Why Jaguars should play Travis Hunter on only one side of the ball

There's going to be a battle brewing in Jacksonville this Florida, regarding No. 2 overall pick Travis Hunter.

He's a supremely talented player on both sides of the ball. That's the reason he won the Heisman Trophy in 2024 after he starred as both a wide receiver and cornerback for the Colorado Buffaloes.

He wasn't just a part-time player on either side of the ball, either. Hunter was a full-time starting wideout and starting cornerback, and he was a star on both sides of the ball. He notched 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns on offense while securing 36 tackles, four interceptions and 11 passes on defense.

Hunter projects to be able to star at both spots at the NFL level as well, which is why the Jacksonville Jaguars traded a massive haul to the Cleveland Browns for the chance to draft him No. 2 overall.

Now he's a Jaguar, and he's already become the face of the franchise, especially considering quarterback Trevor Lawrence's up-and-down injury history.

He's a player worth getting excited about, too, in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars have said that they'll start Hunter off at wideout, but they do intend for him to play both sides of the ball at the NFL level. Whether or not he can do so at a high level and have the endurance to do so is another question, though, because the NFL is a completely different beast than college ball.

Let's face it, unless Hunter is going to be in the conversation for "greatest of all time," he's going to eventually have to settle into either offense or defense.

The Jaguars have expressed a preference for getting him going on offense, and that's honestly the best move they could make. 

Part of that is because it's easier for a playmaker like Hunter to learn offensive concepts and adjust his "route tree" from college to the NFL compared to learning an entirely new and different defensive scheme at the NFL level.

No matter how good he projects to be, it's worth remembering that he'll still be a rookie getting used to life in the NFL.

There's also the fact that in 2025 and for the foreseeable future, wide receivers simply make more of an impact on games in this offensive-minded league.

If the Jags had to pick where they could get 100 percent of Hunter, they'd choose offense. 

He's the type of wideout who can come in and put up 1,000-plus receiving yards with 10-plus touchdowns as a rookie. That's a huge impact for an offense that's looking to get back on its feet with a quarterback who could really use a bounce-back season in Lawrence.

That's not to say Hunter couldn't make an impact on the Jags' defense, but the amount of impact he can have is so much greater on offense as a rookie than it is on defense. If he gets three picks in his rookie season, for instance, that would be an incredible individual performance. Those turnovers (however important they may be) pale in comparison to actual points on the board via touchdown receptions.

It's not that Hunter can't do both at the NFL level, but the chances of him doing both at a high level over a 17-game season are slim.

That's despite the rave reviews of his athleticism and football abilities.

"Travis is like the rubber-band man," a college football assistant coach familiar with Hunter told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg earlier this week. "He understands football, knows routes off splits, ball skills are out of this world. His ball skills are the best I've ever seen. His endurance is what's really crazy."

Hunter will eventually have to settle into a starting role at wideout and then if he and the Jags want, he can then "moonlight" at cornerback. Either way, that idea had one Big 12 coach predicting that there's going to be a fight in Jacksonville between the offensive and defensive coaching staffs.

"There'll be a fight to see who gets to use him," he told Rittenberg.

Hunter may cause a fight within the Jacksonville coaching staff, and there may even ultimately be some feelings hurt, but he'll be absolutely worth it for Jacksonville.

The thing is, he'd be most worth it on the offensive side of the ball, and that's not even mentioning the fact that Jacksonville's new head coach is the offensive-minded Liam Coen.

All signs point to wideout being Hunter's position this fall, and it makes the most sense for all parties involved.