Last year’s Heisman Award ceremony was among the most controversial ever. Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty was the betting favorite, but he would lose out to Travis Hunter.
Hunter, similar to his college coach Deion Sanders, received acclaim for playing both sides of the football as a cornerback and wide receiver. Athletically, he looked like an elite prospect and someone who could reinvent what it means to be a skill position player. Overall, his statistics at the University of Colorado supported this conclusion.
During his Heisman-winning junior season, he accumulated 1258 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also had a ridiculous 13.1 yards per reception during this time.
He was, in many ways, a light in a dark room for the Colorado Buffaloes. While Colorado got off to a hot start during his sophomore season, going 3-0, they would finish the season with a record of 4-8.
Hunter sustained a shoulder injury early in the season. This injury contributed significantly to the team’s poor record. Unfortunately, the six consecutive losses to end the season set off many red flags in the minds of scouts.
However, a fully healthy Hunter and the Buffaloes would go 9-4 the following season, making a bowl game.
His incredible statistics and relative college success would lead scouts to consider him a top-three prospect in the 2025 NFL draft. The Jacksonville Jaguars shocked everyone by trading up three spots to take him as the second pick in the NFL draft.
In the trade, the Cleveland Browns moved down three spots and received an additional second-round and fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft, as well as a first-round pick in the 2026 draft.
Charting Unknown Territory
It was an expensive price to pay for moving up just three spots. But Jaguars general manager James Gladstone referred to Hunter as a player “who can alter the sport itself.”
However, because Hunter played two positions, the Jaguars were charting unknown territory in terms of his snap count. It was unclear how many snaps he would play on both sides of the football.
During training camp, Liam Coen, the Jaguars’ head coach, estimated that Hunter would play 80% of both offensive and defensive snaps. This level of versatility would be unprecedented in the modern NFL. During this same interview, Coen alluded that it would be possible for Hunter to win offensive rookie of the year.
However, many were skeptical of this plan. To start with, Hunter was the third-string cornerback on the Jaguars’ depth chart. Furthermore, the modern NFL requires a level of physicality that makes it nearly impossible to excel at both sides of the ball.
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams stated, “I don’t think it’s possible to do for real. Not at a high level.”
Adams would go on to mention the fact that Hunter’s wiry frame would make it challenging to make brilliant offensive plays on one possession while tackling players like Derrick Henry on the next. Before the season, Hunter also alluded that he was not accustomed to the complexity of NFL playbooks compared to college.
A Concerning Start
These concerns have proved accurate at the start of the NFL season. Hunter has struggled to make a mark both offensively and defensively. He has mostly been lining up in the slot, something that is hurting his usage on offense. He has just 16 receptions through five weeks on 24 targets for a total of 182 yards.
On defense, he has just 13 total tackles and no interceptions. According to PFF, Hunter is ranked 65th out of 66 WRs. What’s even worse is that he is not getting enough snaps on either side of the football.
Last week, he played 42 snaps on offense with just six receptions for 33 yards. He played just six defensive snaps with one tackle. Essentially, he is not effective on either side of the football.
Travis Hunter was supposed to redefine the game of football. However, his early struggles serve as a reminder that talent gets labeled as generational too quickly. For now, this two-way experiment serves as a reminder that even the NFL’s most ambitious ideas can fail when they collide with reality.
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