Sports

Jacksonville Jaguars' DE Josh Hines-Allen weighs in on Travis Hunter playing both ways

Jacksonville Jaguars’ second overall pick, Travis Hunter, is going to play on both sides of the ball regularly at the NFL level. The Jaguars have tailored his entire offseason program and upcoming training camp schedule to best prepare him to do so.

This, of course, is uncharted territory in today’s game. So, what does defensive end Josh Hines-Allen think about Hunter playing both cornerback and wide receiver?

Hines-Allen recently appeared on the ‘Rich Eisen Show’ and was asked if he thinks Hunter can play both ways regularly at the NFL level.

“I believe so,” said Hines-Allen. “What plagues every NFL player or any professional athlete is injuries. I think if he can allow himself to play healthy and take care of that, get into the hyperbaric machine, I think he has a great career ahead of him on both sides of the ball. Again, is he the best DB, is he the best wide receiver, who knows? But is he a great playmaker on both sides of the ball? Yes, he is.

“At the end of the day, when you’re a team like us right now, who’s in that stage of we have to get it right now, we need the best playmakers on the field at all times, if he can give you that value, let’s do it.”

Hunter’s playmaking ability, which Hines-Allen mentioned, was routinely on display while at Colorado. During his Heisman season in 2024, he caught a whopping 79% of his 121 targets, averaging over 13 yards per catch. On defense, he forced four interceptions and seven pass breakups on only 41 targets, per PFF.

While playing both sides of the ball in the NFL will be a different challenge, helping Hunter will be his impressive ball skills, and as GM James Gladstone pointed out, “he does not tire.”

Where will Travis Hunter play the most as a rookie? Offense or defense?

Hunter has been learning both the offensive and defensive playbooks since he arrived in Jacksonville, but most of his on-field practice reps came at wide receiver. As Gladstone would reveal recently, the purpose behind that decision was that the Jaguars view cornerback as Hunter’s more natural position. So in the early going, the team prioritized wide receiver and learning the nuances that come with that position.

But given what Hines-Allen has seen up to this point from Hunter with OTA and minicamp practices now in the rearview mirror, he sees offense as being the side of the ball where Hunter will see most of his playing time.

“Seeing what I’ve seen right now, offense,” Hines-Allen said. “I think offense, but again you stick him on that defensive side of the ball as well, he’s going to make a play. I think for us it’s just communication. If he can be able to communicate with everybody else on the back end, know the difference between if we’re in Cover-1, if we’re in man, if we’re in Cover-2, Cover-3, how do we play those, do we carry these? If he can get those basics out of it, I think everybody else is going to work with him.

“And then you have guys up front that are just rushing, so now we can get to the quarterback in two, three seconds and affect the quarterback, put the ball in the air, let’s see if he can make a play, which we know he can. Let’s do it.”

During offseason programs, Hunter typically had each practice devoted to just one side of the ball. Once training camp arrives, that will be one of the changes that is made as he continues to progress towards the regular season. At that point, we will see him operating on both offense and defense within the same practice much more often, since that is what will be required during in-season.

This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars’ Josh Hines-Allen on where he thinks Travis Hunter plays most

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *