In pool, the game starts and ends with the 8-ball.

It must sit in the center of the triangle rack with every other ball surrounding it. Then when the cue makes the first hit and the balls are scattered outwards, you must keep your eye on the 8-ball, knowing at all times where it is in relation to you and your opponent.

At any time, testing the 8-ball can prove detrimental. And when it's finally sunk, that's game.

Jaycee Horn is the Carolina Panthers 8-ball.

He is the center of their defense, a former first round pick—at No. 8 overall mind you—who, yes, struggled with injuries early on, but clawed his way back to the field and put together a Pro Bowl season in 2024. Before the years began, the Panthers told Horn, "We believe you're one of the best corners in this league. Go ball and they would take care of me."

So Horn did…

With 68 tackles, 13 passes defended, an interception and two sacks.

So the Panthers did…

With a longterm record-breaking and market-resetting contract for the position.

"I think it's just a testament to my relationship with the team and how much they believe in me," Horn says with a sense of genuine humbleness after signing the new contract that will take him into 2025 and the next four years at least.

When Horn first arrived in Charlotte, a South Carolina product who earned the No. 1 jersey in Will Muschamp's Gamecocks' defense, that same number wasn't available, forevermore held for a certain quarterback. He went with No. 8 and it took no time at all for the nickname to find him.

"Everybody was calling me that my rookie year, all the vets," laughs Horn. "Hasson Reddick, Brian Burns, Shaq Thompson. They was always calling me 8-ball, and it just kind of stuck."

As the moniker became synonymous with Horn, so did too the responsibility.

Because if you're going to be the 8-ball, you have to be the nucleus. The Panthers feel Jaycee Horn can be just that.

"They want me to be a cornerstone piece for the franchise," Horn shares of what coaches told him this offseason. "And a lot of how the NFL goes, a lot of people just be talking. You got to take it all with a grain of salt. But for them to actually stand on their word, and when I go ball, I go Pro Bowl, they took care of me like they said they would.

"So, it mean a lot to me just from, not just the money part, but just how much the organization stayed by my side through the ups and downs of the injuries and all that. I'm reaching to get back on the field and just give my all to the organization, fans and everything cause that, as a man, that just means a lot to me."

Being the center also means being the most identifiable. No piece of a pool game is more recognizable than the 8-ball. On a team that Horn knows isn't always at the top of the NFL narrative, he spent years determined to draw eyes, forcing everyone to pay attention to him and by proxy, his team.

"I remember looking at a cornerback Top 10 fan votes and I wasn't even inside of that. So I'm like, dang, I know it's not 10 corners better than me."

But there's something to be said for understanding the game, knowing your angles, biding your time and taking the right shot. As Horn grew in the NFL, his goals not so much changed as shifted, better accommodating the lessons learned through maturation.

"I started to understand the business out of football too," he explains now, years of experience tempering his voice. "I'm not so much hung up on that type of stuff. It's definitely still a goal of mine to win a Super Bowl, be an All-Pro, be a two to three time All-Pro, stuff like that.

"I still want to accomplish all that, but I don't feel like if I don't do it, then like that year was a waste, you know what I'm saying?"

It's the sort of approach that means even heading into Year 5 and presumably with many more years still ahead of him, Jaycee Horn is worried less about goals (although make no mistake, he is still chasing after them with everything he has) and more about legacy.

"Really just a hard worker that treated everybody right, was a nice guy, and I just went about his business the right way. That's really what I want my legacy to be," Horn muses.

"Because at the end of the day, that's all that matters. Like everybody screaming your name right now because you're in it and you're doing it. You're a commodity right now because you're a pro bowler or whatever the case may be.

"But once that stuff fades and your numbers are your numbers and all that, All-Pros and all that stuff fade, like, who is Jaycee Horn as a person? Was he an a--hole? How was he? So I just want to be a guy that's looked at like, 'Jaycee was a cool dude, he's a loyal dude, you can come to him about anything, he was cool with everybody on the team.' Like, I feel like the relationship part of it is what is going to mean the most to me when I'm done."

He's far from being done yet though.

When the Panthers take the field this fall, it'll be a rebuilt defense around pillars such as Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn. And every time the ball is snapped and everyone scatters, opponents will inevitably keep their eye on No. 8. And after everyone else has done their part, and a play needs to be made in the clutch, the Panthers will do the same.

Because a game of pool can't end until someone sinks the 8-ball.

"That's the best feeling in the world," smiles Carolina's own 8-ball.

"(There's) not much more fulfilling than—especially at the end of the game, getting a game sealing pick or fourth-down, you get a PBU. When it's winning time and you make those plays at corner, especially knowing how hard the position is and you already up against like all odds, it's the best feeling in the world for sure."

And that's game.