Searching Travis Hunter this morning? Here’s the short version: he’s a 23-year-old Jacksonville Jaguars two-way player, and right now he’s playing almost entirely cornerback. Jacksonville is sticking with that defense-first plan as it faces the Eagles in London today. (And no, he isn’t “college football’s most versatile star” anymore. He graduated from that job.)
Who is Travis Hunter, exactly?
Hunter won the 2024 Heisman Trophy at Colorado under Deion Sanders, playing both receiver and cornerback. Jacksonville drafted him No. 2 overall in 2025 after a draft-day trade. That’s a lot of pressure for a rookie, and then a knee injury cut his first season short.
Now he’s in year two, and the question hanging over every Jaguars game is simple. Which side of the ball is he playing?
Why the Jaguars hit the brakes on the plan
The team still calls Hunter a two-way player. General manager James Gladstone reaffirmed that plan at his end-of-season news conference, according to ESPN. In practice, though, the Jaguars have been patient. Their approach is to build up his defensive workload first and let the offense come later.
The results are hard to argue with. In Week 4, Hunter played a career-high 76 snaps in a 22-17 win over the Bengals. He intercepted Joe Burrow in the first quarter and juked Tee Higgins on a 30-yard return. A teammate’s pass-interference penalty wiped the pick off the board, but the juke went viral anyway, as ESPN noted.
Heavy.com reports he took zero offensive snaps in that game. That’s the point of the plan, not a flaw in it.
What Liam Coen is saying about the Jaguars cornerback
Head coach Liam Coen isn’t flinching. “Look at the last two weeks, what he’s been able to do while we stay firm on the plan,” he said, per USA Today via Yahoo Sports. Asked about more offensive snaps, Coen was just as direct: “will it come? Absolutely.”
The offense is already starting to peek through. Hunter caught a 9-yard slant from Trevor Lawrence in London today, NFL.com notes. It was only his second catch of the season, but it moved the chains.
Here’s the thing: why this matters
This is the NFL’s most prominent attempt at a true two-way player since Deion Sanders in the 1990s. Almost nobody plays both ways in the modern league. The athletic and mental toll is brutal, and one injury can derail everything. Hunter’s knee problem last year is exactly why Jacksonville is easing him in.
There’s a practical side too. Injuries to cornerbacks Montaric Brown and Christian Braswell have thinned the secondary, according to Yahoo Sports. So the defense-first plan is partly a philosophy and partly a need. Jacksonville has gone 12-3 since a 35-7 loss to the Rams in London, including the postseason, per NFL.com’s preview, so the team isn’t desperate to change course.
Of course, the Jaguars aren’t the only team with a quarterback-and-star storyline to untangle. Our look at why Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense fell apart shows what the Jaguars are up against today in London.
What to watch next for the Jaguars two-way star
Keep an eye on Travis Hunter’s snap split from today’s game against the Eagles, which kicked off at 9:30 AM ET. Coen’s news conference on Monday is the next chance to hear whether the plan shifts. The health of Brown and Braswell will also decide how much Hunter has to cover on defense.
Meanwhile, the league’s biggest money stories keep rolling, from Patrick Mahomes’ reported $500 million contract to a record $9.6 billion Seahawks sale. A young two-way player on a rookie deal looks like a bargain by comparison.
So the two-way experiment isn’t dead. It’s just being run in the right order: corner first, receiver whenever the coaches say so. For a No. 2 pick who’s still only 23, that patience might be the smartest play on the board.
