One of the biggest challenges the Jacksonville Jaguars will face in 2025 will come in Week 5 when they face the Kansas City Chiefs. The fact that the game will be held on Monday Night Football will only raise the stakes: Win, and they'll be discussed as the surprise team of the year. Lose, and they'll be the same ol' Jags. Their X-Factor could turn out to be two-way star Travis Hunter, and just recently, All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce revealed how teams will attempt to counter the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner.
Kelce made an appearance on Bussin' With The Boys and said that Hunter is going to be pretty good in the NFL, but expecting him to play two ways isn't realistic, pointing out that teams playing him will do their best to make him tired.
"Both sides, see, that's the thing. I don't know how they're gonna divvy it out," Kelce responded when asked if Hunter can be an All-Pro at receiver and corner. (1:27:44 mark) "I don't know if, because teams are going to be going after him. And like, they're going to try and make his day, yeah, they're going to try and make his day miserable... if he plays corner, they're gonna run deep balls at him all day. They're gonna run the wide receivers take off on him all day just to try and get him tired."
Kelce goes on to say that he's seen firsthand just how talented the West Palm Beach, Florida native is.
"I saw him play basketball, and I was like, Oh yeah, he's an athlete. He's an athlete," Kelce said.
The only primetime the Jags got in 2025 will be against the Chiefs. The game will be held at EverBank Stadium, but count on Kansas City to be favored regardless of how both teams have fared by that point of the season.
Travis Hunter's strategy vs. Travis Hunter and the Jaguars have glaring flaws
The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59 but are far from a pushover. Heck, getting to the championship game in itself is a tall order, but even if you leave their loss aside, the Chiefs are still one of the top 3 teams in the league right now due to the presence of Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the league bar none.
Kelce himself is coming off a somewhat underwhelming season, but he's had a Hall-of-Fame worthy career, so he's seen pretty much everything on the football field and knows how to best deal with athletic players such as Travis Hunter. With that out of the way, his strategy against the former Colorado standout has several massive shortcomings.
For starters, by targeting Travis Hunter on defense, Kansas City would create opportunities for Jacksonville to bring the heat. As great as Mahomes is at creating plays out of nowhere, having to wait for routes to develop takes time and leaves him exposed to the pass rush.
On offense, zeroing in on Hunter would create favorable matchups for both Brian Thomas Jr. and Dyami Brown. Similarly, any teams that double team him may not have enough players in the box to stop the run, which would create great opportunities for Jacksonville to tote the rock.
Then again, Hunter is far from a decoy. He's a playmaker, and even if teams devote extra attention to stop him, they won't always succeed. That's just how talented he is, and if Travis Kelce's comments get to him, he'll surely be motivated to prove him wrong when the Jaguars face Kansas City in Week 5.
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