Travis Hunter finally made his NFL debut on Saturday, but his night didn’t exactly go as planned.
The Jacksonville Jaguars rookie did get his wish of playing both offensive and defensive snaps granted as the Floridian outfit fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 at EverBank Stadium.
But in hindsight, perhaps the 22-year-old is re-thinking his choice to play at cornerback in this particular outing.
This comes after he was humbled by Steelers rookie running back Kaleb Johnson, who bounced him off the turf and ran straight past him, leaving Hunter stricken on the floor on his very first drive of defense.
Missed tackle aside, Jacksonville’s second overall draft pick finished his first-ever NFL game having registered eight defensive snaps where he was not targeted by the opposing quarterback.
“We can flush it [the missed tackle] right away and just get back to business,” Hunter said to reporters about his first play. “I know what I’ve got to do next time.”
On the offensive side of the ball, he played only 10 snaps, all of which came with the first team on the game’s opening drive – in which he had two receptions for nine yards.
He also had another catch, although it was negated by an illegal block penalty on guard, Ezra Cleveland.
According to ESPN, Hunter ran six routes, of which five came from the slot, whilst he was tied for the most targets from quarterback Trevor Lawrence with sophomore Brian Thomas Jr.
Speaking to reporters after the contest, the 2024 Heisman winner admitted he was feeling jittery at the beginning, but slowly grew into the game.
“I was a little nervous at first,” Hunter said. “But after the first play, I was good.”
Jags head coach Liam Coen praised his rookie for making the right decisions offensively in his first outing in the teal uniform.
“He made a couple good catches on some option routes and missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Coen said to reporters.
“I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively, he made the right decisions on those option routes.
“Made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about, but I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”
Can Travis Hunter play two ways?
Hunter’s dream of becoming a legitimate two-way star in the NFL, much like freak athlete Shohei Ohtani is for the Los Angeles Dodgers is in the MLB, is still very much alive.
But very established league veterans have their doubts.
The harsh reality is that playing snaps on both sides will have a huge physical toll on the body, no matter how athletic Hunter is.
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All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams feels it would be too much ‘mileage’ for Hunter to do so on a consistent basis, and goes as far to allude to it potentially dampening the longevity of his career due to the heightened risk for injury.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce thinks Hunter’s statement of intent to make All-Pro teams on both sides of the ball could leave him as a target.
The 35-year-old doesn’t dispute Hunter’s athleticism, once calling him a ‘world class athlete’, but he does feel that the Jaguars rookie will be a key assignment focus in opposition teams’ game plans.
“Teams are going to be going after him,” Kelce said on an appearance on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast in July. “They’re gonna try and make his day miserable.
“If he plays corner, they’re gonna run deep balls at him all day. They’re gonna run the wide receivers, just take off on him all day, just to try to get him tired. Why wouldn’t you just attack him that way?”
Hall of Famers Shannon Sharpe and Chad ‘Ochocino’ Johnson also offered their two cents on their Nightcap podcast, declaring that Hunter needs to showcase to them, and the rest of the league, whether he is up to the task, and at what level he can currently perform at in a gameday simulation.
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