Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter grabbed everybody's attention in the NFL Combine media room. (TheLandOnDemand)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Travis Hunter may be the best cornerback in this draft. He may be the best wide receiver, too. But there is no disputing the fact he is the best at both.
And he unequivocally stated -- without flamboyance or false bravado, but with unwavering confidence -- that he intends to prove he can play both in the NFL. And not just part time at one position.
“One hundred percent” at both positions, Hunter insisted.
He wants to prove he can do in the NFL what he did at Colorado under coach Deion Sanders in winning the Heisman Trophy. He played 1,440 snap counts, almost equally divided at cornerback (688) and wide receiver (672).
Playing two ways alone made Hunter unique. But the reason he became the first non-quarterback to win a Heisman in five years was his sensational production at each position. As a receiver, Hunter hauled in 96 receptions from quarterback Shedeur Sanders for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns. As a cornerback, he had four interceptions for 65 yards and 11 pass breakups.
Appropriately, Hunter also won the Chuck Bednarik Award for best defensive player in college football. Bednarik was the last NFL player to play full time at two positions – center and linebacker. He was voted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and has been ranked the 35th greatest player of all time – one notch below Sanders, who played cornerback full time and receiver part time in the NFL.
“They say nobody has ever done it the way I do it. But I tell them I’m just different. I’m a different person,” Hunter said in front of more than 100 media members wielding smart phones above the crowd to record his words and image.
Most everyone in the NFL agrees that Hunter can be a full-time player at one position and part-time at another. But to do both at the same level he achieved at Colorado is debatable.
“Nobody has done it, but I feel like I have put my body through a lot,” Hunter said. “I do a lot of treatment. People don’t get to see that part. What I do for my body to make sure I’m 100 percent each game. I feel like nobody has done it. I know I can do it. I did it at the college level where you really get breaks. There are a lot more breaks in the NFL.”
“He's really unique and instinctive at both positions,” said Patriots GM Eliot Wolf. “So I think there's a scenario where, you know, he's probably going to major in one and minor in the other, but I think there's a scenario where he could play both ways.”
The Browns are very much engaged in this debate because Hunter likely will be available when they pick at No. 2 overall.
Browns GM Andrew Berry is one of the few NFL executives who favors Hunter specializing full time at receiver and part time at cornerback. Most coaches feel it’s easier to play part time at receiver than part time at cornerback, and Hunter is good enough to be a star cornerback.
“He can play both,” Berry said. “I do think that there’s just an element where his superpower … his superpower, they’re really his ball skills, and [receiver] is a position where you can use it a hundred times during the season versus maybe 30 on the high end. But look, we’ll have our coaches and scouts fight it out in terms of where he should be on the board. But any team he goes to would be happy to have him.”
Hunter said he would not push back if a team steered him to one position over the other.
When asked if he were pressed by a team to choose one primary position over the other, he said, “That’s not my job to figure it out. I’d like to play both sides of the ball. If they give me the opportunity to play both sides, I’m playing both sides.”
Hunter was outstanding in his 15 minutes at the media room podium. His answers were short and to the point. His confidence and passion for the game were palpable.
He praised teammate Shedeur Sanders as “definitely the best quarterback in this draft.” He said he doesn’t copy his game after anybody, but as a kid he favored watching South Floridian Jerry Jeudy, now the Browns’ No. 1 receiver. He said he doesn’t want take on returning duties because “I’ve already got two jobs on my hands.”
He was asked if Travis Hunter the cornerback covered Travis Hunter the receiver, who would win.
“Travis Hunter,” he answered, matter-of-factly.
Hunter was born in West Palm Beach, FL, and moved to Georgia at an early age. He starred at receiver and cornerback in high school and was a five-star recruit who committed to Florida State. He shockingly changed his commitment to Jackson State when Sanders became coach, making him the first five-star recruit to sign with an HBCU school. He followed Sanders to Colorado after one year.
“There’s a lot of things he has done for me outside of football,” Hunter said of Coach Prime. “A father figure to me. I can go to him for anything and everything.
Here’s another way Hunter is unique. No player in the history of the NFL draft under 200 pounds has been selected first or second. Hunter is listed at 185 pounds; his official weigh-in at the Combine comes on Friday.
If anybody can break that trend, it’s Travis Hunter, a truly transcendant athlete.