It’s not just the bloodline that has one of the 2023 NFL draft’s best players giving off some familiar vibes.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar recently acknowledged the incoming class, drawing comparisons for each of this year’s top 50 prospects. In at no. 14 is Penn State cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (son of former pro Joey Porter), who most resembles Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn (son of former pro Joe Horn).
Farrar writes:
The Panthers selected Horn with the eighth overall pick in the 2021 draft, and he’s become a lockdown cornerback regardless of the coverage concept. While I like to go into the Wayback Machine for a lot of these NFL comps, I think that Porter and Horn have a lot of the same attributes in the sense that they can become scheme-transcendent defenders at the highest level when a lot of comparable players are stuck on one side of the man/zone debate.
While Horn hasn’t been able to piece together a full season since that 2021 draft, Porter Jr. would probably be ecstatic if he ends up anything like the promising young defender. Horn, per Pro Football Focus, has been charged with just 29 receptions, 318 yards and a single touchdown on 52 targets—good enough for a 48.4 passer rating against.
Coincidentally, the Panthers brought Porter Jr. into Charlotte as one of their top-30 visits this spring. And even though it’s highly unlikely—or even closer to impossible—that he lands in Carolina on Thursday, the soon-to-be first-round pick at least has someone in the organization he can model his game after.
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Story originally appeared on Panthers Wire