Despite being a generational, two-way talent and coming off of a Heisman Trophy-winning season, Travis Hunter was a polarizing prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft. No one could seem to agree whether he should be primarily a wide receiver or cornerback at the next level, or if a team should truly let him play every snap on both sides.
The Jacksonville Jaguars showed they didn’t find him polarizing at all, pulling off a huge trade to pick him second overall. During training camp, it became clear that new head coach Liam Coen didn’t want to overload Hunter by giving him major responsibilities on both offense and defense. That translated to the regular season, with Hunter’s snap percentages varying week-to-week.
The double duty didn’t allow Hunter to find a rhythm on either side of the ball. His lack of offensive production showed that. But in Week 7, Hunter exploded as a wide receiver, racking up 101 yards and a touchdown in breakout fashion. While it came in garbage time, it looks like a turning point in Hunter’s rookie season, at least offensively.
Travis Hunter is finally being used as a real wide receiver, but will it last?
Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon believes the Jaguars had a “slow but intentional ramp-up” for Hunter as a wide receiver, but that he could explode coming out of the bye week. Sports data science analyst Zain Dhanani agrees. But in doing so, Dhanani took a bit of a shot at Jacksonville’s coaching staff for using Hunter as a gadget player early on.
The question will be whether Hunter’s offensive explosion leads to decreased snaps at cornerback. Hunter played only 20% of the defensive snaps in that breakout game before the bye week, though the game was well out of hand before long. With the bye week to ramp him up completely, we could see more Hunter on the field than we have to this point in his NFL career.
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