Travis Hunter’s NFL career as a two-way player has officially started. In Week 1, the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie took snaps at wide receiver and defensive back, but his defensive load was extremely light. However, the Jaguars have already said that will change in Week 2, when Jacksonville plays the Cincinnati Bengals.
It makes sense the plan is for Hunter to play a lot of defensive snaps against the Bengals, because Cincinnati has an offense with Joe Burrow at quarterback and wide receiver duo of Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. It’d be foolish to have a defensive talent like Hunter on the sideline while that trio is possibly carving up the defense.
With those kind of offensive players lining up across from the promising rookie, Hunter will have the opportunity to showcase why no one should doubt is ability to do what he’s attempting to do in the NFL.
Travis Hunter has the perfect opportunity against Bengals to prove he can be a two-way star
When the people who doubt Hunter’s ability to be a full-time two-way player, like he was in college, make their case, they often say imagine him having to run all his routes in a given offensive series, then turning around and having to cover an elite wide receiver. Well Sunday will be his first opportunity to show the world what he looks like doing that.
If Hunter is going to have a similar offensive workload to the one he had in Week 1, and is also going to have an increase in snaps defensively, he has a chance to have a monster game. There will be plays to be made against the Bengals defense, and Cincinnati is going to throw the ball a lot. Hunter will have the opportunity to either make a play on the ball, or completely blanket a receiver like Chase or Higgins.
If Travis Hunter has the kind of loud game that he did in college when he was starring on both sides of the ball, his critics will be silenced.
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