There is a real argument to be made that without Travis Hunter, the Jacksonville Jaguars don’t beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
In Monday’s 31-28 thriller win over the visiting Chiefs, rookie WR/CB Hunter might have had his best game as a pro. After being somewhat relegated to just a receiver against the San Francisco 49ers, Hunter turned it on in primetime. Based on Pro Football Focus’ rankings, Hunter earned a 77.3 grade as a receiver and a 76.9 grade as a corner with his grades placing him as a top-10
rookie on both sides, unsurprisingly a first for PFF.
Hunter’s snap count is always a subject of discussion but his numbers were above his recent average. On offense, Hunter played 39 snaps while as a corner he played 25. Last week against the ‘9ers he played 38 offensive snaps to just nine defensive ones.
Making an impact on both sides of the ball, it was Hunter’s offensive day that stole the show.
Everyone has now seen Hunter’s circus catch over two defenders, a career-high 44 snag that led to a touchdown to start the third quarter for Jacksonville. But how he managed to come down with that ball is still dazzling to see.
“We just work hard on that play in practice,” Hunter said postgame of his route. “I did that route probably like 10 (to) 13 extra times just to get the timing right. We did what we had to do.”
The rookie finished with 64 yards receiving overall, also a new career-high. In back to back weeks, Hunter has reset his career high in receiving. Dating back three weeks ago, Hunter has caught new career long balls for 21 yards, 28 yards and then 44.
Hunter may not have had the coaching confidence on defense during the trip out west, but he certainly had the coaching confidence in him as a receiver Monday. During quarterback Trevor Lawrence’s now famous Trip Six, Hunter was the motion man with the game literally on the line.
Defensively, Hunter had an almost equal impact though it may not show as much on the stat sheet. During his 25 snaps, Hunter allowed one catch on 19 coverage snaps to go along with a pair of tackles. He also made a great play on third down to break up a ball on Travis Kelce. Both Kelce brothers even lauded the effort from Hunter in recent weeks on the pair’s podcast.
On Thursday, defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile had nothing but praise for his young superstar.
“I thought he competed really, really hard on both sides of the ball,” Campanile said. “I think it was a tremendous effort. He gave us some great snaps on defense. And making some huge plays on offense. That is what he envisioned for him. I think he is right on course.”
Wednesday night, the Jags made a somewhat surprise in-season move to trade away starting corner Tyson Campbell for Cleveland’s starting corner Greg Newson. The departure of Campbell for Newsome could spell more minutes for Hunter on defense, especially for Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks with Newsome coming in on an incredibly short week. Beyond that, Jacksonville could get a bit crazy and shift Jourdan Lewis to full-time nickel corner like he was playing last year for the Dallas Cowboys and have Hunter and Newsome play the boundary full time.
Whatever comes next, the team’s DC seems confident Hunter can hack it.
“Each game is different but he is getting progressively better,” Campanile said. “We are super excited about him. I think everybody can see that.”
Hunter’s best game of his rookie season came when the Jags needed it the most, when the world was watching and the lights were at full blast. That has to leave a good feeling in every Jags fan moving forward especially given the struggles Hunter had prior to Monday. It’s no secret Seattle will deploy a heavy pass offense, one that will almost certainly require Hunter to play meaningful snaps on defense.
Before that game begins however, we will always have Hunter’s big Monday Night. Hopefully the first of many primetime games for Hunter and his team.
“It was packed,” Hunter said with his signature smile Sunday. “It was my first Monday Night game. I was excited for the whole city to come out. All the fans came out to show us support through the win.”
