NFL insider reacts to Travis Hunter preseason debut, notes skepticism on playing offense, defense

Travis Hunter made his preseason debut for the Jacksonville Jaguars Saturday night and as promised, played offense and defense. It was the first-look at the Heisman winner showcasing his talents at the pro level.

He logged 10 snaps at wide receiver and nine at cornerback. Hunter reeled in two catches for nine yards but was not targeted on defense. Although he did miss a tackle.

Still, it was a blueprint for what the Jaguars will do and teams will see, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. How many snaps Hunter will play over the course of the season is another question though.

“So teams I talked to think that that should probably be a healthy split, like you saw last night, a little more on offense, but a decent amount of snaps on defense,” Fowler said on SportsCenter. “I think he ended up with 19 snaps, 10 and nine. So pretty clean performance. They said, look, he can do it in a setting like this, where it’s lower snap counts and he looks good. And, you know, one scout told me it’s clear that he moves a little differently than a lot of other special skill sets, special athlete. 

“But if you’re talking 70, 80 snaps over a game, over 17 games, there’s still a lot of skepticism, but at least that was a good little blueprint for what you could do, how you could use him. Put him in there for a couple snaps on offense, bring him off. Get him some water, bring him back in. It’s going to be a process that I think the Jaguars are dealing with fluidity throughout. I think it’s going to be changing a little bit as we go.”

Just last week, Hunter was listed as a starting wide receiver for the Jaguars, but a backup at cornerback. That could develop into starting roles both ways though, at least as far as snaps are concerned.

Jaguars head coach Liam Coen spoke to Rich Eisen to discuss the plan to play on both offense and defense. However, it appears that Hunter is taking more toward the receiver position than he is in the defensive secondary.

“It’s happening,” Coen said of Hunter’s status of playing both sides of the ball. “Everybody in the building was on board with — how do we get the best out of Travis’ days? … Fast forward to now, where he has taken massive strides, specifically at the receiver position, of truly playing it right.

“How to run each route, how to attack, leverage. His ball skills and body control are extremely natural. You can’t really coach that.”