Jacksonville Jaguars’ WR/CB Travis Hunter is still rehabbing from last season’s knee injury, so he is not able to participate in the on-field portion of OTAs.
However, Hunter remains involved in the daily practice plans, in large part due to the Jaguars’ virtual room.
The Jaguars expanded this room in the offseason and it allows Hunter to get mental reps from the wide receiver and defensive back’s perspective on the field. As Liam Coen mentioned, alignment, assignment, making calls, and adjustments to formations have been very valuable to Hunter.
“It’s super important because I can’t go outside and get live reps,” Hunter said. “So having that room, having them build it a lot bigger than what I expected, I go in there every single day. I go in there for about 15-30 minutes throughout the day. Just go in there and continually burn out reps. I could burn out 30-40 reps in 15 minutes every time I go in there. So I go in there and just continue to try to build on my knowledge of football and continue to just work on offense and defense.”
Then on the practice field, Hunter has a mic so he can hear each play call, and putting himself in that situation as best he can without actually taking the rep.
“You have to be really focused,” said Hunter. “You know, not being on the field, you can’t retain a lot unless you go in there and you just be focused and try to learn as much as you can every single day because you’re not getting those live reps. So, I try to sneak in and get as much knowledge as I can from everybody and try to help the younger guys.”
From the outside world, much has been made about what Hunter’s playing time will look like this season. While the plan as of now is for him to see more opportunities on defense, the Jaguars plan to continue utilizing him on both sides of the ball.
“No, it didn’t bother me,” Hunter said of the outside noise. “They’ve been doing that my whole career.”
Unable to do much running this offseason, Hunter continued to hit the weight room and has built up his upper body.
“I feel a lot stronger,” Hunter said. “It wasn’t no focus. It was me going in there and getting my overall body right and just getting in shape and continue to just — I couldn’t run so weight room was my best friend, being able to let out some anger because I can’t I ain’t have my two feet.”
Back in April, GM James Gladstone said that the plan for Hunter was for him to be at “full tick” come training camp.
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars’ Travis Hunter details his daily approach to OTAs while sidelined
Reporting by Paul Bretl, Jaguars Wire / Jaguars Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
