Jacksonville Jaguars fans watching Sunday’s 26-21 win over the San Francisco 49ers may have missed something about rookie Travis Hunter during the team’s frenetic win on the road. It was that Hunter didn’t
play at all on defense in the second half.
In total, the rookie WR/DB played 38 offensive snaps and just nine defensive snaps (all in the first half) during the team’s trip out west. Both those numbers were teetering on career-lows for the former No. 2 overall pick and represented the first time the two-way player was limited to one side of the ball thus far in his career.
So, what happened?
At this point, it’s hard to tell. After head coach Liam Coen got done with his spat with ‘9ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Coen noted postgame Hunter playing strictly offense in the second half was going to be kept close to the chest.
“It was a personal decision that we were going through,” Coen said Sunday. “It had to do with a few things we will keep in-house.”
Montaric “Buster” Brown returned to the lineup in San Fran which might have contributed to some snaps defensively being taken from Hunter. According to Coen on Monday, that wasn’t necessarily the case.
“I don’t want to say we got impatient, but we’re going through the process,” Coen said Monday. “We’re going to get him right back into it this week. We really wanted to get Buster into the game. That was gonna happen regardless. We have all the confidence in the world in Travis and Buster coming back and Jarrian (Jones) giving us reps. It is great to have those guys all play.”
In his receiver role, Hunter finished third on the team with 42 yards. He caught three of his five targets, with a career-long catch of 28 yards. Hunter’s three catches were his most since the Bengals loss, as were his targets. His overall yardage gave him a new career-best.
Looking at Hunter’s offensive production, the 28-yard catch over the middle represented a pivotal moment in the game for Jacksonville and potentially a turning point moment for Hunter as an NFL receiver.
Coen detailed Hunter was running an alert route based on the coverage over top-middle of the defense. The rookie split his route off and made a full extension to secure the ball while in traffic and while getting hit. With quarterback Trevor Lawrence throwing out of his own end zone on third down, an incompletion here could’ve spelled doom for a game decided by less than a touchdown.
The play isn’t often used in practice, according to both Coen and Hunter, but Lawrence saw his guy and layered the throw to convert. Jacksonville went on to score a touchdown later in the drive.
“Huge moment,” Coen said of the catch. “Climbing the ladder. Unbelievable contested catch. Great throw, because (Lawrence) had to layer it over Fred Warner. That was a big time moment.”
That moment did represent the only big Hunter sighting of the game however. He finished with two tackles and one fumble, recovered by a great effort from LeQuint Allen. Even with Dyami Brown sidelined, Hunter didn’t see much of an increased workload which has drawn plenty of criticism.
While many are lamenting Hunter’s lack of catches, he did do the little things better Sunday.
Lining up as a blocker, plays like the one below were made all day by Hunter. For someone that has had his fair share of troubles getting set and collecting penalties, putting unselfish tape like this out there has to bode well for the young unicorn player.
According to ESPN Insights, Hunter has in total played 58% of the Jags’ offensive snaps compared to 38% on defense. The offense has been the unit in need of more help so it could make sense to insert the rookie more there. Hunter eventually has to be used in some capacity, so maybe four games into his career being a receiver is where his future lies.
Whenever he has been asked – and he has been asked quite a lot – Hunter has just been proud to help his team win, no matter where he plays or how much. Is it possible that’s all he needs to do at this point in his career?
“When my number is called, I just go out there and do my job,” Hunter said in response to local media postgame. “I just do my job. I am excited to do my job.”
