Travis Hunter is the most unique prospect we have seen enter the NFL in my lifetime! We (meaning most people who are living football fans) have never seen a player perform on both sides of the ball at such a high level, especially when you consider the physical demands of playing wide receiver and defensive back.

The cardio alone is enough to send most players to the locker room for an IV. He does it with a smile on his face. The debate about what he will do in the NFL is a fascinating one, with pundits seemingly split down the middle on which side he should focus his talents on.

Is Travis Hunter Best As A Wide Receiver or Cornerback?

Domonique Foxworth said on his show that he believed receiver was the best position for Hunter to focus on in the NFL.

“I think if I have to choose, where I would want him to be effective in the modern NFL, is at receiver because no matter how good he is at corner, his impact can be a little more mitigated and is less consistent.” 

Foxworth’s fellow ESPN colleague, Mina Kimes, disagrees. She believes that his impact can be felt more as a defensive back.

“Let me be clear, he is a very good receiving prospect,” Kimes said emphatically on NFL Live. “But, I actually think he can be an All Pro as a corner and pretty damn quickly which is a wild thing to say about a player who has not stepped foot in the NFL.”

Of course, back in 2023, she wrote on her X account, “Travis Hunter maybe too valuable a receiver to play both ways?” Which is a perfect illustration of how polarizing this debate can be. 

Fantasy Life’s very own draftnik and player evaluation wunderkind Thor Nystrom believes that a full-time/part-time plan is likely the best way for Hunter to manage his usage in the NFL. In his second first-round mock draft released around a month ago, Nystrom mocked Hunter to the Browns. 

“The draft’s best overall player, Hunter profiles as a CB1 who’ll moonlight part-time as an electric go-to WR for however many offensive snaps he can additionally handle. When Hunter is on the field, Jerry Jeudy would slide into the WR2 role he’s more suited for.”

Hunter is not only dedicated to showing that he can be an elite player in the NFL, he is dedicated to doing it full time on both sides of the football. He knows that there are people who doubt if he can be elite on both sides of the ball full time, but he has supreme confidence in himself. During his press conference at the NFL Combine, he continued to speak like a man fully intent on playing both sides of the ball.

“They say nobody has ever done it before, for real, the way I do it, but I tell them I’m just different. I’m a different person.” Hunter responded when asked about what teams say about him playing both ways.

If we are being honest, there’s no doubt that he can play both ways in the NFL. People act as if the NFL is more taxing, but the truth is when you play receiver or cornerback, fitness is the key. Hunter will actually get a break in the NFL. There are many more commercial breaks and game stoppages in the NFL. According to NFL Football Operations, in 2023, a typical game averaged 153 total plays; the same year, a typical NCAA football game ran approximately 175 total plays. 25 fewer plays on average makes a huge difference for a person playing both ways, especially if he is a cardio freak.

Another thing to consider is the lack of full-time, no-huddle, tempo offenses in the NFL. That means there is more time to breathe and collect yourself before the next snap. When you add in the fact that even a WR1 on an NFL team does not play every single snap. According to the Fantasy Life NFL Snap Count logs, the top receivers in the NFL play on average between 70% and 96% of the snaps. So there is a good chance that in the NFL, even if Hunter plays both ways, he will play significantly fewer snaps than the 112 per game that he logged in his final season at Colorado.

So the question that is supposed to be discussed is not whether he could play full time both ways, but should he play at all on both sides of the ball.

Is Travis Hunter The Shoehei Ohtani of the NFL?

Hunter made waves when he said that what he does in football was more difficult than what Shohei Ohtani does in baseball. Immediately, so many bashed him for his belief.

As an unbiased lover of both sports, I think you could fairly call it a tie.

Hitting and pitching a baseball are two of the most difficult skills to do in major American sports, for sure. Score one for Ohtani.

Receiver and defensive back are two of the most cardiovascularly taxing positions to play in all of sports. Score one for Hunter.

The tiebreaker would be the mental/emotional part of the game. There is no doubt the stress you feel in the batter's box and on the mound. However, that same level of stress and anxiety exists out wide on an island in football. One mistake and you become the reason a team lost, regardless of how you played the entire game. This is a push!

Who is Travis Hunter's Player Comp at Cornerback?

Who are the comps for Hunter in the NFL? Defensively, I think he is similar to Jets top cornerback, Sauce Gardner.

He is long and slim, but tightly wound so that he can be physical when needed. He can play press man or off man. He has great instincts and is really good at pattern-matching receivers. Of course, the ball skills are uniquely elite for Hunte, having spent so much significant time at receiver. When the football is in the air, he will immediately become a receiver and go hunting for the ball. Is he perfect on that side? No, but nobody’s perfect at corner.

Like Gardner, he will cover up many blemishes with his athleticism and aggressiveness. He will get tested in the NFL, and he will make quarterbacks pay for it. If he spends more than 50% of his time at cornerback, expect him to pick off three or four passes and possibly return one for a touchdown. You’ll see him line up to both the field and boundary side, as well as be a slot disruptor. 

Who is Travis Hunter's Player Comp at Wide Receiver?

Offensively, he reminds me a lot of Eagles receiver, DeVonta Smith. Both have slight frames, which people mistake for weak, but both are strong and not afraid to mix it up as blockers. They can take a hit and keep on coming. Obviously both are Heisman trophy winners, and Hunter has a level of shiftiness that allows him to work outside as well as in the slot, similar to Smith.

His athleticism allows him to play much bigger than he really is, and it will be why a lot of defensive backs lose against him because his athleticism comes out of nowhere. He will need to get stronger against press coverage, but like Smith, he has the natural skillset to make that adjustment quickly. If he spends more than 50% of his time on that side of the ball, he will haul in 80 passes for over 1,000 yards and six to eight touchdowns.

What Position Should Travis Hunter Play In The NFL?

Hunter could be a high-level WR2 and fringe WR1 in his first year, depending on his usage. He would likely be a third- or fourth-round draft pick in standard or half-PPR leagues.  In IDP leagues, he would be the undeniable top pick since he brings value on both sides instantly.

Yes, Hunter has goals, but it is time for him to look at the game like a business. As a rookie on a rookie wage scale, it does not matter how much he does two different jobs on the field, he will only be paid for one of them. The NFL is fickle, and teams have no problem running a player into the ground and then using the wear on their bodies as reasoning to not compensate them when it is time for a new contract (see Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, and many, many more).

For most elite skill-position players, they will only get one chance at a big contract in the league; health and future performance will play a major role. Hunter’s job is to play well enough on one side to command the highest contract that he could garner, and once he can negotiate his compensation on the other side, add that to the contract so he is compensated for everything he does. 

If you are an NFL organization, it is a no-brainer—allow him to play as much on both sides of the ball as he can handle.

Let him rock for four seasons and reevaluate at the end of that time with his fifth-year option in hand. At that time you can decide if the juice is worth the squeeze for an extension continuing the status quo, if you want him back to focus on one side of the ball that is cool as well, but if you milked the best out of his 25-year-old body and you are seeing signs of diminishing returns, you trade him to a team looking to make a splash and use the picks and cap space to replenish your team. Looking beyond the initial contract is foolhardy, anyway. 

From a purely business standpoint, it makes the most sense for Hunter to play wide receiver exclusively for the first four years of his career. He needs to establish himself as a legitimate WR1 in that time. The largest receiver contract of all time is $140 million compared to $96 million for a defensive back. Once he goes to the negotiation table, the major bargaining chip he can bring is his ability to also play defensive back.

As a two-way starter, he should be able to command the largest contract in the history of the game for a non-quarterback. By that time, the number could be upwards of $200 million. At 25, he could begin his professional career as a two-way player.

During the 1995 season, his former college coach, Deion Sanders, signed the largest contract given to a defensive player; part of the bargaining was using Sanders on offense as well as defense. In 1996, he caught 36 passes for 475 yards and a touchdown, in addition to being named a first-team All-Pro cornerback for the fourth time. He was 28 years old.

In 2004, a 33-year-old Troy Brown, three years removed from his best season as a receiver for the New England Patriots, was able to extend his career a few more seasons when he started lining up on defense. That year, he made 17 tackles, five pass breakups, and three interceptions.

Clearly someone who could man both sides of the ball simultaneously is more valuable and thus should command more, but it does not mean they need to start doing it immediately.