The 2025 NFL draft is one month away, and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter will be one of the most sought-after prospects heading into draft night in Green Bay.
The cornerback out of Colorado, who was also utilized as a wide receiver by coach Deion Sanders, played over 600 snaps on offense and defense this past season, giving him the potential to be a true two-way star wherever he lands.
On the latest episode of “The Athletic Football Show,” the first of our “On the Clock” series leading up to the draft, Robert Mays was joined by ESPN’s Jordan Reid. They discussed why the Giants should look to take Hunter with the No. 3 pick should he land there, and why the 21-year-old has the capability to play on both sides of the ball in the NFL.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in “The Athletic Football Show” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Robert: At number three, the New York Giants are on the clock. This is the first wrench we’ve thrown into this. I had “Draft Shedeur Sanders” as one of the options for the Giants, but he’s no longer involved in this exercise. So here are your three choices if you’re the Giants. Option one: Draft Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter, both are left here, so you have your pick of either of them. Option two: Draft Mason Graham, the defensive tackle from Michigan, who went fifth overall in your most recent mock draft to the Jacksonville Jaguars. And option three; because both quarterbacks are gone, I’m letting you choose your own adventure here… if there’s a wild card that you would rather have than either Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter, you can make that pick here. Which of those three options are you going with?
Jordan: Just to backtrack a bit, the perfect scenario is Shedeur Sanders falls to them, or they call Cleveland and try to trade up for the quarterback. But in this scenario, I’m taking Travis Hunter. I think he’s the best player in this draft. This guy is so rare, Robert. It’s very rare to see a guy not only play one side of the ball and be so good at it, but also go to the other side and be just as good or even better. I have him as a cornerback, but he’s so good that a lot of teams could see him as a receiver as well. The only comparison I can find for him, and I said this before the season, was Champ Bailey when he was coming out of Georgia. If you remember, Champ played over 100 reps a game in the final eight games during his last year at Georgia. He’s very comparable to Travis Hunter, who averaged 115 snaps a game this past season.
A scout put something to me recently that I thought was really interesting. He said that a lot of people were saying Travis can’t play both ways, but he believed that he can. Just because the tempo of the game is much slower in the NFL. And what he meant by that is teams are huddling much more periodically in the NFL. But if you think about it, in college, they’re snapping the ball as quickly as they can. That’s why his rep count was so high, and the tempo of the game was much quicker in college. The speed of the game is obviously going to be different in the NFL. It’s still going to be quick just because everybody is bigger, faster and stronger. But with everybody huddling up and the tempo of the game being slower, he possibly can play both sides of the football now. I thought that was an interesting point that made me rethink about Travis Hunter playing both ways, because I would play him at corner full-time and sprinkle him in maybe 20 to 25 plays a game as a receiver. That scout’s point made me rethink things a little bit.
Robert: That makes total sense, and that is the easier way to do it; him being in the defensive meetings, being a full-time defensive player and then getting to moonlight as a receiver. You can correct me if I’m wrong, and you would know more about it than I would. In Colorado, they were signaling routes into him, correct? Isn’t that a lot of how the mechanics of it worked for him to understand what he was supposed to do on offense? Because his meeting time was full-time as a defensive player. In the NFL, I’m curious about that. If he is going to be a full-time defensive player, and that’s where his meeting time will be, what are the mechanics of him getting information going to look like? Because even if you’re huddling, is it a situation where you have Brian Daboll (Giants head coach) on the headset and he’s talking to the quarterback, let’s just say it’s Russell Wilson in this situation. If he’s talking to Russell Wilson and saying, “We’re ace right slot,” and Travis is lined up in the slot and running a corner, what does the actual communication process look like, because of how limited the meeting time will be? The answer to that I’m fascinated by. Whatever team chooses him, how they land on the distribution of his time and time management will be a cool thing to parse through.
Jordan: That’s a great point. But just to push back on that… in the NFL, he’s just worried about football. If anything, he’s going to have more meeting time and not have to worry about going to class and all these other things associated with college. So I don’t think the meeting time will be a big problem at all, just because he will have more time to allocate to the actual meeting space and meeting room. On defense, I also think it’s a little bit easier than offense, per se. Just because of the terminology, the different routes that he would have to run, and the different concepts are more straightforward. With defenses, you really can just have somebody tell him what to do. I’ve even seen some teams in college keep that guy closest to their sideline and signal in whatever the coverage is. Little things like that I’ve seen done with defenders.
Robert: With the Giants specifically, I think the plan of him playing corner and then playing a little bit of receiver makes sense based on the rest of their depth chart, because the Giants could still use another corner here. They signed Paulson Adebo in free agency, but Deonte Banks has been a bit up and down. They might want to move Adebo inside even though Andru Phillips is there. How the room shakes out is going to be something they have to figure out. But in your mind, I guess he’s good enough that it doesn’t really matter, you’re taking him and then figuring the rest out later.
Jordan: Yeah, I mean, just imagine the headache he and Malik Nabers would cause (laughs). Guarding both of those dudes would be an absolute nightmare for defenses…
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(Top Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
