After successfully completing his senior year by playing an unprecedented 700+ snaps on both sides of the ball as both a WR and CB, Travis Hunter is set for a big night on April 24, the first day of the 2025 NFL Draft. He may not go No. 1 overall, but he has every chance of hearing his name called second or third in Green Bay.
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Right now, it looks like the Cleveland Browns at No. 2 or the New York Giants at No. 3 are the most likely landing spots for Hunter. Both teams have plenty of holes on both sides of the ball, so drafting a player who’s essentially a 2-in-1 with your first-round pick could help address multiple needs. That’s also what Hunter wants.
As the Colorado star recently told CBS, he has informed every team he’s met of his intention to play both ways, and no teams have offered any pushback yet. However, while Hunter isn’t concerned about that for now, he knows there’s always a chance things could change.
When asked by CBS if he’d rather play only CB or WR or quit football altogether, Hunter doubled down on his self-belief. It’s unlikely that he’s actually serious, but the kid clearly wants to give it a shot, and what harm could it do?
“It’s never playing football again. Because I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I love being on the football field. I feel like I could dominate on each side of the ball, so I really enjoy doing it. I just feel very confident in myself, and I got a competitive spirit that I can do whatever I put my mind to, and I feel like I can do it,” Hunter said.
Hunter also talked about the impact of his college coach, Deion Sanders, on his mentality when it comes to playing both ways. To be clear, Coach Prime didn’t play both sides of the ball at the same level Hunter wants to in the NFL. But he’s as close a comparison as Hunter is likely to find. The 21-year-old is lucky to have him as a mentor.
“It’s been a blessing learning from the best to play that position, and you want to be better than him, so it’s good to be in that position. Just him telling me to just be where my feet are and take every moment and enjoying, knowing you only get to do it one time.”
Travis Hunter would rather “never play football again” than play one position in the NFL
Hunter told CBS Sports writer @garrettpodell pic.twitter.com/izBAcmRyKP
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) April 15, 2025
Perhaps no one believes in Travis Hunter more than Travis Hunter. But next on that list has to be Coach Prime. He’s done nothing but try to imbue teams with confidence in Hunter’s ability to play both ways. In fact, Sanders believes changes to the NFL game in terms of tempo and physicality make it easier to play both ways in the NFL than it was in the NCAA.
“The NFL is a slow game. You huddle (every play). How is the contact nowadays? Minimal. That game is more conducive to him being successful than a college game. College is tempo, tempo, tempo. Now, you’re talking about you have to be in shape. Pros, how many seconds between plays? Please, he’s going to go jogging after the darn game because he’s going to have all that energy man. He is built for this.”
It’s true that Hunter seems “built for this,” as he hasn’t sustained any major injuries despite all those snaps in college level. However, the NFL is a different beast, and as one Redditor put it, he better “get ready to learn IR buddy” if he really intends to play a full set of snaps going both ways. Another more shrewd user said, “I bet he’s lying, just a hunch.”
Hunter’s self-belief is strong, but that’s probably what we were all thinking when we heard him say that: yeah, right. Others suggested a more nuanced snap split, saying, “He should play as a CB who can line up on offense at times.” This is a common opinion and one shared recently by Devin Hester.
One user brought up a very interesting topic in reference to Hunter: his pay. They reminded us, “Brother, they’re only going to pay you for playing one [position].” While another quipped, “I need to demand my boss to let me work an extra 40 hours just for bragging rights.”
It’s an interesting question that surprisingly hasn’t been posed by as many leading NFL pundits as you might expect. If Hunter succeeds in playing both ways throughout his rookie deal, his second contract could get very interesting. If he’s a Pro Bowl WR and CB, would he be asking for a contract that combines both elite WR and CB money?
