Hunter Gets His Pick

Travis Hunter came into the league carrying an impossible billing — a genuine two-way player, the kind of thing college football produces once a generation and the NFL almost never sustains. His rookie season on the offensive side was modest: 28 catches in seven games, one touchdown, the kind of quiet debut you'd expect from a young receiver still learning the speed of the pro game. On defense, the sample was even thinner.

So the first career interception against New England on Thursday is worth noting, not overselling. It's one play. But for a player whose value proposition depends entirely on being a real contributor at both positions, a defensive turnover is a different kind of data point than a reception. It suggests the defensive reps are accumulating into something functional.

Hunter's 2025 season was limited enough — seven games — that Jacksonville never really got a full read on what he could be on either side of the ball. The Jaguars needed him as a receiver to ease the depth concern that got worse when Zach Durfee landed on IR before the season started. Getting him as a defensive playmaker too is a bonus the roster can use, especially in a secondary that lost Dane Jackson to retirement before he played a snap.

One interception doesn't settle the two-way question. But it keeps it open, which is more than his rookie year managed to do.