The Jacksonville Jaguars took a huge risk in the 2025 NFL draft, trading up to number two with the goal of landing Travis Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner. Hunter is notorious for play ing both sides of the ball, and he is the only player in college history to have won the Chuck Bednarik and Fred Biletnikoff Awards for outstanding play on both offense and defense. He said he planned to continue on that way in the NFL, and the Jaguars were prepared to make it happen for him.
Hunter and the Jaguars made history in their first preseason game this year, with Hunter taking a handful of snaps for both the offense and defense. Given that no player has played offense and defense in the modern Super Bowl era, this was a huge step, and his progress throughout the offseason and during the preseason has been encouraging.
Still, Hunter has his detractors, with some veteran football players specifically questioning the toll it will take on Hunter's body to play twice as much. That concern came to the forefront during a scrimmage at practice, causing him to miss the rest of the preseason.
The big question now is whether or not the Jaguars' star rookie will take the field during their first game. And Jaguars general manager James Gladstone just gave some answers.
Travis Hunter is healthy and ready to go
In a press conference, Gladstone said Hunter is not expected to miss the season opener, in which the Jaguars will take on the Carolina Panthers at home. "Oh, that's not the case," Gladstone said when a reporter asked if Hunter wouldn't be able to play. "He's on the grass today and rolling full speed."
Furthermore, Gladstone said that Hunter's performance has not only been everything the team expected it to be, but is giving them an advantage.
"There's a competitive advantage to not knowing what side of ball he's going to be deployed on fully, if that's half, if that's a mixture, all those sorts of things can vary from one week to the next," he said. "And I think the fact that that exists is certainly a hand that we'll keep close."
Hunter certainly has high expectations to live up to as he prepares for his first season; Gladstone recently said he is a generational talent who can change the entire football landscape. And fortunately for Jacksonville, by all measures, he seems to be living up to the hype. Hunter isn't just capable of playing both sides of the ball; he plays both sides well, too, making him a real threat the rest of the league needs to be ready to look out for.