With the NFL Draft in the books, the Jacksonville Jaguars are turning their attention to rookie minicamp. Already, several players are turning heads, but there's no doubt that the one that has stood out the most is Travis Hunter, who's getting plenty of love from fans.
On the second day of rookie minicamp, Hunter has mostly taken snaps on offense. However, the crowd has wasted no time giving him an ovation twice. Here's a clip below, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.
Here's another video of the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner running routes, via Juston W. Lewis of The Florida-Times Union.
But wait, there's more. Because you can never have enough clips, here's another one of Hunter getting a "hero salute" by fans, also via Lewis.
If you can listen to the video, you can hear just how loud fans are. Looking back, general manager James Gladstone might've been onto something when he said that the West Palm Beach, Florida native had the talent to not only change the course of the team or the city, but of the sport as a whole as well.
Think about it, this isn't even a "true practice." Teams use rookie minicamp to teach fundamentals and help players get acclimated to the pros. And if Hunter is already generating that kind of buzz, imagine what kind of reaction he'll get during training camp or once the regular season starts.
Just recently, Hunter was the talk of the town because he returned to Colorado for his graduation a couple of days ago. Of course, he made sure to rep his new team with pajamas with Jaguars logos under his gown. He flew back to Jacksonville to be on time for minicamp.
Heck, it makes sense that the Jaguars didn't hesitate to give up a first and second-round selection to move up to select him second overall.
Travis Hunter is off to a great start in Jaguars rookie minicamp
All things considered, Travis Hunter's early usage doesn't come as a surprise. James Gladstone told the local media that the team planned to start his onboarding process at receiver and get more playing time on defense as the season approached. So far, that's how he's been deployed in rookie minicamp.
You probably won't see Hunter play two-ways full-time, especially early as a rookie. It's highly unlikely that the coaching staff will keep him on a snap count but will most definitely try to ease his transition to the NFL and not to saturate his workload. Nevertheless, that will be enough to give opposing teams fits and force them to account for him on every play.
The bottom line is that the Jacksonville Jaguars knew what they were doing when they made the bold decision to execute a trade to move up for Travis Hunter. It's only taken a couple of days of rookie minicamp for it to pay dividends.