When the Jacksonville Jaguars boldly traded their second- and fourth-round picks plus a 2026 first-round pick to the Cleveland Browns to move up from No. 5 to No. 2 overall and select Colorado wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter during the 2025 NFL draft, many called them crazy.
The Jaguars paid a steep price to land the Heisman Trophy winner, but they consider it a price worth paying considering the plan is to play Hunter on both offense and defense.
Head coach Liam Coen stated the 21-year-old two-way star will be an offensive starter in 2025, and during the first two days of rookie minicamp, Hunter has worked exclusively with the offensive unit.
But on Saturday, Coen announced that the team will start adding more to Hunter’s plate next week as he starts working in with the defense as well.
“Net week [he’ll start getting reps on defense],” Coen said. “Yeah, he’ll get integrated next week on the defensive side of the ball. We just kind of ended up making a decision that rom yesterday to today, we wanted to be able to clean up some of the things that we may have missed yesterday, get extra reps on the offensive side of the ball, and next week he’ll start rolling on defense.”
Travis Hunter will take reps on defense at OTAs.@Dream_Finders | #DUUUVALpic.twitter.com/kWrfBckslE
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) May 10, 2025
While it’ll be the first time Hunter will be taking live reps on the practice field on defense, he told reporters on Saturday that he’s actually already started doing some defensive work — he just hasn’t shown it on the field yet.
“I’ve been already getting integrated with the defense,” Hunter disclosed. “I’ve been doing offense and defense [film study] but the past two days I just came out here and did offense [drills].”
Hunter starred on both sides of the ball at Colorado.
He caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns en route to winning the Fred Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to the top receiver in college football.
Hunter also logged 35 tackles, 11 passes defensed, eight forced incompletions, four interceptions, and a forced fumble, while allowing a completion percentage of 56.1 with one touchdown surrendered in coverage, per Pro Football Focus, earning him Big 12 Defensive Player of the year honors.
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