INDIANAPOLIS — Some NFL teams are sending 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to the offensive meetings first. Others have him meet the defensive coaches first.
Two weeks before the league’s annual draft is held at the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field, Hunter told The Associated Press he’s not sure which position teams want him to focus on when his pro football career begins: receiver or cornerback.
Hunter still insists he can excel at both, just as he did in college.
“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 the college game, 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 over the past half-century, nobody did it with more success than Hunter. He caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns, made 35 tackles, broke up 11 passes and picked off four for the Colorado Buffaloes last season.
Hunter is generally considered the best receiver and best cornerback on this year’s draft board, creating a debate about whether he’d be better at one position or the other and whether his body could handle doing both on a full-time basis at the next level.
“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 in Indianapolis. “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 the Tennessee Titans make Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward the No. 1 selection, as is widely expected.
While he has plenty of game footage to showcase his skills on the field, Hunter 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 after the workout, but 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 highly rated prospects sliding in mock drafts.
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,” Hunter said. “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 is 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.”