{"id":677030,"date":"2026-01-14T16:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/677030\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:55:18","slug":"jaguars-gm-on-travis-hunter-in-2026-we-still-expect-him-to-play-on-both-sides-of-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/677030\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaguars GM on Travis Hunter in 2026: ‘We still expect him to play on both sides of the ball’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Jaguars plan on Travis Hunter remaining a two-way option in 2026, despite the receiver\/cornerback having his rookie NFL season cut short after seven games due to knee surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Wednesday following their wild-card round defeat to the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said Hunter\u2019s rehab process is going \u201cas expected\u201d and the 2025 No. 2 overall draft pick is \u201chitting it hard\u201d as he prepares to return to the field next season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Hunter went down with a non-contact injury<\/a> in October and while his ACL remained intact, surgery was needed and a six-month recovery timeline was announced.<\/p>\n

The injury to the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner raised questions about the Jaguars\u2019 usage of Hunter going forward. Would he remain an option on both sides of the ball for head coach Liam Coen?<\/p>\n

According to Gladstone, Hunter might see a little more time at cornerback next season given the contractual status of some members of their current secondary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“[W]e still expect him to play on both sides of the ball,\u201d Gladstone said. \u201cObviously, you can take a peek at expiring contracts on our roster and which side of the ball has more. \u2026 By default you can expect there to be a higher emphasis on his placement.”<\/p>\n

Hunter played 162 of his 486 total snaps at cornerback with 15 tackles and three pass deflections. At wide receiver, he recorded 28 receptions on 45 targets for 298 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Jaguars will be plenty busy this offseason<\/a> as they look to build off a 13-4, AFC South division-winning season and a second playoff berth in four years.<\/p>\n

Coen’s first season was a success, and it’ll be on the front office to continue building the roster into a Super Bowl contender. Getting a healthy, impactful Hunter back will go a long way to balancing their roster on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Jaguars plan on Travis Hunter remaining a two-way option in 2026, despite the receiver\/cornerback having his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[53,7,212,125,2401,213,1302,6,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-677030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-buffalo-bills","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","13":"tag-jaguars","14":"tag-james-gladstone","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-travis-hunter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115894506242939969","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}