The Jacksonville Jaguars are planning for Travis Hunter to be an “every-down wide receiver and situational corner” in Sunday’s regular-season opener against the Carolina Panthers, league sources told ESPN on Saturday.
Although Hunter is expected to play more wide receiver than cornerback Sunday, it doesn’t mean that arrangement will hold in Week 2 or further into the season, according to sources.
The Jaguars plan to mix up Hunter’s usage throughout the course of the season, sources said, but they believe there will be some weeks when the rookie can and will be deployed as a full-time wide receiver and cornerback.
“We’re going to have to figure it out,” Jaguars head coach Liam Coen told reporters Friday. “We’re going to have to all be flexible. We’ll come up with that plan over the next 24 hours in terms like, alright, what are the exact maybe numbers we want to hit on both sides or usage?”
Jacksonville initially will determine Hunter’s usage on a week-to-week basis. The Jaguars want to keep their opponents off guard and force them to prepare for every possibility involving Hunter, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 pick in this year’s NFL draft.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Hunter missed Jacksonville’s second preseason game (none of the Jaguars’ starters played in the preseason finale) and four training camp practices earlier this summer because of an upper-body injury.
“He did miss some time, and so that’s something that we just need to make sure we’re aware of and keeping engaged as coaches to make sure that, if he’s getting a little lost or doesn’t know what he’s doing on a few things, well, man, maybe we need to reel it back a little and get him a rest here maybe for a sec,” Coen said Friday. “Whatever it is, we’ve got to be flexible, but I thought he’s done a really nice job of dedicating himself to the plan on both sides of the ball over the last few days and he was flying around pretty good today.”
Hunter has a chance to accomplish something that the NFL has not witnessed in over a decade. Since 1980, only three NFL players have started at wide receiver and cornerback in the same game: Deion Sanders in 1996, Champ Bailey in 2000 and Antonio Cromartie in 2012.
Sanders, who was Hunter’s college coach at Colorado, and Bailey are Pro Football Hall of Famers.
Hunter is poised to join this list at some point this season, but Jacksonville’s Week 1 arrangement — with Hunter set to play more receiver than cornerback — is consistent with what the team released on its first regular-season depth chart, where he was listed as a starting wide receiver and a backup cornerback.
Hunter played 364 snaps in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 in the 15 training camp practices in which he participated fully. It was nearly a 50-50 split: 188 on offense and 176 on defense. In 11-on-11 work, Hunter played 173 snaps on offense and 168 on defense.
ESPN’s Michael DiRocco contributed to this report.