Take a look as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Travis Hunter receives a message from Jerry Rice.
Fanatics welcomed in members of the 2025 NFL rookie draft class with messages from some of the game’s biggest stars. Included was Jacksonville Jaguars’ wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter, who received a message from Jerry Rice.
“I wasn’t the most talented guy out there,” said Rice, “but I had my work ethic, and I wasn’t going to let anyone outwork me.”
Hunter then opened a box, and inside was a signed Jerry Rice 49ers jersey with another message written on it.
“It’s crazy to see him say my name,” Hunter said.
In last Friday’s scrimmage, Hunter began at wide receiver before switching to cornerback roughly halfway through. Then on Tuesday, he would switch back and forth from offense to defense over a series of plays.
The plan with Hunter since the Jaguars made the decision that they were going to trade up for him was to let him play both sides of the ball, and they’ve been executing on a very detailed plan and rigorous schedule to put Hunter in the best position to do that.
“We were in a position to be close to somebody that we felt like changes the math,” GM James Gladstone told ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “Like, quite literally changes the math. You now have an additional player on one side of the ball on game day that nobody else has the luxury of tapping into. It was like, ‘Oh, wow, this could actually be an option, and we don’t foresee it ever being an option again.’ Unless this becomes more of a norm … we’re looking at an opportunity that will never really present itself again. So we might as well, if we want, try and swing it.”