{"id":359480,"date":"2026-08-01T00:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359480\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T00:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T00:02:16","slug":"jags-2-way-player-hunter-returns-after-injury-cuts-short-rookie-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/359480\/","title":{"rendered":"Jags 2-way player Hunter returns after injury cuts short rookie year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>JACKSONVILLE \u2014 As if two-way player Travis Hunter doesn\u2019t already have enough on his plate.<\/p>\n<p>The week before the Jacksonville Jaguars opened training camp, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1508109274696035&amp;set=a.318470536993254\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hunter was photographed wearing a police vest<\/a> posing with Sheriff T.K. Waters and members of the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department. It had the look of a ride-along, though Hunter wasn\u2019t saying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just out there just having fun with Sheriff T.K.,\u201d Hunter said Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Colorado whom the Jaguars made the No. 2 pick in last year\u2019s draft, has enough to keep him occupied in training camp. Hunter is returning from injury, his rookie year ending two months into the season <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/travis-hunter-jaguars-knee-injury-25bc1ae611b259fe330d2210eb397d85\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">when he tore knee ligaments during noncontact drills<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In seven games, he played 324 snaps at receiver and 162 snaps at cornerback. The plan to use him on both sides of the ball has not changed, especially after the Jaguars shored up the core of their secondary by <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/jaguars-montaric-brown-contract-53a7c8bff07a48835c58a0e7a7770d2a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">re-signing Montaric \u201cBuster\u201d Brown<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter has been wearing a teal jersey for offense in three days of camp, with a white bib and his No. 12 he can slip on when he plays in the secondary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do we balance his reps here, knowing that we\u2019re trying to ease him in, but he also at some point needs to get double the amount that a normal player gets,\u201d coach Liam Coen said. \u201cAnd so what does that ramp-up look like? We have it all kind of mapped out \u2026 on every single practice schedule, his reps are highlighted in here \u2014 where he\u2019s in, what plays he\u2019s in, where he\u2019s at on the field. We\u2019ve been extremely intentional about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hunter, who had surgery Nov. 11 to repair the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee, was limited during offseason workouts. But he used that time to build up some 10 pounds of muscle in his upper body and managed to get even faster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NFLRT\/status\/2080013824304824719\" rel=\"nofollow\">He was clocked running at 22.6 mph<\/a> at the team\u2019s facility last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a small guy coming in. Everybody was like, \u2019Gain weight, gain weight,\u2019\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI was scared at first. I\u2019m like: \u2018Dang, I\u2019ve never played at this weight. I\u2019m going to feel heavy, not going to be able to do what I do.\u2019 Training and being able to put those months in \u2014 not just on the grass but in the weight room \u2014 just putting in extra work, it made me feel lighter on my feet when I finally touched the grass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looked like he was flying on grass when he ran the 22.6 mph \u2014 no pads, no one around him, not in a game \u2014 but it was another indication all was well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to hit 23 now,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThat\u2019s the next goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Jaguars could use the production considering <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/travis-hunter-jaguars-nfl-draft-cf1dc604b6e990cb54a10aea167b2948\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">how much they gave up in a trade to get the second pick in 2025<\/a> \u2014 their No. 5 pick last year and No. 1 pick this year. They won nine of their last 10 games last year after Hunter was injured to win the AFC South.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Hunter feels like last year never happened in terms of his health.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI put nine months in, so it doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019m coming off an injury,\u201d he said. \u201cJust get the rust off right now. I\u2019ve been gone for nine months, not able to be out here with my teammates for nine months, so finally being able to hit the grass, knock the rust off and just continue to click with the quarterbacks and click with the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said Hunter is getting back into the flow, and the added muscle in his upper body is noticeable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never want to see anybody get injured, but I think he really put his best foot forward in the weight room as he was recovering from a lower-body injury,\u201d Campanile said. \u201cHe just looks really physical in the team work and in the individual period. So he\u2019s done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And now it\u2019s all football, though the Engine 36 B-Shift crew said in its Facebook post for Hunter to let them know when he was ready for a ride-along.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe promise, it\u2019s just as hot as training camp,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NFL: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2014 As if two-way player Travis Hunter doesn\u2019t already have enough on his plate. The week before&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,121,117,119,10728,76046,110],"class_list":["post-359480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nfl","tag-professional-sports","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}