Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last season for playing both wide receiver and cornerback for Colorado. He wants to continue playing both offense and defense in the NFL. He thinks teams are open to it.
Hunter thinks NFL teams are going to let him do as much as he's capable of doing, and he believes he's capable of being a full-time player on both sides of the ball.
“They want to see how much I can handle, and it’s up to me at this point,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s just me being me.”
If Hunter were to play the typical number of snaps for both a starting cornerback and a starting wide receiver, he could be on the field for close to 2,000 plays over the course of a 17-game season. That would be extraordinary: Last year, Panthers cornerback Michael Jackson led all NFL players by playing a total of 1,308 snaps (1,205 on defense and 103 on special teams). Hunter is looking at far more action than that, and he knows it would be a tall order.
“To be honest, I think I just need to see if my body will allow me to take all of this and continue to take all this,” Hunter said. “But I do a lot of treatment, so I’m able to keep up with my body and with what I need for my body.”
He'd need to do a lot to be a full-time starter on both sides of the ball. But he believes NFL teams will give him that chance.
