BREAKING: Jaguars' Liam Coen Reveals Ideal Travis Hunter Usage

The Jacksonville Jaguars won't box in Travis Hunter as a wide receiver or cornerback if they take him at No. 5, head coach Liam Coen said Monday.

Nov 29, 2024; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) warms up before the game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys at Folsom Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Some teams see Travis Hunter as an NFL wide receiver, some as a cornerback. In February, the scouting combine had to list the Heisman winner as one or the other, in order to slot him into the schedule, so he was grouped with the defensive backs by default.

But make no mistake, the Jaguars see Hunter playing both sides of the ball. Head coach Liam Coen said Monday morning that if Jacksonville is able to draft Hunter with the fifth-overall selection, the team won’t paint him into a positional corner.

“I think you have to be fluid as an organization,” Coen told Brent Martineau on the Brent & Austen Show at the annual league meeting in Palm Beach, Fla.

“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, right?

“And having patience with each side of ball, 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.’”

At Colorado while playing for another two-way player, Deion Sanders, Hunter led the Football Bowl Subdivision in snaps played during both the 2023 and 2024 seasons – 2,625 total plays – despite injuries sidelining him for almost five full games.

The most intriguing NFL prospect since Charles Woodson in 1998, Hunter showed remarkable maturity at the combine when asked about demands he might place on the organization that drafts him.

“They say, ‘Nobody has ever done it for real the way I do it,’” Hunter said earlier this month at the combine. “But I tell them I’m just different. I’m a different person.”

Woodson was different than Hunter. Although Woodson’s NFL career didn’t feature much offense, the Michigan product won a Heisman Trophy primarily because of his explosiveness as a receiver and ball-carrier. But don’t call Hunter the next Woodson.

Hunter committed to a two-way NFL career since his days at Jackson State, and added that teams looking to draft him, such as Jacksonville, should understand he’s prepared to play both cornerback and wide receiver – and the team will determine which position he plays most, not Hunter.

“I’m going to play both,” Hunter said. “That’s not my job to figure it out. I like to play both sides of the ball. If they give me the opportunity to play both sides of the ball, I’m going to play both sides.”

And after Coen’s comments Monday, the Jaguars seem well aligned with their potential first-round draft pick. And if Hunter is the Jaguars' selection, strap in for an exciting future, Jacksonville.

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