The Jacksonville Jaguars have made it abundantly clear over the past several months that Travis Hunter will play both sides of the ball when the 2026 season kicks off.
While he’ll spend more time on the defensive side of the ball, Hunter will get reps with the offense this upcoming season as well. Critics suggested the team should find a primary spot for him – either corner or wide receiver – and stop allowing him extra potential time to get injured.
Hunter doesn’t care, though.
“It didn’t bother me,” Hunter said of the critics. “They’ve been doing that my whole career.”
Hunter suffered a season-ending torn lateral collateral ligament in his right knee during an Oct. 30 practice and underwent surgery on Nov. 11.
Since then he’s been taking reps in the Jaguars virtual walk-through room on defense.
“You can go in there and essentially play a game,” head coach Coen said. “From the defensive back’s perspective, all you see is the linebackers, the D-line and the offense, so, he can go in there in a half hour and play a game and just go. Now you’re not going to be able to get a ton of the [receiver] routes and how they play out, but alignment, assignment, making calls, adjustments to formations have been so valuable to him.
Hunter revealed he spends about 30 minutes per day in the room.
“I go in there every single day for about 15, 30 minutes throughout the day,” he said. “Just going there and continuously burn out reps. I can burn out 30, 40 reps in 15 minutes every time I go in there.”