Travis Hunter: Is he the NFL's next generational talent and why is the world talking about him?
Miami quarterback Cam Ward picked No 1 overall by Titans at 2025 NFL Draft, while two-position star Travis Hunter selected second by Jaguars; latter is most fascinating case study in recent years; watch day two of the Draft live on Sky Sports Action from midnight
Friday 25 April 2025 07:30, UK
Get yourself a guy who can do both. Travis Hunter can do both. But should he do both? Will he do both? And who is the two-position phenom tipped to become the next generational face of the NFL?
Hunter is bidding to shatter convention, defy positional norms and conquer the league in a way few have ever believed is possible by playing on both sides of the ball at the highest level.
On Thursday, the Heisman Trophy winner was selected No 2 in the NFL Draft as the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up from No 5 to the Colorado star.
Hunter is one of the most anomalous case studies in history having spent his entire career dominating as a wide receiver and as a cornerback.
The fuss is valid, the hype is justified and the expectations, as a consequence, are hefty.
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Background
The spotlight has rarely strayed from Hunter since his days at Collins High School, crafting a unicorn talent already accustomed to the kind of pressure and soaring projections awaiting him on an NFL Sunday this September.
Hunter had been widely-regarded as the No 1 overall ranked recruit of his class and looked set to land with Florida State in 2021, only to instead commit to Jackson State in order to play under Hall of Fame corner Deion Sanders. In doing so he rocked the college landscape by becoming the first ever five-star prospect to sign with a HBCU (Historically Black College or University) or FBS program in history.
He would later follow Sanders by transferring to Colorado where he went on to win the Heisman Trophy in 2024 as well as becoming the first player in college football history to clinch the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the best defensive player in the nation, and the Fred Biletnikoff Award, given to the top receiver in college football.
His stardom and the enormity of Hunter's profile was amplified on the most eyeballed stage of all during Super Bowl week earlier this year. Were you to stroll along Radio Row in New Orleans you would find him situated in prime position while welcoming a host of A-lister guests onto his YouTube Show as if a seasoned veteran established enough to balance consistent on-field production with off-field enterprises. NFL stars of past and present were being ushered over by their PR teams to speak to the man aspiring to trump them all. Think that's what the kids call 'aura'.
Why is everybody talking about him?
Hunter is not just a quirky case study befitting of the 'gadget' and 'swiss army knife' mould so often associated with players capable of serving multiple purposes. He is both the best wide receiver prospect in the Draft and the best cornerback prospect in the Draft, with the skillset to nestle in among the elite names at both positions once he gets to the NFL.
He is a rare cocktail of both athletic supremacy, game-wrecking instincts and upper echelon football IQ who moves quicker than most players on the field and thinks quicker than most players on the field.
Such has become of modern offenses, their pass-first nature, the line of scrimmage subterfuge and the bid to apply both vertical and horizontal stress, that cornerback has become one of the most pressing and most difficult positions in which to find elite stalwarts. In Hunter comes a natural playmaker who prides himself on the aggressiveness and anticipation to jump routes and create turnovers, while having a winning magnetism to the ball unless an offense goes out of its way to avoid him. He is sticky, he is effective in contested catch scenarios, he can travel with the speedsters and rough it with the press merchants. But whether he is suited to a full-time responsibility marshalling the secondary in an entire game remains to be seen.
As a pass-catching weapon he is a raw route-runner but a shifty and dynamic glider capable of hurting teams at all three levels. His jinks and feints at the line of scrimmage couple with disguised breaks and slick shifts in direction in creating problems for defenders trying to commit to tracking him in coverage. With that comes the extensive catch radius that, when combined with his knack for making things happen, contributes to his resume of showreel catches.
"Hunter is a lean, athletic playmaker who starred on both sides of the ball," says NFL Network's Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah. "He has a narrow frame and is a very smooth-flowing athlete.
"On defense, he was much improved in 2024. He didn't take as many unnecessary risks at cornerback, relying more on discipline and technique to stay in position. He can locate the ball and picked it off seven times over the past two seasons. On offense, he is creative in his release to escape press as a receiver.
"He is constantly changing gears to keep cornerbacks off balance and he never wastes steps at the top of his route. He drops his weight and explodes out of the break. He has elite body control and hands. He can pluck balls well outside his frame with grace and ease.
"After the catch, he is silky smooth and elusive. He doesn't have elite top speed, but he's fast enough to not get caught."
It is one thing doing both, it is another being the best at both. Behind wall-to-wall deep dives is fascination with a freak, Hunter lurking as the master craftsmen and exception to the rule. All the analysis in the world, though, and nobody can say with conviction that it will work in the NFL as hoped.
Will he play both positions?
The sample size of two-way success stories is truncated. Not for the want of trying or for a lack of physical expertise, but for the logistical minefield that stands in the way of such a challenge in a day and age where football has never been more meticulous in its film study or preparation.
Unlikely scenario one: a team seeks to shatter the norm by mirroring the type of heavy workload Hunter experienced on both sides of the ball in college. In that case, which meeting room does he sit in? With the receivers? Or with the defensive backs? There are only so many hours in a day, and those game weeks move quickly in the NFL.
Scenario two: a team leans towards using Hunter primarily as a corner while incorporating specialised packages for him as a receiver. Scenario three, the reverse: a team leans towards Hunter as their chief receiver, while keeping his turnover-inciting exploits as a corner in their back pocket.
"I don't know if there's enough hours in the day for a player to be able to do that," said Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.
Ask the man himself, and he is devoid of self-doubt in his ability to feast at both positions. He even threatened to retire if a team decided to use him in just one way; sure, he won't retire, but he is all-too serious when he says he is prepared to play every snap available.
"It's never playing football again," Hunter told CBS Sports. "Because I've been doing it my whole life, and I love being on the football field. I feel like I could dominate on each side of the ball, so I really enjoy doing it."
Hunter's story has been likened to that of Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani, famed for his talents as both a hitter and pitcher.
As for two-way examples in football, Hunter's college coach Sanders also occasionally played as a wide receiver during a career that saw 'Prime Time' win two Super Bowls and a Defensive Player of the Year award on his way to the Hall of Fame. In 14 seasons Sanders amassed 512 tackles and 53 interceptions, while 475 of his 784 receiving yards came during the 1996 campaign.
Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik is the most recent full-time two-way player in the NFL after playing at both linebacker and center across the first eight seasons of his career with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent 14 years from 1949 to 1962. Patrick Ricard started out primarily as a defensive lineman with the Baltimore Ravens before transitioning to full back, where he has become a five-time Pro Bowler, while former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman was also deemed an option at corner.
Champ Bailey was a multi-purpose menace at college while playing on both sides of the ball as one of the examples more frequently tossed into the discussion around Hunter. For all his production, the former Georgia Bulldog would go on to become one of the NFL's great corners en route to the Hall of Fame while making just four catches in his career.
Can Hunter do both?
"The answer is yes," said Cleveland Browns General Manager Andrew Berry. "He can play both and that's what makes him special. We see him as a receiver primarily first, but again what makes him a bit of a unicorn is the fact he can do both at a high level.
"It's six of one, half dozen of the other. I do think there's an element where his superpower is his ball skills. And (at receiver) you're in position where he can have the ball in his hands, say, 100 times a year vs. 30. We will let our coaches and scouts fight it out and see where he is on the board, but any team would be happy to have him."
What are the numbers?
His two-way success dates back to Collins Hill High School in Georgia when Hunter accumulated 3,963 receiving yards and 48 touchdowns in addition to 19 interceptions while spearheading the team to its first State Championship in Georgia.
Upon arriving at Jackson State he managed 18 catches for 188 yards and four touchdowns alongside 19 tackles, two interceptions and eight pass breakups in eight games having missed five weeks through injury in his first season in college.
He then marked his first campaign at Colorado with 57 receptions for 721 yards and five scores while recording 30 tackles, three interceptions and five pass breakups in nine outings to become a 2023 Consensus All-American and clinch the Paul Hornung Award, which honours the most versatile player in college.
His influence spiked significantly last season when Hunter played 713 offensive snaps and 748 defensive snaps in 2024 as he recorded 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns alongside 32 tackles, four interceptions and 11 pass breakups.
It would see him secure the Heisman Trophy ahead of Boise State star running back Ashton Jeanty, as well as winning his second Paul Hornung Award, being named AP College Football Player of the Year and becoming a unanimous All-American.
Colorado have since honoured him by retiring his No 12 jersey alongside that of quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
He transformed his college program. Now he has plans to transform the NFL as the ultimate do-it-all threat.
"They say nobody has ever done it for real, the way that I do it. But I tell them I'm just different, I'm a different person," Hunter told the media at the NFL Scouting Combine. "I know I can do it."
Schecter: The NFL is more complex than college
Sky Sports NFL's Phoebe Schecter...
"It feels more realistic if they're even going to let him do both is you have one set position and then you might get some snaps at something else.
"But then you have to have a conversation. Is he better at DB than everybody else or better at receiver than everybody else?
"The NFL is a different level. You get way more time with your guys and the specificity of everything, the scheme, it's a lot more technical. The players are running much faster, right? So all these different elements come into play.
"Whereas as an NFL team, you probably want to have him at his best in one position where he's dominating and then let the others do what they're great at as well."
Reinebold: If anybody can do both - he can
Sky Sports NFL's Jeff Reinebold...
"When you talk about the complexity of the information, the amount that he's going to have to take on, right? Am I hot in this route? What's my conversion against middle close? What's my conversion against middle open?
"That's why a lot of younger receivers struggle, because the complexity of the game is so different. They're going to put in 30 coverages the first day in training camp. Well, you're going to have to learn them as a defensive player. Then you're going to have to learn them as an offensive player. That's a lot of work on a young kid.
"The good thing about Travis is he's very smart. He's almost a 4.0 student in Colorado. He's very smart. So there's no question. if anybody can do it, he can do it. He wants to do it.
"My concern is he weighs 188 pounds. He's six foot, 188 pounds. It's a 17-game season. You played 12 games in college, right? It's a meat grinder. You can only have them for four-and-a-half hours during the day in college. It's eight hours each day in the NFL. It's a different thing."
