To announce that they had signed Travis Hunter to his rookie contract, the Jacksonville Jaguars made two announcements on their social media pages. One for Travis Hunter, the defensive back, and another for Travis Hunter, the wide receiver.
To best reflect Hunter’s impact as a two-way player within the confines of a rookie contract, which has parameters that are predetermined based on where a player is drafted, Hunter signed a record-setting contract that included all $30.57 million of his signing bonus to be paid up front.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hunter is the first non-quarterback who wasn’t taken first overall to receive his entire signing bonus right away.
Throughout offseason programs, Hunter had spent more of his time on the practice field at wide receiver, which was expected. However, as GM James Gladstone explained, the reason for that was that the team views cornerback as his more natural position.
As offseason programs progressed, Hunter saw more opportunities to play cornerback in practice, and the next step for him, as Liam Coen highlighted during minicamp, is to practice regularly on both sides of the ball during the same practice. For most of OTAs and minicamp, Hunter spent the entirety of each practice on just one side of the ball, depending on what that day called for.
What Hunter’s playing time in-season will look like between offense and defense still remains to be seen. It sounds like it will be quite fluid, with the weekly matchup and flow of the game dictating where Hunter sees the majority of his playing time come from.
“Time will truly tell, and I think the thing you can, in fact, read into at this stage is that he does not tire,” said Gladstone on Sirius XM NFL radio. “He has got a spark, he has got the energy, the capacity from a physical standpoint to be able to do it is certainly there. It’ll be in terms of one game to the next, where does it sit, where does it make the most sense, certain game plans might dictate usage differently.
“So time will truly tell, and I don’t know that one game to the next is going to be the exact same. Putting a number on it at this stage is, I think probably premature, but look forward to seeing how it plays out here.”
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars announce Travis Hunter signing twice; once as a WR and once as DB
Reporting by Paul Bretl, Jaguars Wire / Jaguars Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
