{"id":861511,"date":"2026-09-26T16:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861511\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T16:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T16:08:11","slug":"deion-sanders-on-travis-hunters-usage-i-have-no-idea-whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861511\/","title":{"rendered":"Deion Sanders on Travis Hunter’s usage: “I have no idea what’s going on”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in May, Colorado coach Deion Sanders expressed disappointment that he hadn\u2019t heard from the Jaguars<\/a> regarding how to coach, and how to deploy, cornerback\/receiver Travis Hunter. Two games into Hunter\u2019s second NFL season, Coach Prime remains perplexed about Hunter\u2019s workload.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t ask questions because I\u2019m not there,\u201d Sanders said recently on his CBS Colorado show. \u201cI don\u2019t know what transpires when we\u2019re not looking. I have no idea what\u2019s going on<\/a>. I know who he was and who he is right now. I know what he\u2019s capable of. I do know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Week 1, Hunter got four snaps on offense and 29 on defense. He had one catch for eight yards.<\/p>\n

In Week 2, Hunter had six snaps on offense and 37 on defense. He wasn\u2019t targeted in the Jacksonville passing game.<\/p>\n

The lack of usage for a player who entered the league with the promise of being the first true full-time two-way player since Chuck Bednarik has sparked plenty of questions. Earlier this week, coach Liam Coen said the team will be looking<\/a> at giving him more reps this week, on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

Asked on Friday whether Hunter has spoken to coaches about the rotation at cornerback this week, Hunter opted for discretion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna leave that up to the coaches to answer,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThat ain\u2019t for me to answer<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an appearance on The Pivot podcast before the start of the regular season, Hunter reiterated his belief that he can reach his full potential as a cornerback and as a receiver.<\/p>\n

Ryan Clark told Hunter that he could be a Hall of Fame cornerback or a Pro Bowl-caliber receiver<\/a>. But Clark\u2019s implicit message was clear \u2014 it\u2019s impossible to be both. How can Hunter accomplish it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWork ethic,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cWe all get the same 24 hours.\u201d <\/p>\n

Channing Crowder pressed Hunter on his effort to use that 24 hours to do both at the highest possible level. \u201cThe numbers don\u2019t work out,\u201d Crowder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m trying to be the best \u2014 how are you gonna be the best, if you ain\u2019t trying to be the best? If you ain\u2019t trying to compete and do the best to be the best? So my main focus is be the best. So I\u2019m gonna do everything I can do to be the best. I don\u2019t want to be the best at one position. There\u2019s a lot of people that\u2019s the best at one position. Ain\u2019t nobody yet been the best at both, full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Hunter has played on a part-time basis on defense, with cameo appearances on offense. What\u2019s his preference?<\/p>\n

\u201cI like doing both,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cAnd I cannot sit on the sideline. I don\u2019t think nobody\u2019s noticed that yet. I hate the sidelines. I do not wanna sit there. I can\u2019t sit there and just watch football. I\u2019ve got to be on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark pointed out that 52 other guys spend time on the sidelines. \u201cThat\u2019s their problem,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n

He was smiling when he said it, but there\u2019s no escaping his point. Hunter still wants to play on a full-time basis on both sides of the ball. But he\u2019s playing so little on each side of the ball that the snaps don\u2019t add up to the amount of time he\u2019d be getting if he played all snaps on offense or all snaps on defense.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still not clear what the Jaguars are doing with the player whom they moved up from No. 5 to No. 2 in the draft to get, with the justification that they\u2019d be getting two players in one. At some point, the idea of a two-way player has yielded to the reality that, as Crowder said, the numbers don\u2019t work out. It\u2019s too hard to be fully and completely prepared to perform at a high level on both offense and defense.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s almost as if the Jaguars want Hunter to come to the conclusion on his own that he\u2019ll accept playing one side of the ball or the other in order to get a full-time workload at one speciic position.<\/p>\n

Still, if the Jaguars weren\u2019t prepared to let Hunter do what he clearly wants to do (and he surely made his point clear to them before the draft), why did they give up so much to make him the second overall pick in the draft?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the most confounding aspect of this. Everyone knew Hunter wanted to play both ways. The decision to trade up to get Hunter sent a message that the Jaguars were on board with that approach. The numbers, to date, paint a far different picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in May, Colorado coach Deion Sanders expressed disappointment that he hadn\u2019t heard from the Jaguars regarding how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-861511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}