Travis Hunter injury update: Jaguars GM says No. 2 pick ready for Week 1, details plans to play both ways

If there were any concerns about Travis Hunter’s availability for Week 1, they were wiped away on Wednesday by Jaguars general manager James Gladstone. Gladstone provided a positive update on Hunter, the team’s rookie receiver/cornerback who missed Jacksonville’s final two preseason games after he sustained an upper-body injury on August 14. 

“Oh, that’s not the case,” Gladstone said when asked about the possibility of Hunter being unavailable for the opener against the Panthers. “He’s on the grass today and and rolling full speed.”

Hunter, who the team traded up to choose with the No. 2 pick, did not play in the Jaguars’ last two preseason games. First-year coach Liam Coen said last week that the team was treating the injury cautiously and did not want to risk Hunter further aggravating the issue. 

“Could he have probably gone? I think so,” Coen said. “If this was Carolina, would he have probably played? Yeah, so we’re moving in the right direction.”

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Beyond his preseason health concerns, the question all offseason has been how the Jaguars plan to use Hunter, who flourished on both sides of the ball at Colorado. Last fall, Hunter won the Heisman Trophy and the Biletnikoff Award (given annually to college football’s top receiver) and was also tabbed as the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. 

Hunter played 713 offensive snaps and 748 defensive snaps last season. As a receiver, he caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns. On defense, he had 36 tackles, 11 passes defensed and four interceptions. 

During his preseason debut, Hunter played 10 snaps on offense and eight on defense. He caught both of his targets and had a third catch wiped out due to a holding call. 

Gladstone said that Hunter has lived up to his expectations in terms of what he can provide to the team on both sides of the ball. However, he has no intentions of tipping his hand as to how Hunter may be used during the season. It is clear, though, that Hunter will be asked to contribute as both a receiver and as a cornerback, and his usage could differ on a week-to-week basis.

“There’s a competitive advantage to not knowing what side of the ball he’s going to be deployed on fully,” Gladstone said. “If that’s half, if that’s a mixture — all those sorts of things can vary from one week to the next. And I think the fact that that exists is certainly a hand that we’ll keep close.” 

The Jaguars are three-point favorites for the Sept. 7 opener vs. the Panthers, per FanDuel Sportsbook.