It’s still very early in the NFL career of Jacksonville Jaguars‘ wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, but he hasn’t started off with a bang. Yes, the coaching staff is still figuring out his usage on both sides of the ball, but on offense he still has just 10 catches in three games for 76 yards and no touchdowns.
And not for nothing, but six of those catches came in Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers.
With his limited usage in the first three weeks, CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin thinks it’s fair to wonder if the Jaguars are getting their return on investment considering they traded up from No. 5 to No. 2 in the 2025 NFL Draft to get him.
“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.”
It’s early for Travis Hunter, but the Jaguars have to figure this out
Hunter has played three games at cornerback and has started one. So far, he’s logged nine tackles with one pass defensed. Durbin thinks they are smart to be careful with him at this point.
“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.”
So far, defenses aren’t afraid of Travis Hunter
Hunter is averaging 7.6 yards per catch, running shorter underneath routes that aren’t pumping fear into opposing defenses. If they can keep him in front of them, any damage will be minimal.
“But the offensive usage is not conducive to getting the most out of his skill set, even when you consider that he was rawer as a receiver than as a defensive back coming out of college,” Durbin writes. “You have to be able to stretch the field vertically every so often instead of using him only around the line of scrimmage. Otherwise, defenses are just going to sit on the short stuff and even start taking away some of his run-after-catch opportunities.
“Considering that’s been the only way he’s made positive contributions on offense to date, it obviously wouldn’t be ideal if that stuff went away.”
General manager James Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen may have to put their heads together and figure out the best way for Hunter to spend his time. You don’t draft a guy that high for him to be okay-to- decent on both sides of the ball. He’ll need to take over and dominate on one side for this deal to make sense for Jacksonville.