Travis Hunter is a math changer.
The Jacksonville Jaguars narrowed their roster from 90 to 53 players this week, setting the stage for the regular season. It’ll be the first time Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and general manager James Gladstone get to know their team.
When deciding which players to release, most general managers must not only decide the players the team will roster throughout the season, but also must reason through the team’s 47-man game-day roster.
Hunter changes that. He’ll have the opportunity to become the first two-way player in franchise history, the first two-way player to play meaningful snaps on both sides of the ball. The move, in essence, can free the team up to have an extra receiver active, or a fourth running back, or a fifth defensive tackle, or any other position the team wants to play in a game.
“It goes a long way. It obviously — it’s interesting, in the 53, it’s probably less impactful in comparison to the 48, 47 on game day because now you’ve got an extra active essentially, somebody who’s going both ways. So it’s a weapon in that regard,” Gladstone said Wednesday.
“It’s actually a math changer, right? It literally is a math changer when it comes to the active game day count. That’s where I would probably apply that as being a really cool dynamic.”
Hunter is listed as one of the team’s five receivers and one of the team’s six cornerbacks. Essentially, there are 11 eligible “players” combined within that group, but 10 actual players in total. It’s a numbers game, and Gladstone is simply living in it.
Travis Hunter returns to practice healthy, ready for Week 1
Hunter missed the last couple of weeks of practice and two preseason games due to an upper-body injury.
The injury, however, was never considered major or anything that could cost the second-overall pick game time. Gladstone confirmed that sentiment Wednesday when asked about Hunter’s health and readiness.
Will Hunter miss Week 1?
“That’s not the case,” said Gladstone. “He’s on the grass today and rolling full speed.”
Hunter worked on both sides of the ball throughout training camp, earning nearly equal splits at corner and receiver. The team is still poised to deploy him on both sides of the ball and they plan to use the element of surprise to their advantage — no one really knows where Hunter will play the most in a given week.
“There’s a competitive advantage to not knowing what side of the ball he’s going to be deployed on fully. If that’s half, if that’s a mixture, all those sorts of things can vary from one week to the next. I think the fact that that exists is certainly a hand that we’ll keep close,” Gladstone said.
One example of that is the simple idea that teams must account for Hunter potentially being Jacksonville’s primary target when they face him. They’ll have to spend valuable time game planning for something that may not ever come. That’ll happen on both sides of the ball, too.
“There hasn’t been any shift on that front. We expect him to be who we know him to be, and that’s someone who impacts both sides of the football, and can’t wait to see him on Sundays and one Monday night here this season,” said Gladstone.
The Jaguars and Hunter will be in the national spotlight in Week 5 when they face the Kansas City Chiefs at home on Monday Night Football.
Tim Patrick trade gives Jaguars a different ‘genre’ of player in receiver room
The Jaguars made a shrewd move less than 24 hours after roster cuts were due, acquiring former Lions wide receiver Tim Patrick for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
The franchise stayed proactive, unsatisfied with the team’s configuration at wide receiver that featured Brian Thomas Jr. as the team’s tallest at 6-foot-2.
Patrick gives the team a big target at 6-foot-5.
Gladstone said he and Coen had appreciated Patrick’s game from afar before explaining what the team’s thought process was in making such a move.
“We talk about the idea of being mentally and physically tough, like I just pointed to, and I used the phrase ‘intangibly rich’ a lot. I think anybody who does their homework on Tim Patrick understands that he’s never had an easy path. He’s always had to overcome obstacles,” said Gladstone.
“The only thing he communicated to us after this decision was made, he’s ready to earn every op [opportunity] that lies in front. When he’s got that hunger that he can provide, obviously from a veteran presence to a room who definitely has, up until Dyami [WR Dyami Brown], a lot of youth, a lot of inexperience in comparison.”
Gladstone made the analogy of building a “basketball team” with multiple position groups, including receiver.
“Not the same, exact genre across the group. That can be something that, when you talk with Liam, being able to artfully design plays to tap into those skill sets is something that he gets creative juices from,” he said.
“So that was something that was really exciting about the addition of Tim, knowing that he brings something that we don’t currently have in the space.”
Jaguars ‘juiced up’ about team’s running backs room
The Jaguars retained four running backs despite speculation that the team was slated to offload at least one of them.
In the fold now are Travis Etienne, Tank Bigsby, Bhayshul Tuten and LeQuint Allen. Of course, that quartet of backs gives Jacksonville some flexibility and also multiple genres of players to choose from. The group also plays right into Coen’s hand, one of multiplicity, a by-committee approach.
“Pretty juiced up about the fact that we’ve got four running backs who we feel very confident in. Obviously, as you think about what Liam deployed in Tampa Bay, it was a committee approach, and we look forward to bringing that to life here in Jacksonville and making sure that everybody gets the ops that they deserve in a way that contributes to a successful outcome for us,” said Gladstone.
“But each of those guys has a role right here and now, and that will continue to shape itself over the course of the season. Obviously, knowing we’re going to run the ball, the idea of attrition isn’t a stretch to think shows itself, and the fact that we have four guys that we feel confident in, trust in, is a really good thing. Excited about where it’s at, excited to see where it goes.”
The Jaguars were confident in Tuten (drafted in Round 4) and Allen (Round 7) before they hit the grass, but that confidence only grew larger as the weeks of the offseason program and training camp continued. The team also found confidence in Etienne as the team’s primary third-down back, with Bigsby offering a change-of-pace style that Coen is familiar with.
Jaguars aren’t at the finish line, will continue evovling
The Jaguars have been proactive this offseason.
As the Times-Union’s Ryan O’Halloran pointed out, the franchise has made three trades in August. For perspective, the team made 10 trades in August from 1995-2024, combined.
Jacksonville acquired defensive lineman Austin Johnson via the free agency market, while they quickly pounced on the opportunity to send backup center Luke Fortner to the New Orleans Saints for big-bodied nose tackle Khalen Saunders. That comes after months of the team seeing what players like Tyler Lacy and Jordan Jefferson, both waived by the team, could bring to the table.
Jacksonville’s days of stagnation appear over. If that wasn’t made clear during the NFL Draft or up to this point, it will be by season’s end if Gladstone and his staff have anything to say about it. They aren’t done.
“I think, look, good teams can be built throughout the course of an off-season. I think the great teams continue to evolve throughout the course of a season. So, to say whether or not we’re at the spot where I think I thought we’d be, I can’t point to it right now,” Gladstone said when asked if the team was where he thought it’d be by this point.
“What I can say is we won’t stop. Stagnation is never going to be something that you see from us, so I look forward to still what lies in front of us and know the job’s not even close to done.”
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82 or on Bluesky @ Demetrius.
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Travis Hunter gives Jaguars ‘math changer,’ Gladstone shares insight into 53-man roster
Reporting by Demetrius Harvey, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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