Why Travis Hunter Should Do the Improbable

There is a rarity when it comes to Hunter, especially in his current predicament. He is a fantastic playmaker wherever he lines up. Let's look at this repeitition from Hunter against one of the NFL's best.

Hunter is lined up in a press-man alignment against Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Davante Adams. In most cases, you would expect a rookie cornerback to struggle against the dynamic releases and route-running IQ of Adams.

This is a good stop-sell from Adams to get Hunter to settle in his pedal and mirroring, allowing for separation. However, Hunter’s athleticism is on full display with great recovery speed and skills to attack the catch point downfield, swiping the pass out of Adams' hands. Not bad for your first defensive repetition of the game.

Against Seattle Seahawks star wideout, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Hunter is in an off-ball alignment. Smith-Njigba runs a slant with a flat defender grazing him during the route, which might’ve disrupted the play in some way.

Hunter shows patient read steps before seeing Smith-Njigba turn for the ball, and as he does this, he goes on the attack and plays the receiver at the catch point. This ball is nearly intercepted, and it bounces off the knee of Hunter before landing incomplete in another realm.

The wide receiver

Onto the offensive side of the ball, Hunter goes in motion on a play action against the Rams Cover 3 defense that sees the curl-flat defender get sucked into the action, leaving Hunter as a great checkdown option for Trevor Lawrence.

This may seem like a gradual first-down pickup, but the slight, subtle move is what Hunter does best against defenders to keep them guessing in pursuit, which allows him to destroy angles to the ball carrier. His run-after-catch ability is aided by terrific quick-twitch, outstanding short-area quickness, and a change of direction to generate yards and moves in space.

From the eyes of the quarterback, Lawrence broke this play down following Sunday’s game, explaining how Hunter wasn’t the first read on his first career touchdown reception:

"He's kind of an alert there if you get a matchup, you get a look. They were playing a cover-three version, and I could have thrown the quick out to Parker [Washington], but the corner tied down and I felt like we had a matchup there with the safety, and Travis did a good job fighting through -- they were holding him. That's why we got the flag. But fought through the contact, still made the play on the ball. Yeah, did some good stuff for sure."

Upon a second look, as Lawrence likely observed after the play or during meetings before breaking for the bye, this appears to be a cover-one variation with man coverage, a four-man rush, a single-high defender, and the strong-side safety playing the robber, with the middle field closed. 

Hunter is lined up in the slot running the corner on a variation of bench or smash, depending on how the team or person may view it. He is held as he makes his stem break, but uses instant acceleration after the hold to gain separation, as Lawrence puts the ball in a place only where Hunter can catch it for the touchdown.

The verdict

As I wrote the other day for Jacksonville Jaguars On SI, Hunter needs to see the field significantly on both sides of the ball. A full-time workload in general might be too much, but playing at least 75 percent of all offensive and defensive snaps gives the Jaguars a high-end playmaker who can help win this team games as a top target in the passing game and a quality coverage defender.

Why is this hard to grasp for others? People who want to see Hunter thrive in one spot over another, and feel he may have more success, and provide a high ceiling at either wide receiver or cornerback. Fantasy football players want to see the production at wideout in traditional and points-per-reception formats, which is more than fair.

At the same time, if this specific player has shown to be effective and impactful on the other side of the ball, why not reap the benefits of playing him significantly at cornerback and wide receiver?

It is time for the Jaguars to test this theory. Only time will tell if this becomes the case, as the bye week moves along, and what happens afterwards will have keener eyes from fans and media alike.

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