Jaguars’ immediate Travis Hunter plan after NFL Draft trade

Heading into day one of the 2025 NFL Draft, we knew that Colorado football two-way star Travis Hunter was going to be one of the first players off the board. Sure enough, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who originally had the fifth overall pick, traded up to #2 in order to draft Hunter. The trade was with the Cleveland Browns, who dropped down to #5. Hunter wasn’t the first overall pick, but he heard his name called quickly, and he is heading to Jacksonville.

Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last year after being one of the most versatile players that college football has ever seen. Hunter was a star on both defense and offense for Colorado as he was a wide receiver and a defensive back.

The Jaguars have options with Hunter as he can do a lot on the football field, and it sounds like their initial plan is to test the waters on both offense and defense.

“The Jaguars had been trying to get a deal done with the Browns,” NFL insider Tom Pelissero said. “It had been coming together, the loose parameters had been in place for a while here, but it came down to actually getting it done shortly before the draft here. They go up and they land Travis Hunter, a guy that, from my understanding, the Jaguars intend to start out in the wide receiver room, but they’re also going to have him meet with the defensive backs. They’ll have him practice some at that position as well, but he’s a starter first.”

As a WR, Hunter hauled in 96 receptions for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. That alone would’ve made for an incredibly impressive season, but he also put up big numbers on defense. He finished the year with 36 total tackles and four interceptions.

Hunter made his biggest impact on offense when he was at Colorado, but he showed that he can excel on both sides of the ball. It makes sense to make him an offense-first guy in the NFL, but he is good enough on defense to where it’s also worth giving him a shot as a DB.

Travis Hunter was one of the biggest storylines of the first day of the 2025 NFL Draft, but there is still a lot of action that will go down throughout the rest of the weekend. Only the first round took place on Thursday night, and with rounds two and three and Friday, a lot more big-name players will be taken off the board.