Just about every year, a Heisman winner gets taken in the NFL Draft. So that didn’t make Travis Hunter unique. However, a two-way Heisman winner isn’t something we’ve seen in decades, which appropriately garnered Hunter the label of being a unicorn. The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Hunter second overall as both a wide receiver and cornerback, and ever since then, there’s been speculation on how the team would utilize someone with his special abilities.
The early returns are a bit underwhelming, considering that he didn’t just play two positions in college at Colorado, he starred at two positions. Through three NFL games, Hunter has 10 receptions for 76 yards and no touchdowns on offense, while having nine tackles, one pass defensed and no interceptions on defense.
The specific injury that occurred in the last game was Jags wideout, Dyami Brown, exiting with a shoulder injury. Brown, a starter, had played in 76.5 percent of offensive snaps through the first two weeks before being limited to 32.9 percent of snaps in Week 3. However, instead of having Hunter assume Brown’s snaps, the Jaguars simply utilized receivers, Parker Washington and Tim Patrick, more last game as they each had season highs in snaps.
“I don’t think it’s fair to go say, ‘Hey dude, go learn Z and X and 12 and this and that,’” Coen said of Hunter learning more of the receiver positions. “We have to make sure he can go execute what we are asking him to do first and foremost, which is to play ‘F’ and corner.”
So far, Hunter has played 58.5 percent of offensive snaps, which ranks third amongst Jaguars receivers, and 46.9 percent of defensive snaps, which is also third amongst Jags cornerbacks. That’s a far cry from his usage in Colorado as during his Heisman-winning season last year, Hunter played at least 82.9 percent of snaps on both sides of the ball. The prior year with the Buffs, Hunter averaged 114.7 total snaps per game. As a pro, Hunter has yet to play more than 85 snaps in any game.
One person who isn’t thrilled with the way Jacksonville is utilizing Hunter is his former coach, Deion Sanders. Coach Prime knows a thing or two about playing on both sides of the ball in the NFL as while with the Dallas Cowboys in 1996, Sanders was a First-Team All-Pro at cornerback while also ranking second on the team with 475 receiving yards at wideout.
Sanders was asked about Hunter’s NFL usage and discussed how Colorado managed his practice schedule in order to allow him to play full-time on both sides of the ball on Saturdays.
While the quantity of Hunter’s snaps is one thing, the quality of his play on the field is another. To this point, Hunter has performed better on defense than on offense. Per Pro-Football-Reference, Hunter has been targeted on defense eight times and has allowed a 92.7 passer rating, which is very close to the league average passer rating of 91.6. However, defending the pass isn’t the only job of a cornerback as Hunter has excelled as a tackler, as he has nine stops and zero missed tackles.
The numbers aren’t as good on the offensive side of the ball. He has two drops already with just 10 receptions, and by comparison, last year, Tyreek Hill had two drops on the season but also had 81 receptions. Additionally, Trevor Lawrence has thrown two interceptions while targeting Hunter, though it’s hard to know which player is more at fault for that.
It’s only been three games, so it’s still a work in progress, and Coen admitted as much. He said that the coaching staff can do a better job of helping out Hunter by getting his input on what works best for him.
“We had a great talk with Trav after this past game, in terms of just man like, all right, ‘How can we help you,’” Coen said. “So, we’ve got to, I think, be a little bit more diligent in terms of putting him in positions to maybe not have to do as many moving parts, so that we can just let him go play.”
