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When the Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to select Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter with the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, it was with the idea that Hunter would play both wide receiver and cornerback.
Hunter played both positions at a high level in college, leading to him winning the Heisman Trophy in 2024 for the Colorado Buffaloes and head coach Deion Sanders.
But one year into Hunter’s NFL career, the two-way experiment is over, and Sanders isn’t happy with the Jaguars about it.
Deion Sanders Says Jaguars Should’ve Reached Out To Him About Travis Hunter
It’s hard to consider Hunter’s rookie season in Jacksonville anything other than a disappointment. He played in just seven games after suffering a torn LCL in practice. But even before the injury, Hunter wasn’t exactly lighting things up on either side of the ball.
He caught just 28 passes for 298 yards and one touchdown on offense, while he was perfectly adequate, yet far from stellar at cornerback.
Sanders, however, believes that Jacksonville let Hunter down. Specifically, he believes that the organization failed Hunter by not reaching out to Sanders to ask about how to coach him.
“Even a guy like Travis Hunter, being drafted to Jacksonville, and I’ve had him for the last three,” Sanders told Garrett Bush on The Barbershop podcast. “Don’t you think you would want to talk to me to let me know, to ask me how — what gets him going and what backs him off and, and what, like, you wouldn’t want to know that?”
Sanders makes a fair point. He successfully developed Hunter into a superstar at the college level. So you would think the Jags would want any and all information regarding how to get the best out of him on the field.
But also, NFL coaches are usually pretty confident about their own abilities, and the Jags had a strong season, going 13-4 and winning the AFC South, even without Hunter making a sizable impact.
Regardless of which side of the argument you’re on, one thing is obvious: football is more fun to watch when Travis Hunter is playing well, regardless of who gets him there.