Another day and another story about Jacksonville Jaguars WR/CB Travis Hunter. Just thirty seconds after he was drafted second overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, the chatter started regarding whether he’d play offense, defense or both. And it hasn’t stopped!
The latest comes from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who says that Hunter will mainly play wide receiver with a bit of cornerback sprinkled in.
“The Jacksonville Jaguars are planning for Travis Hunter to be an “every-down wide receiver and situational corner” in Sunday’s regular-season opener against the Carolina Panthers, league sources told ESPN,” Schefter posted on X.
Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen on Friday gave pretty much the same stock answer he’s given throughout voluntary practices, OTAs and training camp.
“We’re going to have to figure it out,” Coen said. “We’re going to have to all be flexible. We’ll come up with that plan over the next 24 hours in terms like, alright, what are the exact maybe numbers we want to hit on both sides or usage?”
Travis Hunter is a curveball
Last week, Coen talked about the scheduling challenges involving Hunter. It’s a lot for any player in today’s NFL to learn more than one position, let alone one on each side of the ball. Then add in the fact that Hunter is a rookie who probably spent the first month or so just learning where the bathrooms are in the facility.
“Every single person had to be truly on board with taking on this situation and opportunity,” Coen said. “When you’re talking about scheduling, that’s a curveball and a half because you’re saying, OK, we’ve got to make sure he’s getting X amount of days on both sides of the ball, but on those days, he’s not on one side, we’re still making sure we’re getting him in meetings on the other side of the ball.”
Coen admits what no one else has really been talking about: Coen is a rookie too. Not only is he trying to handle Hunter with care, but he’s also trying to find the bathrooms.
“So talk about (assistant) coaches having to take some extra workload on,” Coen added. “They don’t get much of a break because if it’s during special teams (portions of practice), he’s not on a special teams unit but there’s going to be an offensive or defensive coach meeting with him every single minute of his day that he is in our building. That took a lot of time to map out, and it was a curveball, especially for a first-time head coach trying to put together a whole operation.”
ESPN predicts Travis Hunter will shut down Tetairoa McMillan
This week’s matchup between Jacksonville and Carolina will feature a potential battle between Hunter and the guy the Panthers took six picks later, wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan. Will Hunter get a chance to cover him?
If he does, ESPN’s Seth Walder predicts that Hunter will shut McMillan down.
“Jaguars WR/CB Travis Hunter will not allow a reception as the nearest defender to WR Tetairoa McMillan,” Walder writes. “It remains to be seen how often the two will be matched up (and, I suppose, how much Hunter plays on defense), but I’ll back the No. 2 pick over the No. 8 pick when they do square off.
That is indeed quite a bold prediction considering Hunter is still a rookie learning two positions and the Panthers really seem excited about McMillan. But, it gives us a reason to watch a game that we otherwise might use to test the fast-forward function on Red Zone channel (I know it doesn’t have a fast-forward function, but thank you for the emails).
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