Jacksonville Jaguars Executive Tony Khan likes Liam Coen's plan for Travis Hunter.
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Jacksonville Jaguars Executive Tony Khan likes Liam Coen's plan for Travis Hunter.
Going back to his days at the University of Colorado there has been rampant speculation on what Travis Hunter would become at the NFL level. The Heisman Trophy winner is great at both cornerback and wide receiver, so naturally inquiring minds wanted to know how he’d be used.
And recently, Jaguars’ senior president of football and analytics Tony Khan went on the Rich Eisen Show and talked about how his Jacksonville Jaguars might use him after they traded up from No. 5 in the 2025 NFL Draft to No. 2 to nab him.
“Liam [Coen] plans to involve Travis on both offense and defense,” Khan said. “In our offseason activities already, early in minicamp, and we’ve seen Travis work on both sides and he’s been very impressive.”
Eisen then asked Khan to be more specific. What are we looking at? 100 snaps per game split evenly on both offense and defense? Is that even realistic?
“I think there’s going to be different game flow,” Khan said. “Different games have different flows but I know he’s going to contribute and play a lot of snaps on both sides of the ball… 100 [snaps] is a lot, man.”
He’s right, that’s a lot of snaps even though Hunter has said previously he wants to play as much as he possibly can on both sides. Before the draft he suggested that he’d quit football if the team that drafts him doesn’t let him play offense and defense. Who knows how true that statement was, but he was adamant that he wants to be a receiver and a corner in the NFL.
Khan trusts Liam Coen’s plan for Hunter
Jaguars’ head coach Liam Coen knows that he has a fun problem on his hands. Hunter not only can do it all, he wants to do it all. Perhaps to a fault.
“We won’t put him in that situation to have him do that, although I’m sure he’d probably want to,” Coen said back in late May. “He still meets defensively every day that he’s on offense, so he’s getting the mental part of it and is able to catch up on some of the communication, some of the corrections off the film from the defensive side of the ball.”
Coen noted that it was still early and – at that point – he wasn’t even signed to his rookie contract yet. So naturally, Coen would want to tap the brakes for many reasons.
“In season, he’s going to probably have to, just because it’s the way practices are kind of organized,” Coen continued. “He’s definitely going to have to do that. I envision maybe a third-down day in season where he’s playing receiver, but he’s also going to have to go get some reps on defense and be able to do some of those things.”
Khan, the son of owner Shad Khan, is comfortable with how Coen is handling the situation so far.
“I think Liam’s got a good plan and he’s been pretty open about it that he believes Travis can get involved as a top player on both sides of the ball,” Khan said.
Feel free to check back in with Khan if another 4-13 season comes down the pike.
Current pre-training camp depth charts on both sides of the ball
While it’s very early, the depth charts on both sides of the ball indicate that Hunter is more likely to play on offense. While the Jags actually have some decent cornerbacks on the roster, there is a huge dropoff at wide receiver after Brian Thomas, Jr.
The current depth charts are as follows (again, pre-training camp so it’s a lot of players who will never even sniff the roster let alone a game):
Wide Receiver:
Brian Thomas Jr.
Travis Hunter
Dyami Brown
Joshua Cephus
Austin Trammell
Parker Washington
Eli Pancol
Trenton Irwin
Chandler Brayboy
Cam Camper
J.J. Jones
Dorian Singer
Louis Rees-Zammit
Darius Lassiter
Cornerback:
Jarrian Jones
Tyson Campbell
Jourdan Lewis
Travis Hunter
Montaric Brown
Christian Braswell
Zech McPhearson
De’Antre Prince
Jabbar Muhammad
Aydan White
Doneiko Slaughter