We’re going to be riding the CJ Henderson train opposite Donte Jackson for at least a couple more weeks.