Which position will Travis Hunter play in NFL? Explaining how two-way snaps can work at next level

Colin Capece

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Which position will Travis Hunter play in NFL? Explaining how two-way snaps can work at next level image

There's been one other player in NFL Draft history who compares to Travis Hunter.

That of course is Deion Sanders, who was Hunter's coach at Colorado. Coming out of Florida State in 1989, Prime Time was an impact player at cornerback and wide receiver, and he was selected fifth overall by the Falcons. In the NFL, however, Sanders played most of his games at cornerback.

Hunter is probably going to be a top-five pick as well, but he's attempting to do what his college coach did not: play every snap of every NFL game while splitting time evenly between cornerback and wide receiver.

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Most analysts and scouts think it's impossible, but don't discount the Heisman winner. He's adamant that he's a unicorn in football history. While making the media rounds in the weeks before the NFL Draft, Hunter had a message for teams that don't believe he can play both positions full time. 

"It's never playing football again," Hunter recently told CBS Sports, if he were to be told he could only play one position. "Because I've been doing it my whole life. I love being on the football field."

Will an NFL team allow him to be the player he was at Colorado, and can he do it full time at the next level? Here's what Travis Hunter's two-way snaps could look like in the NFL.

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Travis Hunter's two-way career at Colorado 

The proof that Hunter can be a true two-way star in the NFL comes from his college career. Sanders recruited him to Jackson State as a two-way player coming out of Collins Hill High School in Georgia, and Hunter followed his coach to Colorado in 2023 to continue perfecting his skills on both sides of the ball.

In his senior season, Hunter showed he is an absolute machine of a football player, logging 713 snaps on offense and 748 on defense. He did not miss any time due to injury, and he was highly effective at both wide receiver and cornerback with a Big 12-leading 96 catches and 15 touchdowns with 1258 receiving yards, while also posting 11 pass breakups and four interceptions. 

Hunter won both the Biletnikoff Award as the country's best wide receiver and the Bednarik Awards as the nation's best defender.

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What will Travis Hunter's snap count look like in the NFL?

Hunter has not been shy about the fact that he wants to play every snap of every game at the next level, and he made his ambitions clear to SiriusXM radio after Colorado's pro day.

When asked how many snaps he can play in an NFL game, Hunter responded, "All of them if they give me the chance and the opportunity to do it."

It's more likely that Hunter will have to earn the trust of whatever team drafts him. There hasn't been a player like him in NFL history, which probably means a coaching staff will want to develop a plan to maximize his abilities first before completely cutting him loose. Whether he beings on offense or defense, Hunter could be on one side of the ball most of the time while having a smaller package of plays on the other.

Sanders suggested that Hunter should focus on learning an NFL offense before he's a full go to play defense, too. 

"I would send him with the offense because the offense is harder to digest," Sanders said on SportsCenter at Colorado's pro day. "It's harder to understand. Defensively, he's probably gonna be in man [coverage] most of the time, cover three, cover four, two, whatever. That's easy, that's very simplistic for him. But getting the understanding of the offense and the checks and timing with the quarterback and that relationship. That's where he should go first."

Hunter of course, wants to show he can handle everything like a seasoned pro on Day 1.

"It's a lot of teams that don't know what to do with me," Hunter told NBC Sports. "Nobody actually thought I'd be able to do it at the college level, so everybody is amazed that I've done it for this long...I think the first day in the building, they're gonna see how much I can handle, and see what I can take in, and see how I perform."

What are NFL teams saying about Travis Hunter?

Hunter is projected to go No. 4 overall to the Patriots in The Sporting News' latest mock draft. It's unlikely he drops very far, because the teams picking at the top of the board have said he's one of the best athletes they have ever seen.

Browns general manager Andrew Berry compared Hunter to a two-way star in a different sport.

"It's a little bit like (Shohei) Ohtani," Berry said during his pre-draft news conference, referring to the Dodgers sensation. "You know if he's playing one side, he's an outstanding player. If he's a pitcher or hitter, he's an outstanding player. You, obviously, get a unicorn if you use him both ways."

The Giants also seem to hold Hunter's two-way prowess in high regard.

"Travis is a unique individual," said Giants general manager Joe Schoen. "The ball skills, the route ability and the ability to go on the other side and play corner...You just don't see that very often. He's motivated to play both ways. You always worry about the length of the season with 17 games. … He's a unique athlete that I think he'll be able to do both."

Colin Capece

Colin Capece is an editorial intern for The Sporting News. He previously wrote The Dallas Morning News, USA Today and The Arizona Republic. Colin earned his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and loves to talk baseball and basketball.