Last May, Colorado coach Deion Sanders expressed disappointment in I had no news from the Jaguars regarding how to coach and deploy cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter. Two games into Hunter’s second NFL season, Coach Prime remains perplexed about Hunter’s workload.
“I don’t ask questions because I’m not here,” Sanders said recently on his CBS show Colorado. “I don’t know what happens when we’re not looking. I have no idea what’s going on. I know who he was and who he is now. I know what he is capable of. I know it.
In Week 1, Hunter had four snaps on offense and 29 on defense. He made an eight-yard catch.
In Week 2, Hunter played six snaps on offense and 37 on defense. He was not targeted in the Jacksonville passing game.
The lack of usage of a player who entered the league with the promise of being the first true full-time two-way player since Chuck Bednarik has led to many questions. Earlier this week, coach Liam Coen said the team I will search to give him more reps this week, on both sides of the ball.
When asked Friday if Hunter had spoken to coaches about the cornerback rotation this week, Hunter opted for discretion.
“I’ll leave it to the coaches to answer,” Hunter said. “It’s not my place to answer.”
During an appearance on The pivot podcast before the start of the regular season, Hunter reiterated his belief that he can reach his full potential as a cornerback and as a receiver.
Ryan Clark told Hunter he could be a A Hall of Fame cornerback or Pro Bowl caliber receiver. But Clark’s implicit message was clear: It’s impossible to be both. How can Hunter achieve this?
“Work ethic,” Hunter said. “We all have the same 24 hours.”
Channing Crowder stressed his efforts to use these 24 hours to do both at the highest level possible. “The numbers don’t work,” Crowder said.
“If I try to be the best, how are you going to be the best, if you don’t try to be the best? If you don’t try to compete and do your best to be the best? So my main goal is to be the best. So I’m going to do everything I can to be the best. I don’t want to be the best at one job. There are a lot of people who are the best at one job. No one has yet been the best at both, on time full.”
For now, Hunter has played part-time on defense, with appearances on offense. What is his preference?
“I like to do both,” Hunter said. “And I can’t sit on the sidelines. I don’t think anyone has noticed that yet. I hate the sidelines. I don’t want to sit there. I can’t sit there and just watch football. I have to be on the field.”
Clark pointed out that 52 other guys are spending time on the sidelines. “That’s their problem,” Hunter said.
He was smiling when he said it, but there’s no escaping his point of view. Hunter still wants to play full time on both sides of the ball. But he plays so little on either side of the ball that the snaps don’t add up to the time he would get if he played all snaps on offense or all snaps on defense.
It’s still unclear what the Jaguars are doing with the player they moved from No. 5 to No. 2 in the draft, with the justification that they would get two players in one. At some point, the idea of a two-way player gave way to the reality that, as Crowder said, numbers don’t work. It is too difficult to be fully and completely prepared to perform at a high level, both on offense and defense.
And it’s almost as if the Jaguars want Hunter to come to the conclusion that he’ll be willing to play one side of the ball or the other in order to get a full-time workload at a specific position.
Still, if the Jaguars weren’t willing to let Hunter do what he clearly wanted to do (and he sure made his point clear to them before the draft), why did they give up so much to make him the No. 2 overall pick in the draft?
This is the most confusing aspect of all of this. Everyone knew Hunter wanted to play both ways. The decision to trade for Hunter sent the message that the Jaguars were on board with this approach. The numbers, to date, paint a very different picture.
Gn sports
