Travis Hunter's two-way dream runs into a cornerback reality

Travis Hunter was supposed to be the NFL's great two-way experiment, the Heisman winner who'd play both sides of the ball and break fantasy formulas in the process. A year later, that experiment looks like it's tilting hard in one direction. According to Jaguars beat reporters, Hunter is set up to be Jacksonville's top cornerback in 2026, with his receiver workload trimmed down significantly from his rookie season.

That's a real shift. As a rookie, Hunter played 67% of Jacksonville's offensive snaps in the seven games before a season-ending knee injury, against just a 36% defensive snap share. Flip those numbers and you get a very different fantasy profile — a shutdown corner who moonlights at receiver, not the other way around. Coen has been careful about how he frames it publicly, insisting Hunter will still get real receiver run, but the beat consensus suggests the corner reps are winning out early in camp.

None of this is coming from a place of doubt about Hunter's talent. Coen has gushed about his rookie's motor since the day he got him.

That quote is the crux of the tension. Coen genuinely believes Hunter's endurance makes the two-way workload sustainable — hence the plan to have him split practice days between offensive and defensive meetings and reps all camp. But belief in Hunter's engine doesn't erase the math of an NFL season. Jacksonville also has to manage him coming back from a knee injury, and coaches around the league have reportedly been more cautious about ramping up his camp reps rather than pushing the two-way workload right out of the gate.

The practical outcome, if the reporting holds, is a Hunter who's first and foremost Jacksonville's CB1 with receiver snaps as a bonus package rather than a co-starring role. That's arguably the smarter roster-building move — defense is the bigger need, and a healthy, dominant corner is worth more than a part-time slot receiver. It's just a tougher sell for anyone who drafted Hunter in fantasy expecting a repeat of his rookie-year receiver volume.

Camp battles like this tend to get clearer once padded practices and preseason snaps start piling up. Until then, every report out of Jacksonville about Hunter's rep split is going to move his fantasy stock, and right now the needle is pointing toward cornerback.