Latest Travis Hunter Nod Shows How Close He is To Becoming Jaguars' Shutdown CB

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Wide receiver or cornerback? Cornerback or wide receiver?

These are the questions that have swarmed second-year Jacksonville Jaguars star Travis Hunter for the bulk of his football life. Most though he would not be able to do both at the college level, but he proved them wrong with a Heisman Trophy. Even more doubted he could do it at the NFL level, but he made big plays on both sides of the ball before his season-ending injury after seven games.

Entering 2026, expectations are sky-high for Hunter as he makes a return to the practice and game field. After ESPN's latest look at the NFL's top cornerbacks, those expectations are not going anywhere.

Hunter's Place

ESPN's annual list of the best players at every position always creates interesting offseason fodder, as we saw with their running back rankings and what those said about Jaguars general manager James Gladstone. For their cornerback rankings, Hunter surprisingly saw his team listed amongst those who also received votes.

There were 14 players combined in the top-10 and then the honorable mentions list. After that, Hunter is included with a group of 10 other cornerbacks that consists of DJ Turner II, Marlon Humphrey, Alontae Taylor, DaRon Bland, Kool-Aid McKinstry, former Jaguars cornerback Tyson Campbell, Byron Murphy Jr., Deommodore Lenoir, and Riq Woolen.

There are several big-money cornerbacks on that list and a host of other former high draft picks. But Hunter is the only one who is on the list who has only played seven games, and who also did not focus entirely on cornerback at any point in the 2025 season.

The fact that Hunter is seen by NFL coaches, scouts and executives as a top-25 cornerback in the NFL after only 162 snaps on defense in his NFL career thus far says it all. Hunter is an elite talent at the position, and all he needs is time and reps to see his stock rise when it comes to the NFL's best cornerbacks.

Former Pro Bowl defensive back DeAngelo Hall recently spoke with Hard Rock Bet about Hunter, and he perfectly summed up exactly what makes Hunter different at the cornerback position.

"I know some guys who coached him at Colorado, and they’d always call me to say, ‘This guy has some of the best ball skills I’ve ever seen.’ You saw that when he played receiver, and you even saw it sometimes when he was playing DB," Hall said. "So, most quarterbacks or offenses aren’t necessarily scared of throwing the football unless they think the DB they’re targeting can take it away from them. That’s the fear factor Travis Hunter has at cornerback because he can definitely create takeaways."

It remains to be seen exactly what Hunter's role is set to be in 2026, but it does feel safe to say the Jaguars will see him play a good bit more cornerback than he did as a rookie when he played most of his snaps at wide receiver. Hunter is expected to play receiver once again this season, of course, but cornerback might be where he is the Jaguars' greatest X-Factor.

As long as Hunter is able to get through the season healthy, it is tough to see a scenario where he does not at least leap into the honorable mentions for this list next year. He has elite cover skills, and he showed in limited snaps on defense last season that he has the goods to match up with the best receivers on the Jaguars' entire roster.

Across three seasons in college, Hunter recorded 26 passes defensed, nine interceptions for 99 yards and a touchdown ... all while still being a star at the wide receiver position. He played 2,625 snaps across 2023 and 2024, leading the FBS in snaps for both seasons, and was able to make big plays for the Jaguars on both sides of the ball a year ago.

All of the evidence is there for Hunter to become a true shutdown cornerback, something the Jaguars have not really had since Jalen Ramsey in 2017 and 2018. Campbell was a good player for the Jaguars, but his ceiling was not close to Hunter's, and Hunter should be able to meet those lofty goals sooner much rather than later.

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