Some NFL teams are sending Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to the offensive meetings first. Others have him meet the defensive coaches first.
Exactly two weeks before the league’s annual draft is held in Green Bay, Hunter told The Associated Press he’s not sure which position teams want him to focus on when his career begins — receiver or cornerback.
Hunter still insists he can excel at both.
“They want to see how much I can handle, and it’s up to me at this point,” he said Thursday. “It’s just me being me.”
What everyone wants to know, though, is where he will play — and which team will give him those options — next season.
Hunter is unique in modern football. He not only won the most prestigious award in college football, he also took home the Chuck Bednarik Award as college football’s top defensive player and was named The Associated Press player of the year.
While a few players, including his college coach Deion Sanders, have dabbled with playing both ways, nobody did it with more success than Hunter. The former Colorado star caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns while at the same time making 35 tackles, breaking up 11 passes and picking off four.
Hunter is generally considered the best receiver and best cornerback on this year’s draft board, and that’s gotten people debating whether he’d be better at one position or the other or whether his body could handle doing both on a full-time basis.
“Well, I’d say this, in terms of Travis Hunter, cornerback or receiver? The answer is yes,” Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry said in February at the league’s annual scouting combine. “He can play both, and I think that’s what makes him special. We would see him as a receiver primarily first, but I think part of, again, what makes him a bit of a unicorn is the fact that he can do both at a high level.”
Cleveland could take Hunter with the second overall pick if Tennessee makes quarterback Cam Ward the No. 1 selection, as is widely expected.
While Hunter has plenty of game tape to showcase his skills on the field, he skipped the combine workouts and said Thursday he has not been doing individual workouts at team facilities. He did, however, participate last week in drills at Colorado’s Pro Day.
He did not speak with reporters following the workout. Yet teams seem to have seen enough already.
“He’s a special player,” Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi said. “We were watching him, and I don’t know if there’s anybody that’s actually done what he’s done in modern-day football, playing both offense and defense during the course of a season. He’s definitely, he’s a special player.”
Perhaps the most telling part of Hunter’s journey is that at this stage of the draft process, the best players typically get nitpicked apart and those concerns typically result in sliding in mock drafts.
How long can Travis Hunter play both sides of the ball in NFL?
Hunter has not heard many complaints, and he has consistently remained in the top five selections and, in many cases, the top three.
“To be honest, I think I just need to see if my body will allow me to take all of this and continue to take all this,” said Hunter, who spoke to AP after agreeing to an endorsement deal with Snickers that is packaging its candy bars and ice cream together. “But I do a lot of treatment, so I’m able to keep up with my body and with what I need for my body.”
The biggest challenge to playing two positions: Learning two different playbooks. But Hunter has done it before and is willing to put in whatever hours are needed to make sure he can do it again.
“I don’t feel unique, I feel just like a normal person,” he said. “I’m just a normal person that got the ability to do some special things.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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