JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Travis Hunter\u2019s unique situation in Jacksonville requires some delicate balancing. <\/p>\n
The Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall draft pick is expected to try and play both ways with the Jaguars, something that has only been done essentially twice in the modern era. He was able to do that with the University of Colorado, shining at receiver and cornerback. <\/p>\n
But doing that consistently, more than a season or two, in the NFL would be something the league hasn\u2019t seen regularly since the late 1950s. <\/p>\n
Hunter has been getting most of the minicamp and OTA snaps at receiver, working alongside second-year player Brian Thomas Jr. and free agent signee Dyami Brown. On paper, those three players will lead a receiving corps that should be a massive upgrade on last year\u2019s group. But the other piece of the Hunter puzzle is how he fits on defense. <\/p>\n
Last week was the first period of heavier lifting on the defensive side of the ball for Hunter. <\/p>\n
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen talks to reporters after Tuesday’s organized team activity practice. (News4JAX)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good. He\u2019s still learning, he\u2019s been learning a ton defensively and offensively, as we know. But that was more so fundamentals, techniques,\u201d Coen said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a ton of 11-on-11, seven-on, it was fundamentals, techniques, communication. That was kind of what last Wednesday was, and he\u2019s been learning with those guys and meeting with them extra as he\u2019s needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can what Hunter wants to do in the NFL be done? The last full-time two-way player in the league was Chuck Bednarik in 1962. There have been players since who have played in spurts on both sides of the ball, but Deion Sanders and Arizona\u2019s Roy Green are the two best comps for what Hunter wants to attempt. <\/p>\n
Sanders, of course, was Hunter\u2019s coach at both Jackson State and Colorado, and his 1996 season with the Cowboys is perhaps the closest recent comparable that aligns with what Jacksonville could expect from Hunter. <\/p>\n
Sanders was a first-team All-Pro that season who had 36 catches on 67 targets for 475 yards and a touchdown. On defense, Sanders\u2019 primary position, he had 33 tackles, a couple interceptions and three fumble recoveries. But that was Sanders\u2019 heaviest workload as a two-way player during his Pro Football Hall of Fame career. Of his 60 all-time catches, more than half came in 1996. <\/p>\n
Green played both ways in 1980 and \u201981, picking off three passes and forcing four fumbles. He switched to receiver full time in 1983 and earned All-Pro honors in that season and also in 1984. He caught 156 passes for 2,782 yards and 26 touchdowns in those seasons. <\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said that he enjoyed having Hunter in the defensive system last Wednesday, but said Hunter\u2019s workload on that side of the ball would be his boss\u2019 decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s up to the head guy [Coen],\u201d Campanile said with a laugh. \u201cWe have a plan for Travis, and we\u2019re excited to put that in place. It\u2019s been going very well to this point. We\u2019re excited to keep it moving throughout the course of the preseason and regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coen said that Hunter\u2019s unique situation means that he\u2019ll have to work with both sides of the ball during a single practice once the season gets here. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s definitely going to have to do that. I envision maybe a third-down day in-season where obviously he\u2019s playing receiver, but he\u2019s also going to have to go get some reps on defense and be able to do some of those things,\u201d Coen said. \u201cIt will come up, absolutely. Just from the teaching and the initial stages of it, don\u2019t really see that being something we\u2019ll do anytime soon<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Travis Hunter\u2019s unique situation in Jacksonville requires some delicate balancing. The Heisman Trophy winner and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2060],"tags":[4192,7,212,125,2401,213,1642,11589,6,14035,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-83898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville-jaguars","8":"tag-anthony-campanile","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","12":"tag-jacksonvillejaguars","13":"tag-jaguars","14":"tag-liam-coen","15":"tag-news4jags","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-sports4jax","18":"tag-travis-hunter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114582513544881280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83898","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=83898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}