Four reasons why Jaguars’ Travis Hunter could have a tough time playing both ways full-time
In less than two weeks, the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ rookies will be reporting to training camp and when that happens, all eyes will be on one player: Travis Hunter.
After playing both offense and defense during his time at Colorado, Hunter has made it clear that he also wants to play both ways in the NFL (He literally said he’d rather retire than play just one position in the NFL). The Jaguars decided to break Hunter in slowly after trading up to grab him with the second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. During OTAs, Hunter didn’t practice on both sides of the ball, but that changed during mandatory minicamp, with the Heisman winner taking snaps on both offense and defense.
Jaguars coach Liam Coen let Hunter practice on both sides of the ball because that’s what the rookie is going to be doing once training camp starts, which will be happening soon (Jacksonville’s rookies will be reporting on July 19).
“That’s definitely what we have to build towards for training camp and then obviously in season, knowing that during practice, he’s gonna have to do both,” Coen said of Hunter playing both ways after Jacksonville’s final day of minicamp in mid-June, via NFL.com. “He wants to do it. It’s not as if it’s something where he can’t handle [it]. He wants to go and do that more. He wants more, and that’s a good thing. But ultimately, we have to also protect him from himself at times as well and make sure we get out of this phase healthy. But that is absolutely the plan moving forward.”
At Colorado last year, Hunter played more than 1450 snaps with 713 of those coming on offense and 748 on defense. The Jaguars almost certainly won’t let Hunter play both ways on a full-time basis and that’s mostly because it’s almost impossible.
Although Hunter will play both ways this year, here are four reasons why you likely won’t see him doing it on a full-time basis this year:
The NFL season is longer than the college season
During his final season at Colorado, the Buffaloes played 13 games and Hunter got plenty of rest during the four-month season. Not only did Colorado get TWO byes, but after the regular season ended, he got four weeks off to rest his body before the Buffaloes faced BYU in the Alamo Bowl. If you combine that four-week break with the two byes, that means Hunter got six weeks of rest DURING the season. In the NFL, that simply won’t be happening. The Jaguars will be playing at least 17 games this year and there could be more if Jacksonville ends up making the postseason. Also, Jacksonville has a Week 8 bye, which means the Jaguars will be playing 10 straight games to close the season. At Colorado last season, Hunter never played more than five straight games without getting at least one week off.
There’s a term in the NFL known as the “rookie wall” and there’s a reason that term exists. Rookies tend to slow down at the end of the year because they’re not used to playing so many games. Trying to play both ways on a full-time basis over a 17-week season might be more than Hunter’s body can handle.
Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard is one of just two players over the past 15 years — along with Scott Matlock of the Chargers — to play at least 100 snaps on both offense and defense in a single season. If you try to go both ways full-time, that means you would never leave the field and Ricard said that will take a toll on anyone.
“That’s the hardest part, is you never come out of the game and the NFL is a long season, much longer than college,” Ricard told NFL Media in March. “It’s going to be interesting to see a skill player doing that. It’s a lot of running. That’s all I’m going to say.”
You can’t take plays off
Not only do you have to survive for 17 games, but you can’t take any plays off, especially on defense. That’s not to say that Hunter took plays off at Colorado, but as a corner, he was more athletic than a lot of the receivers he faced. That essentially means that Hunter didn’t necessarily have to go 100% on every play. While in college, Hunter faced several receivers who will have no shot at making the NFL, so it probably wasn’t difficult to cover them. Hunter at 95% is still good enough to cover almost any receiver in college. In the NFL, even the last guy on the depth chart is better than what most college teams have.
As Ricard points out, Hunter will be going against “grown men” every single week.
“I feel like it’s going to be different from college and the NFL. In the NFL, these are grown men, who, this is their full-time job,” Ricard said.
During an interview last week, Travis Kelce theorized that NFL defensive coordinators might just try to wear Hunter down when he’s playing corner.
“They’re gonna run the wide receivers, just take off on him all day, just to try to get him tired,” Kelce said. “Why wouldn’t you just attack him that way?”
In that situation, if Hunter takes one play off, he could get burnt deep, but if he goes 100% on every play, he could wear himself out, which could become noticeable late in the game. Hunter has shown that he’s in phenomenal shape, but playing 100 snaps per game at full speed for 17 weeks is something that would take a toll on anyone.
Staying healthy won’t be easy
During mandatory minicamp, Liam Coen mentioned that one concern with Hunter was keeping him healthy.
“Ultimately, we have to also protect him from himself at times as well and make sure we get out of this phase healthy,” Coen said.
When you’re playing just one position, it’s not easy to stay healthy. During the 2024 season, several receivers missed at least two games due to injury, including CeeDee Lamb, A.J. Brown, Malik Nabers, Mike Evans and Nico Collins. Hunter will be playing corner and receiver, which are two positions where minor injuries — like a tweaked hamstring — can quickly turn into something serious.
Besides dealing with normal injuries, there are also freak injuries that can happen in the normal course of a football game, which is something Hunter knows well. Back in 2023, Hunter missed three games after suffering a lacerated liver following a hit he took in a game against Colorado State. Injuries are unpredictable, and if you’re on the field twice as long as every other player, the chances of suffering one definitely goes up.
You have to learn two game plans
If Hunter is going to play both ways, that means he has to be in two sets of position meetings and he’ll have to watch a lot of film on his opponent since he’ll need to know their offensive and defensive tendencies.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh thinks this is the biggest impediment toward a guy trying to play both ways on a full-time basis.
“To say that you’re going to be completely immersed in everything that there is to know on offense and everything there is to know on defense, I don’t know if there’s enough hours in the day for a player to be able to do that, and to have every detail locked down,” Harbaugh said in April.
The Ravens coach turned Ricard into a two-way player, so he knows that playing both ways is possible in the NFL, but only under special circumstances.
“You certainly could do it, I would think, on one side of the ball and then have some sort of a package on the other side of the ball, which is my guess is how the team will do it, wherever he goes,” Harbaugh said.
Right now, that will likely be the Jaguars’ plan. Playing both ways on a full-time basis is probably too much to ask of anyone, so it won’t be surprising if the Jags let Hunter go full-time on one side of the ball and give him a package on the other side.
The last player to successfully play both corner and receiver at a high level was probably Deion Sanders, who coached Hunter at Colorado, but he wasn’t a full-time player on the offensive side of the ball. In 1996, Sanders was voted a first-team All-Pro at cornerback and he also caught 36 passes for 475 yards as a receiver. If the Jaguars end up getting that kind of production out of their rookie phenom, there’s a good chance they’ll be more than thrilled with their decision to trade up for him in the 2025 NFL Draft.
