As the NFL Draft nears, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ chances of getting the illustrious Travis Hunter only continue to rise.
A few weeks ago, Hunter in teal felt like a long shot; now, it seems to be a real possibility.
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In an exclusive interview on the Brent & Austen show, Action Sports Jax’s Brent Martineau was able to interview Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen at the annual owners’ meeting.
One of the questions tossed at Coen was regarding Hunter and how the Jaguars would utilize such a player. Hunter might just be the draft’s top receiver and cornerback prospect.
“I think you have to be fluid as an organization,” Coen said. “Because of his diversity, what he can do, the amount of snaps he plays.”
“He’s going to play both sides of the ball and that has to be an organizational buy-in from the coaches, the strength staff, the athletic training, sports performance, everybody has to be involved, as well as the coaches.”
Exclusive: Coen discusses potential role Travis Hunter could play in Jacksonville
Hunter is every bit a unicorn. Much like Shohei Ohtani in the MLB, Hunter enters the NFL with the ability to do something that no other player has done in the modern era, play both sides of the ball.
As a receiver, Hunter placed inside the top 5 in just about every key metric, hauling in 96 receptions for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns. He caught 79.3% of balls thrown his way, a wild statistic in its own right.
His offensive success goes well beyond his general statistics, however. Hunter caught 14 deep balls, tied for the fifth most among FBS receivers and forced 24 missed tackles, tied for eighth.
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Deep ball receiver? Check. Creative after the catch? Check. What can’t Hunter do?
Well, he rarely saw snaps in the slot, as just 5.6% of his snaps came inside at receiver.
This ranked tied for 376th among FBS receivers. This doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t or won’t play inside at the next level, but he wasn’t asked to do it very much at Colorado.
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ReceptionPerception recently posted some figures on Hunter, among many other receiver prospects. Of the ten different route variants, Hunter had an above-average success rate on all ten.
Of the routes, just one was below an 80% success rate (Go route). The other nine were all 80% success rate or higher. Four of his ten routes were above 90%, including three 100% success rates (Screen, Flat, and Outs).
Remember, Hunter is a unicorn, not a one-trick pony. He can legitimately do it all, running the entire route tree successfully.
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What about the other side of the ball? How does Hunter fare at cornerback?
Hunter might be just as good a defender, if not even better. Hunter was one of college football’s least targeted cornerbacks, seeing just one target every 9.9 snaps, fourth among FBS corners.
When he was targeted, Hunter was mainly attacked underneath. The average depth of target against Hunter was just 7.9 yards downfield, 13th among those same FBS cornerbacks. To put these corner statistics into perspective, 265 cornerbacks qualified.
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If the ball did come his way, Hunter was as good as anyone in the country, allowing a 56% completion rate. His NFL Rating when targeted was just 39.9, eighth best.
For some context, that is statistically equivalent to spiking the ball into the ground every single play.
Which team ultimately selects Hunter will be paramount to how the Heisman winner will be utilized in the NFL. The Jaguars seem ready to let Hunter try his hand at both sides of the ball.
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“Having patience with each side of ball,” Coen said, “because you really don’t want to kind of put him in a box. You really just want to, ‘Hey, what does he come in and do the best?’ You’re going to be able to let him do both, so you’re going to find out what he’s best at and then, ‘Hey, let’s mold things to that and be fluid for those conversations.”
It seems as though the odds Hunter becomes a Jaguar rise by the day as the assumption is that two quarterbacks and Abdul Carter make up the top three with an offensive line or defensive line slated to New England at four.
If Hunter does become a Jacksonville Jaguar, Coen and the Jaguars seem ready to let Hunter be Hunter, the unicorn that he is. He stressed being fluid with Hunter and not putting the top prospect in a box
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