There is a dichotomy to the Jacksonville Jaguars start to the 2025 NFL season. On one hand, they are 2-1 and just one game back of the division-leading Indianapolis Colts. On the other hand, the offense looks relatively poor and rookie phenom Travis Hunter has yet to deliver on the preseason hype.
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen addressed reporters during his Wednesday press conference and said he’s not worried about Hunter yet.
“I wouldn’t say he’s behind,” Coen said. “I think we can probably do a better job of helping him in some ways. We had a great talk with Trav after this past game in terms of just man, like, alright, how can we help you and [where can we] put you, because what is he learning? It’s a lot.
“So, we’ve got to, I think, be a little bit more diligent in terms of putting him in positions to maybe not have to do as many moving parts so that we can just let him go play.”
So far this season, Hunter has 10 catches for 76 yards and no touchdowns, hardly the stats of a phenom especially when he’s been mostly a fill-in on defense.
Jacksonville Jaguars don’t want to put too much on Travis Hunter’s plate
As his yardage would indicate, Hunter isn’t running many deep routes right now. Personally, I’m pulling for the kid. He seems like a super hard-working good guy with a ton of talent. That said, I’m not seeing “we traded up to No. 2 overall to get this guy” special.
Still, Coen says he’s developing just fine.
“You saw he catches the out cut the other day and makes multiple people miss, so that’s what we’re trying to continue to push, and that’s got to be on us as well,” Coen continued. “Yeah, he has a hand in it for sure, absolutely, but I do think we can help him more.”
The Jags head coach also wanted to make it clear that forcing a ton of information onto the 22-year old rookie isn’t a good idea.
“I don’t think it’s fair right now to say, ‘hey dude, go learn Z [receiver], and X, and 12, and this and that,” Coen said. “It’s like, man, we’ve got to make sure he can really go and execute what we’re asking him to do first and foremost, which is play F and play corner.
“So, I think as we go and as he goes, I’ve got to believe that it’ll continue to do this [upwards motion].”
NFL insider doesn’t think Jags are getting value out of Travis Hunter
Jared Durbin of CBS Sports wrote this week that the Jaguars just aren’t getting good value out of Hunter at this point. Is it too early to say that after just three games? Probably, but we all love to overreact to a player like Hunter when there is so much anticipation.
“Hunter has not played more than 68.3% of the snaps on either side of the ball, a rate that is obviously a far cry from where he was during college,” Durbin writes. “His offensive snap rate has also gone down with each passing week as he has played more defensive snaps.”
The bigger concern from a macro level is whether Hunter will ever be dominant on either side of the ball. Not both sides of the ball, either one.
“Hunter is only three weeks into his career, after all,” Durbin writes. “The Jaguars could just be ramping him up to play more often rather than having him out there for a full complement of snaps right away. And that would probably be a smart thing. You don’t want to physically tax him too much right away and have him break down before you even get a chance to use him in the way he should be used.
“But the Jags do need to figure out better ways to get more out of him. The defensive usage makes sense. Hunter was an outside corner in college and he’s been used that way in the pros, particularly filling in for the injured Jones as the left corner.”