Travis Hunter’s BREAKOUT Game TEARS APART The Arena

Travis Hunter’s BREAKOUT Game TEARS APART The Arena

Should Travis be playing more on defense? Hold on, Travis. There’s the heel right there. Climb up there. Yeah. You want to go first? You want to go first? Climb up there. No, you know this this it actually kind of works to my advantage right now of this conversation. I’ll get into that. But look, I I complet Well, what’s going on? You got to take into context. Look, I completely understand the argument for Travis Hunter playing defense. And if you look back, I even said when I was talking about him playing offensive defense, just give him three full games on one side of the ball, then give him three full games on the other side of the ball. Let him focus on one side. And I understand that he can be a lock down corner and he’s extremely talented on the outside. And right now the Jags need him on defense because they’re 27th in passing defense and they’re struggling to cover people. But with that being said, they need him more on offense. Brian Thomas Jr. is not playing like he did a year ago. He’s having some drops issues. Drop issues right now. He’s just got injured. I don’t know how serious it is and what the severity of it is, but he just got injured in that game against the Rams. It looked like it was a right shoulder injury. I don’t know how long he’s going to be out. They have a buy, so it give them time to come back. But after that, they have Parker Washington, they have Deami Brown, and they have Tim Patrick as their other guy. Travis Hunter has to be their number one wide receiver. And you could even argue that he’s their number one wide receiver when Brian Thomas Jr. comes back with the way that he’s playing right now. Hopefully, he can get back on track, but I’m getting the ball to 12. And he leads the team in receptions, also playing significantly less snaps than Brian Thomas Jr. and the other guys. So, it’s tough for me to say right now, okay, just take him off of offense and put him on defense when you have BTJ out when you’re not having production. One thing that needs to happen though if my hill of him being on offense even makes sense is Trevor Lawrence has to play a little bit better and they have to get on the same page. And that game, and we talked about this after that game ended, he had 100 yards receiving, had a touchdown. There were a lot more to be had. I went back and watched the all 22 on the game film. He hits some wide open starting the very first series of the game wide open. I just I don’t know why Trevor right now isn’t processing the right way and getting the ball to Hunter on some of these reads because there’s times that he’s open and and Trevor’s just locking on to one guy and not getting to Travis and not getting to his next progression. I will put some of the blame on Travis though and this goes back and forth with you guys saying, “Hey, let him play defense. Give him a couple snaps on offense. They’ll figure it out on some of these gadget plays.” Timing and and trust and reps is so important. There’s a couple on a third and 12. He runs across the route. Travis isn’t looking at Trevor. He throws it, goes right by him. Not on the same page. They have a quick out to the right sideline, misses him outside. Like those are plays that you should be able to make with your eyes closed. But that pass you talking about got tipped at the line, too. Which one? Where the crossing route where it went. He wasn’t even looking. But it got tipped. It doesn’t even if you he threw it in front of him. It got tipped. So it went Travis Hunter was looking straight ahead. He wasn’t looking for the ball. And Trevor still threw it to him regardless if it got tipped, if it was accurate or not. He wasn’t even looking, expecting the ball. That tells me that they don’t rep those plays enough and they’re not on the same page. And so to back me up a little bit too, go look at what uh Jimmy Smith, five-time Pro Bowl, twotime all pro wide receiver, said on Twitter, Jags legend at wide receiver. He said Travis Hunter should be our number one wide receiver. And I’m trusting what that man says. I understand the argument. What position did he play? He played receiver. Oh, okay. Well, hey, I can show you different DBs. think that Richard Sherman said on Sunday he should be a DB. Uh Ryan Clark said on Sunday he should be a D. We can go down the list. A man that played in ball and watches the game closely and plays that position recognizes talent when he sees it. And you can argue those other guys do too. But you can’t deny when Travis Hunter catches a two- yard route. It’s going for 10 at least. If he catches an underneath route, he can take it to the house. He can score at any point in time on the field. He is that dangerous. What did they miss on Sunday? Huh? What did they get them on Sunday? What do you mean? What did that get them on Sunday? All them catches and yards. What did it get them? Seven. Yeah, but you can’t put that on Travis. You’re saying that he I’m saying that on the opposite. I just told you multiple times. The guy he would have been on had how many touchdowns? He would have been covering Devonte. How many touchdowns he have? Three. And they were red zone targets where he just threw it up. We talk about a freakish athlete, do we not? The reason you want him off is cuz he’s a freak athlete. I want him on offense, but this argument right now is because they need him on offense. Remember the pass in Kansas City and I said anybody you you can go get multiple receivers to go up and get that. And your argument was no, you can’t. That’s him and his body control. You see what he did when he covered Devonte one-on-one down the sideline and Devonte was catching it over everybody else or flags. And what did Travis do? He recovered. It was under thrown though, Gerald. You can’t say that. He recovered. And I’m not He recovered because the ball was under thrown. I’m talking about, let’s say, let’s put him in the red zone. It’s a 50/50 ball with Travis Hunter. You’re talking about what if in hypotheticals. I’m not saying he’s not a great DB. I’m just saying right now, you’re talking about hypotheticals. If he was on Devonte, that’s not hypothetical. If he’s on on defense on Sunday, they five Matthew Stavin threw under 200 yards, but he had five touchdowns. A lot of that’s in the red zone. Three of them went to the number one wide receiver who would have been on Travis Hunter would have been on it. Okay, that’s all I’m saying. He got all the targets, all them yards. Travis Hunter finally got his first touchdown and everybody’s celebrating. I was happy for him, too. They got seven points when this young guy and he’s s he’s such a phenomenal person. They asked him after the game, “How do you feel about playing both sides of the ball?” Man, I I just do what they tell me. If they say go to offense, I go to offense. They say go to defense. I don’t ask questions. I just do what they tell me. Which you at? He said he had to go to the coach and say, “Coach, just give me the ball.” That’s the difference. He has to wait on the ball. You just said Travis, you just said Trevor Lawrence has to play better. They have to get on the same page. You ain’t got to do that on defense. We I got to understand the defense and I’m with you all game. I ain’t got to worry about nobody get me the ball cuz I’m locked in on you. You just watched them struggle against the Rams, put up seven points because of Travis Hunter. You watched them struggle against Seattle on offense. And your answer to that is say, “Let’s take Travis Hunter off of offense and put him primary on.” But Rich, which where do you want him? I’m going I’m going wide receiver. I want to see him. Wow. We got We got the offensive player. Obviously, we’re both offensive players. He’s a defensive player. They need him right now. They They need him on offense, right? Give him a one-two punch with Travis Hunter. Brian Thomas isn’t having the year he had last year. He’s having a down year. I think you give Trevor Lawrence a nice one-two punch. This this whole novelty of he can play both ways. Yes, physically he could play both ways, but it’s taking away from his dynamic playmaking ability. This guy is different on the field, his body control. He gets down with the ball and he gets north and south. He is a very very rare specimen. I mean, this this kid’s a stud, but Jacksonville is having issues with drops right now. 32% of uh Trevor Lawrence’s incompletions are coming to receivers. You got Brian Thomas, Deami Brown, Travis ETN even having some drops. So, I get the case to play him on defense. He’s a shutdown corner. You lock him down on your number one. That Rams offense is is really well and they showed up in London ready to play. Jacksonville a little a little less prepared. But I really think that if you give him 100% offensive snaps, let him get those reps with Trevor Lawrence, it’ll open up their offense even more. Well, that’s what we seen Sunday. Play primarily offense. I’m going to say what I said when Travis was at Colorado. If given the opportunities, he will revolutionize football as we know it in the modern era because he will make a Pro Bowl on offense and defense in the same year and he will do it multiple times if given the opportunities. Liam Cohen obviously going into the Rams game said, “Well, they don’t have Puka, so I don’t need Travis to play defense in the first half.” So, he played no snaps on defense in the first half. To your point, Devonte is number one. So, who’s by far the best cornerback on the roster by by far. It ain’t even close. It’s Travis Hunter. Trust me on this. Like Dion will tell you, the greatest corner ever that he’s in my league. He He He’s the only one I’ve ever seen who’s actually in my league as a cornerback. If you put him on Devonte from from snap number one and let him play every defensive snap against the Rams, Devonte caught three touchdown passes from two yards, one yard, and one yard. Trust me. Trust me, he’ll have a hard time catching it on hypothetical. These are all hypotheticals, right? And the fact of the matter is he’s not making the Pro Bowl this year. Ibuka is another wide receiver taken way later in the draft. They traded up. They gave all the draft capital to get this kid to come in. And I get it. He can. He can. But right now, he’s contributing nothing. He has his first receiving touchdown in week seven in garbage time. This guy is a differencemaker. If if you’re going to play him on one side of the ball, let him master that side of the ball. Quit going back and forth because through seven weeks, he’s had little to no impact. I’m going to let Skip finish, but then we going ahead. Who’s the best receiver on the roster? And I I respect Brian Thomas. I’m saying right now how they’re playing. Brian Thomas. No, I’m saying Travis Hunter right now is the best. He’s the best receiver. Who has better numbers? How they’re playing Travis? So Travis has more catches by one. I think BTJ has more yards by maybe 60 or 70. If you go ask the coaching staff who watch them, who watches them practice every day, who’s the best receiver? They’ll say Travis. but they’re caught in the middle and now they’re devaluing him on both sides of the ball because we don’t play him that much on defense, but we plan they played twice as many snaps offense to defense and yet they’re not going allin either way. I feel strongly both ways. He should be playing almost he he played 83% of the snaps last year on defense at Colorado and 85% on offense, but it was actually more defensive snaps because they had more. But the point is, Dion will tell you he’s just fine. He can run all day and the college offenses play way faster than the pro offenses do. So So Dion saying he he was keeping up last year. No problem. And and it’s not he’s not a physical player. So he’s not it’s not that he can’t take the pounding of of playing both ways because he doesn’t do that. I don’t need you to. Yeah. He he you don’t need him to. I’m just telling you, he is underutilized now on both sides of the ball because if if you let him play every snap on defense and get his legs underneath him, he will start to evolve as the best shutdown corner in football. But right now, he’s playing so few few snaps that even on the play that you’re talking about up the sideline, he he actually Devonte got him at about a step. Yeah. Well, it was underthrown and he made a hell of a play on the football skills. But what did Travis say after one snap? What did Travis say afterwards? I don’t know. This is what I do. Yeah. He said that for a reason. Yeah. He all them catches and he do his dances and stuff, but when he when he did that with Tay, he beat his chair and said, “This is what I do.” I’m not for a reason. I’m not disagreeing. They play in one snap. One snap. How many you play on offense? He played way more on offense. And they had how many points? So, you’re keep saying that like taking him off offense is going to fix that problem. You want to score more points, keep him put him on. He’s the only one doing anything. Keep him on the Let him play all offense. Play offense. 68 snaps on offense to 15 on defense against the Rams. 68 to 15. And on the season, he’s got 257 snaps on offense and 148 on defense. So, he’s leaning more offense. Let him head coach. Let him He’s an offensive coordinator. So, that that’s that’s why I say it’s hard enough to be a Pro Bowl player at one position. We’re asking this kid to not only learn the entire offense, learn the defense, learn what other offenses are trying to do with him. We all agree he should be on one side. It’s just different on which side you got. You have to specialize him. And I I get that he can turn into a Pro Bowl player, but he hasn’t shown it yet. Let’s get him on one side of the ball. Let him specialize. Let him take over. And then we could get back to this novelty of this idea that he’s gonna transcend the game because he’s not the best wide receiver in the NFL. He’s not the best corner in the NFL. Let’s get him on one side of the ball and end all this all this hyperbole and saying, “Oh, well, he could do this and he could do this.” We’re seven weeks through the NFL season and he’s contributed nothing. So, in that first half or the game period, eight catches, what do you have? 101 yard one touchdown. How much of that came when the game was within It was garbage. I’m not disagreeing that it didn’t happen in the second half. It was garbage. Go watch the film, Joe. You We even talked about it. I’ve seen it. There are times he’s wide open. There’s one where he Trevor forces the ball over the middle. Travis is the next read and he and you know, and obviously he’s frustrated, but he throws his hands up like, “Hey man, like get me the ball. I I can make plays if you get me the ball.” And Trevor, he has to get the ball. So why do so we going to deal with we going to keep him on offense all year with Trevor Lawrence trying to get him the ball instead of putting somewhere where we know it does not matter he can he will affect the game regardless of what he does at quarterback. Trevor Lawrence is playing the way he’s playing. Brian Thomas is dropping the ball. They can’t run the ball. Whatever he it doesn’t matter how explosive or talented you are. You are a dependent position. We understand he’s he can get over every wide receiver though in the NFL. So, put him where he can be effective. You don’t need nobody else to do what you do. Trevor struggling. They’re they’re giving up a bunch of sacks. They have a ton of drops. Wouldn’t you want to take your best player and feature him on offense and help take some pressure off of Trevor Lawrence? He needs a sure-handed. He’s on offense, right? He’s on offense. If you got a guy that can’t get the ball, you’re wasting. It’s not that he can’t get him the ball, though. Yes, he’s missing some reason. I’m not This isn’t a I’m not trying to just come down and knock on Trevor this whole time. I think he’s done some good things this year. But how do you fix that? How you fix that is reps and trust at practice. Routes on air. Instead of him going and playing corner for a couple series of or periods at practice, then coming over and playing a couple plays at wide receiver, going back and forth, you put them at wide receiver for the entire week of practice, the entire three weeks of practice, and let them get comfortability level with Trevor Lawrence. Let them get on the same page. They trust each other. Now I know I’m going to start looking for you as that second option instead of trying to get it to BTJ. Now I know that I can trust. I can give you a 50/50 ball and you’re going to go make a play because I have comfortability of it in practice and evidence of you doing it over and over when you just throw him in versus who? Yeah, I think we all just Yeah, I think we all want Travis Hunter to excel and he’s not excelling right now. Even the chat is confused. 50% of the chat right now says they want him to play both sides. So it’s kind of split down the middle everywhere. Nobody knows what to do with this guy. We do want him to excel. I kind of want to move on to another young player, okay? Because the Browns finally got a win. But if I’m being honest, I think I could have played quarterback. It was a dink and a dunk.

Travis Hunter’s BREAKOUT Game TEARS APART The Arena as Cody Kessler, Gerald McCoy, Skip Bayless & The Arena Gridiron Crew react to Travis Hunter’s best game in the NFL as the unicorn prospect went over 100 yards and scored his 1st NFL touchdown and debate if the Jacksonville Jaguars need to take Hunter off defense to unlock his full potential as their primary wide receiver.

The Arena premieres every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET.

Sign up for Underdog HERE with promo code GRID and play $5 to get $100 in bonus funds or bonus entries https://play.underdogfantasy.com/pc-fmSelmHdZ1

SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvjYgmwadC682OoC4Cc6TQ

Join the Underdog discord for access to exclusive giveaways and promos!
https://discord.gg/underdog

Must be 18+ (19+ in AL, NE; 19+ in CO for some games; 21+ in AZ & MA) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.ncpgambling.org; NY: Call the 24/7 HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY or Text HOPENY (467369)