Travis Hunter, the former Colorado Buffaloes two-way star and 2024 Heisman Trophy winner, is poised for a breakout rookie year under the Jaguars‘ offensive-minded head coach, Liam Coen. Selected second overall after Jacksonville traded up, Hunter’s first NFL contract is a historic four-year, $46.6 million deal, where he will receive the entire $30.57 million signing bonus upfront.
Based on Hunter’s contract and everything the Jaguars’ brass has said publicly so far, it suggests they plan to give Hunter every chance to be a star on both defense and offense. However, no one knows how much of a two-way player Hunter will be during his rookie season.
On a recent episode of the Rich Eisen Show, Jaguars’ senior president of football and analytics, Tony Khan, did not dismiss Hunter’s full capabilities as a two-way player, but did suggest it might not be to the extent he played at Colorado.
“Liam [Coen] plans to involve Travis on both offense and defense,” Khan said. “I think there’s going to be different game flow. Different games have different flows but I know he’s going to contribute and play a lot of snaps on both sides of the ball… 100 [snaps] is a lot, man.”
While Khan seems to fully support his head coach’s plan of turning Hunter, there might be a cap to how far the Jaguars push Hunter, at least to begin his career.
Hunter and the rest of Jacksonville’s newcomers begin training camp on July 19, with the team’s preseason opener scheduled for August 9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The three preseason games will be our first indication of how the Jaguars plan to utilize Hunter.
Follow Charlie Strella on X, Threads, and Instagram.
Contact/Follow us @BuffaloesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Colorado news, notes and opinions.