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College CB/WR Travis Hunter, Colorado (1 Viewer)

I get that I am old, but doing "The Heisman" during a must win game that you are losing strikes me as odd. Back to yelling at clouds...
I get it but, meh. IMO it's okay the kid recognizes his future. The Heisman is a potential money maker for him (at the very least those Heisman insurance ads with Tebow/Woodson/Barry etc) and, frankly he's, IMO, unquestionably the best player in college football.

Also, let kids have fun.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
I don't think the situations are remotely comparable. We're talking 100 plays with contact on a weekly basis.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
I don't think the situations are remotely comparable. We're talking 100 plays with contact on a weekly basis.
Done once in baseball in the last 50 years.

We seen several examples in the NFL where players have spot duty on one side of the ball. No he won't play a majority of both the offensive and defensive snaps, but he could be a good nickel back or 4th WR.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
I don't think the situations are remotely comparable. We're talking 100 plays with contact on a weekly basis.
Done once in baseball in the last 50 years.

We seen several examples in the NFL where players have spot duty on one side of the ball. No he won't play a majority of both the offensive and defensive snaps, but he could be a good nickel back or 4th WR.
Thats where I'm at with him. If he really is elite on both sides of the ball, there will be a time and place for that. Teams shouldn't consider putting all that wear on his body playing both ways throughout a whole season.

I have a hard time seeing his situation translate to the NFL. Both offenses and defenses are more complicated in the NFL. He is going to need a lot of reps at both spots to be good. Right now, its easy for him to just go out there and be the superior athlete.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
I don't think the situations are remotely comparable. We're talking 100 plays with contact on a weekly basis.
Done once in baseball in the last 50 years.

We seen several examples in the NFL where players have spot duty on one side of the ball. No he won't play a majority of both the offensive and defensive snaps, but he could be a good nickel back or 4th WR.
Thats where I'm at with him. If he really is elite on both sides of the ball, there will be a time and place for that. Teams shouldn't consider putting all that wear on his body playing both ways throughout a whole season.

I have a hard time seeing his situation translate to the NFL. Both offenses and defenses are more complicated in the NFL. He is going to need a lot of reps at both spots to be good. Right now, its easy for him to just go out there and be the superior athlete.
It is tough, but his coach not only played on offense/defense/ST, he played two sports. Maybe have been a better football and baseball player than Bo Jackson.
 
I'm in the camp that thinks he needs to commit to one side of the ball or the other. No one is going to hold up playing both sides of the ball for a 17 game NFL season. I think the NFL players are too good for him not to spend 99% of the time perfecting one position.

If I had to guess, I think he'll go offense first. If he washes out as a WR, he can fall back and play CB. Too much money on that side of the football to not make that plan A.
Ohtani would like to have a word with you.
I don't think the situations are remotely comparable. We're talking 100 plays with contact on a weekly basis.
Done once in baseball in the last 50 years.

We seen several examples in the NFL where players have spot duty on one side of the ball. No he won't play a majority of both the offensive and defensive snaps, but he could be a good nickel back or 4th WR.
Thats where I'm at with him. If he really is elite on both sides of the ball, there will be a time and place for that. Teams shouldn't consider putting all that wear on his body playing both ways throughout a whole season.

I have a hard time seeing his situation translate to the NFL. Both offenses and defenses are more complicated in the NFL. He is going to need a lot of reps at both spots to be good. Right now, its easy for him to just go out there and be the superior athlete.
It is tough, but his coach not only played on offense/defense/ST, he played two sports. Maybe have been a better football and baseball player than Bo Jackson.
Deion wasn't very good at WR though. The only year he played offense full time he finished 5th on his team in receptions.
 
Jordan Reid
My No. 1 ranked prospect for the 2025 NFL draft is #Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter.

My realistic plan for him early on would be to play him at CB full-time and include him in a package of 10-20 plays per game as a WR.

espn.com/nfl/draft2025/…
 
Potential best CB in the NFL or very good WR is how I see Hunter. To me, the CB version is A LOT more valuable. Hunter is a better prospect as a CB than Stingley/Sauce were. Better than Ward. Better than Ramsey. Probably the best CB prospect in 20+ years. Probably since Woodson?

As a WR, is he better than Nabers was? Hell, is he better than McMillan is?
 
Potential best CB in the NFL or very good WR is how I see Hunter. To me, the CB version is A LOT more valuable. Hunter is a better prospect as a CB than Stingley/Sauce were. Better than Ward. Better than Ramsey. Probably the best CB prospect in 20+ years. Probably since Woodson?

As a WR, is he better than Nabers was? Hell, is he better than McMillan is?
Hunter mentioned his goal is to be better than Deion which I will take he will focus on corner and probably play a handful of snaps at WR or KR.
 
I'd like to see more evaluations that focus on Travis Hunter as a CB, and how he compares as a CB prospect to Will Johnson, Devon Witherspoon, Christian Gonzalez, Derek Stingley, Sauce Gardner, etc.

Hunter's offense/defense versatility is the most interesting thing about him, and gives some boost to his NFL value, but the bulk of his NFL value comes down to how good he'll be on whichever side of the ball he's best at. And insiders mostly think that's at CB.

Is he the best CB prospect in decades (as Travdogg thinks), or more like the typical best CB prospect in a draft class, or what?
 
Will it matter to him that the best WR's make $10M more a season then the best CB's pay or that the 13th highest paid WR is on par with the highest paid CB's?
 
I'm not sure what's going to happen with him, but even if he is drafted as a WR, I'd fear that he might still get a number of snaps at CB every game, which may limit his targets. Not saying I wouldn't want him, but not with an early first, and probably not a mid first either. A lot to be determined between now and then, though.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
 
Will it matter to him that the best WR's make $10M more a season then the best CB's pay or that the 13th highest paid WR is on par with the highest paid CB's?
Not that the "best" WR list is always correlated with the highest paid WR list, but I wonder if that matters much considering he's a much better CB than he is WR. I think this could probably level the playing field with regards to earning potential based on position. Then again, Christian Kirk got a bag, so maybe not.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
1000%.

As a pro, you're trying to perfect a position. Spending time on a 2nd position is watering down the 1st. Even if you're only giving up 1% of your skill/ability at that position, that can be the difference between really really good and elite.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
1000%.

As a pro, you're trying to perfect a position. Spending time on a 2nd position is watering down the 1st. Even if you're only giving up 1% of your skill/ability at that position, that can be the difference between really really good and elite.

we're gonna take this generational DB and make him good at DB and good at WR instead
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
1000%.

As a pro, you're trying to perfect a position. Spending time on a 2nd position is watering down the 1st. Even if you're only giving up 1% of your skill/ability at that position, that can be the difference between really really good and elite.
Maybe trying to improve at WR makes you a better CB?
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
1000%.

As a pro, you're trying to perfect a position. Spending time on a 2nd position is watering down the 1st. Even if you're only giving up 1% of your skill/ability at that position, that can be the difference between really really good and elite.
Maybe trying to improve at WR makes you a better CB?

It's a complete moot point for me. a player cant divide his practice time between offense and defense. You can't part time 2 positions when you're generational at 1.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
1000%.

As a pro, you're trying to perfect a position. Spending time on a 2nd position is watering down the 1st. Even if you're only giving up 1% of your skill/ability at that position, that can be the difference between really really good and elite.
Maybe trying to improve at WR makes you a better CB?
I think playing the position in college may have helped him to an extent. You learn to think like a receiver, and understand routes. But I also think there's a cap on that benefit.

I think if you're trying to get to the top 1% of CB's, you have to live, eat, breathe, poop that position.
 
The both position thing is overblown, imo. vastly.

Do the offenses and defenses practice together? meetings together? how is he expected to attend both, learn both playbooks etc?

99% chance he sees, at most, 3-4 gimmick plays on the other side of the ball a game... and i might be highballing.
I completely agree. IMHO he will be a CB and at best get some looks on offense.
Charles Woodson was never a WR like Hunter in college, but he still was somewhat of a two-way player. After 18 NFL seasons he had 27 receiving yards.

Even Deion only had one "useful" season at WR.

and Deion was a completely diffferent era.

you can't play both sides of the ball now. it doesnt and cant happen. players are specialists and spend every waking minute learning and working on their position.
You say he can’t do what he just did for 2 seasons. You can counter saying it was college but you can’t say he did not do both positions at a high level.

As a 2 way player guys like Deion and Woodson don’t belong in the same conversation with him.

I have no doubt that Hunter can do both positions at a high level. I just have doubts for how long before it takes a physical toll and if being stuck on the rookie pay scale for 4-5 years makes it worthwhile to him to endure that wear and tear.
 
For those that are saying he can't play both in the NFL, I'm sure they'd have thought what he did in college to be impossible as well. There are always outliers. There are always firsts. There are always guys that break the mold. I don't believe he can play every play in the NFL, but I think he can play most. He's something special. He's different. Don't say he can't, because so far he's proven all doubters wrong.
 
For those that are saying he can't play both in the NFL, I'm sure they'd have thought what he did in college to be impossible as well. There are always outliers. There are always firsts. There are always guys that break the mold. I don't believe he can play every play in the NFL, but I think he can play most. He's something special. He's different. Don't say he can't, because so far he's proven all doubters wrong.
It's like imagining a pitcher being an elite power and contact hitter. It's simply outright impossible. You could bet your net worth to win $1 and it'd be easily worth it.

Wait ...
 
Not sure about others, but I'm doubting he can do both at a high level not so much because of his talent; but because I'd imagine the offensive and defensive playbooks/schemes for Colorado vs. just about any NFL team he will play for will be like going from Algebra 1 to AP Calculus. Most players struggle with doing this for one side of the ball, especially early on.

And that's not taking into consideration you're often expected at the NFL level to not only know you're own, but learn much of the opponents you play each and every week. That seems an insurmountable task IMO, at least to do at an elite level on both sides of the ball. In fact, I'd imagine there won't even be a weekly practice schedule that allows him to do so seeing as most film study and play/package implementation on a weekly basis has defense overlapping with offense.

To think he's just going to walk in and be able to do this at all, let alone at an elite level, seems wild to me. He'd legitimately have to be one of the best football players of all time at any position with intelligence and knowledge retention that's off the charts.

Orlovsky showing/discussing a Texan's playbook from over 15 years ago for reference. Oh, and it's just for the offense....
 
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I guess I’m in the minority as I think he’s a better WR than CB. I think he can make more of a difference on offense. His stop/start and change of direction skills, I want on offense. I want the ball in his hands more not less. Give him a few packages on defense to make him happy.
 
He can be great at both, but he can't be great at both in the same game, or with any long-term consistency.
Seems insane to think he could be in today's game.
Fatigue is a real thing, and would lead to injury after injury, not to mention he just won't be as good if he's tired all game.
 
For those that are saying he can't play both in the NFL, I'm sure they'd have thought what he did in college to be impossible as well. There are always outliers. There are always firsts. There are always guys that break the mold. I don't believe he can play every play in the NFL, but I think he can play most. He's something special. He's different. Don't say he can't, because so far he's proven all doubters wrong.
It's like imagining a pitcher being an elite power and contact hitter. It's simply outright impossible. You could bet your net worth to win $1 and it'd be easily worth it.

Wait ...
I don't really follow baseball.

I know Ohtani does both. Are there a lot that do? I think he's more the exception that proves the rule. Like, we know the ONE great player that can do both. Where are the others?

In baseball, players aren't on the field every play. The defense is out there. There's often a big rest period between running. Strikes, balls, foul balls, etc. The defense runs hard when the ball is hit to them. They shift. But it's not like they're going all out to cover a guy every single play. When you're batting, you swing. If you hit you run. Then you stand on the base for a while until it's time to run again. When you're out, you go sit on the bench. When you're on offense in football, you run or block every play. You're constantly exerting.

I just don't think we can compare 2 ways in baseball to 2 ways in football.

Hunter has to run all out to cover Ja'maar Chase for however many downs. Then he has to run all out to make plays for however many downs. I just can't imagine the fatigue isn't there.
 
I don't think anyone on these boards thinks that Travis can be a full time CB and full time WR in the same game, but when we have things like, defensive tackle Sam Hubbard TD receptions, it's silly to suggest that Travis couldn't be a full time CB but line up for 5 plays a game on offense, especially a red zone package or something. NFL offenses and defenses can be extremely complex. At the end of the day though, saying Travis, go run a post route, he doesn't really need a bunch of practice time to pull that off given his background.
 
For those that are saying he can't play both in the NFL, I'm sure they'd have thought what he did in college to be impossible as well. There are always outliers. There are always firsts. There are always guys that break the mold. I don't believe he can play every play in the NFL, but I think he can play most. He's something special. He's different. Don't say he can't, because so far he's proven all doubters wrong.
It's like imagining a pitcher being an elite power and contact hitter. It's simply outright impossible. You could bet your net worth to win $1 and it'd be easily worth it.

Wait ...
I don't really follow baseball.

I know Ohtani does both. Are there a lot that do? I think he's more the exception that proves the rule. Like, we know the ONE great player that can do both. Where are the others?

In baseball, players aren't on the field every play. The defense is out there. There's often a big rest period between running. Strikes, balls, foul balls, etc. The defense runs hard when the ball is hit to them. They shift. But it's not like they're going all out to cover a guy every single play. When you're batting, you swing. If you hit you run. Then you stand on the base for a while until it's time to run again. When you're out, you go sit on the bench. When you're on offense in football, you run or block every play. You're constantly exerting.

I just don't think we can compare 2 ways in baseball to 2 ways in football.

Hunter has to run all out to cover Ja'maar Chase for however many downs. Then he has to run all out to make plays for however many downs. I just can't imagine the fatigue isn't there.
Yeah my point was more general about the concept of someone being able to do two different things that no one normally can. Generally, a freak exists once in an age. Did not mean that I think Hunter can or will flourish at both positions, just that without specifics like the good points you make, there's no absolute "He can't do that. No one has before. So no."

As to the baseball thing, no, what Ohtani is doing is pretty much unheard of as far as I know. Babe Ruth was an elite batter, but I don't actually know how good of a pitcher he was? Or if he pitched and batted concurrently. Ohtani has performed at an elite level on both sides which is insane. No one does that.

ETA: Babe Ruth was a pretty elite pitcher for a few years at the beginning of his career. So yeah, though the game was very different 110 years ago, Babe Ruth did what Ohtani is doing or better, statistically. But no one else.
 
Will it matter to him that the best WR's make $10M more a season then the best CB's pay or that the 13th highest paid WR is on par with the highest paid CB's?
Not that the "best" WR list is always correlated with the highest paid WR list, but I wonder if that matters much considering he's a much better CB than he is WR. I think this could probably level the playing field with regards to earning potential based on position. Then again, Christian Kirk got a bag, so maybe not.
That's the real question. If he's not a top 10 WR he's not going to make more money there than at CB. He'll play where he excels the most.
 
He'll be drafted to play CB, period.

If he has return skills, maybe he gets some play there too.

If they want to trot him onto the field for a few go routes and a Hail Mary to please his followers... that'll be a coach's decision.
 
Will it matter to him that the best WR's make $10M more a season then the best CB's pay or that the 13th highest paid WR is on par with the highest paid CB's?
I don't think it's a given that he would be a Top 13 WR. It's much more likely he will be among the top CBs. I don't think any team will allow him to be a significant contributor on ball sides of the ball . . . and I don't think there will be a team that will draft him with the intent of him being a WR. The point being, he may not have a say in the matter even if he wanted to be a WR. Who knows if he will be a star at any position in the NFL.
 
I don't think it's a given that he would be a Top 13 WR
Of course no given he’ll be the top CB either.

I’m just saying if he believes in himself to be a top WR in the league there is more money to be had at that position. Higher ceiling in pay, lower bar to pass to make what the best CB's make.

don't think any team will allow him to be a significant contributor on ball sides of the ball . .
What is significant to you?
 

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