We’ve kind of forgotten about Travis Hunter since draft day because the drama of Jacksonville trading up for him was eventually overshadowed by the monumental slide of his college teammate. Of course we’ve also forgotten about Hunter because he went to the Jaguars, one of the places hype goes to die. But Travis Hunter is a rare prospect, the likes of which no one outside some grandpas out there can remember seeing the likes of. A true two-way player, in 2025. Pretend Baseball doesn’t exist for this because I know some chucklefuck is going to bring up Ohtani.
We’ve had a couple multi-sport athletes in the past 30 years. Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders being the big names everyone knows. But those two guys played two sports, not two major positions on opposite sides of the ball. Full time. Deion played most of his baseball when football wasn’t playing. Travis Hunter is on the field pretty much constantly for 4 quarters, only taking certain plays and special teams off (According to Google he even played a number of ST snaps). I wish I had this kind of endurance.
But that was all in college. For a smaller team. I believe the vast majority of NFL fans have significant skepticism about his ability to translate that to the NFL. Can Travis Hunter hold up on both sides of the ball at the highest level? That’s the million-dollar question. That means he has to learn two systems at once. You can get by in college off sheer athleticism but that ability to skate through on pure instinct narrows significantly on the top shelf. If Hunter is able to play both sides, will he actually be good at either one? The Jaguars might be able to fill two roster spots with one guy, but where does the value drop off if that one guy peaks at Mid? If he is able to play on both sides, how long will he be able to hold up in such a brutal sport before he has to pick a specialty out of necessity?
The thing is I don’t believe Hunter is going to play both sides in Jacksonville on a consistent basis. I believe he’s going to spend most of his time on offense (Liam Coen is an offensive HC and they need to justify Trevor Lawrence at this rate) and then play more limited, selective snaps on defense. We might see games when he starts out playing a lot on one side and ends the game mostly on the other side. The advantage you have with this guy really is that he can be used selectively. He can be a decoy. He can slot in for certain game-time situations. He can fill in for injured players at the positions. Hunter might not end up the best WR or CB that he can be if he chose a side but if he’s good enough he could be the most versatile weapon in the NFL. Hell, maybe there is even a chance he does become football’s Ohtani. That would be cool.
I want to see him have at least one game this year where he scores on both sides of the ball, with a TD catch and a pick-6. If we can get that out of him, I’ll be happy. If he does it against Daniel Jones in Indy I will laugh extremely hard.
