Travis Hunter is the most unique prospect of all time

During the 2023 college football season, the Colorado Buffaloes became one of the most popular teams in the country. A few of their players who transferred from Jackson State to follow head coach Deion Sanders to Boulder, Colorado, emerged as superstars, including Travis Hunter. Hunter is one of the most fascinating prospects the NFL has seen in recent memory because he played wide receiver and cornerback full-time last season. 

His emergence as a two-way superstar mirrored the rise of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who took over Major League Baseball a few years ago as the modern-day Babe Ruth due to his excellence as both a pitcher and hitter. As we head into the 2024 college football season, let’s break down Travis Hunter’s game on both sides of the ball and see whether or not he can play offense and defense at the next level.

Travis Hunter the WR

Last season, Travis Hunter was one of Colorado’s top receivers catching 57 passes for 721 yards and five touchdowns. Despite being listed as a cornerback by PFF, he ranked top three among all Buffaloes in targets, receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, and first downs.

Hunter’s profile as a wide receiver is very intriguing. Last season, he primarily played in the slot and the results were mixed, but not bad. His 77.6 PFF grade and 2.17 yards per route run are nothing special, but a deeper look at his productions reveals that there is a lot to like about his game.

For example, Hunter is a fantastic athlete who loves to make big plays by breaking tackles and hauling in 50/50 balls. Last season, he recorded 0.316 missed tackles per reception, which is an incredible mark. On top of this, he has caught 61.5% of his career contested targets and just 15.1% of his targets were contested. Simply put, Hunter is a big-time playmaker who can create separation, which could allow him to thrive as a slot receiver in the future.

Another impressive part of his receiving production is his route profile. His route distribution between short, intermediate, and deep routes, is fairly balanced, though he does rely heavily on short and intermediate routes while deep routes are the smallest part of his route profile. By PFF’s numbers, he was fairly productive at all three levels of the field last season, sporting a PFF receiving grade of 92+ on short, intermediate, and deep targets.

Travis Hunter is not an elite receiver prospect, at least not yet. If he can cap off his collegiate career with a strong season as a receiver, though, he might enter the 2025 NFL Draft as a very strong slot receiver prospect.

Travis Hunter the CB

Last season, Travis Hunter was one of the more productive players on Colorado’s defense, leading the unit in PFF grade, interceptions, and pass breakups. Unfortunately, a deep dive into his numbers reveals he has a long way to go before he can be considered a top-tier cornerback prospect.

To be fair, Hunter is a solid college cornerback and last season, he had a solid overall profile, sporting a PFF Grade of 74.8 with 70+ grades as a run defender, tackler, and in coverage. However, I think it’s best to compare him to other cornerback prospects in recent memory when projecting what level of success he will have in the NFL.

Although Hunter graded fairly well as a tackler last season, he isn’t super productive in this area. He doesn’t miss many tackles, missing just 8.8% of his tackles last season, but he had just 26 tackles and six stops. This doesn’t mean he’s a bad tackler, but don’t expect him to make a lot of plays when a ball carrier is in his area.

Hunter’s run defense numbers are pretty interesting, though, as he ranked top-50 among power-five corners in run defense grade last season but outside the top 100 in stop rate. It seems his tape as a run defender is better than the raw numbers would indicate.

His production in coverage is at about the same level as his production as a tackler and run defender. Last season, he ranked top fifty among power five cornerbacks in PFF coverage grade, but the raw data was less impressive as he allowed a completion percentage of 56.6% and a passer rating of 89.7 when targeted as well as 13.8 yards per reception. He also allowed a touchdown rate of 9.4% when targeted.

All of his coverage stats outside of PFF’s grade were outside the top 50 for Power Five cornerbacks last season and these marks are very underwhelming compared to other cornerback prospects in recent memory.

One area in which he performed fairly well was zone coverage. His PFF coverage grade in zone was 76.4, which ranked 31st in zone coverage. On top of this, two of his three interceptions came when he was in zone coverage. His ability to play zone coverage at a fairly high level pops on film as he has an incredible ability to anticipate throws and make plays on the ball that most cornerbacks can’t make. This is very obvious even if you just watch his highlights.

Travis Hunter’s highlight plays at cornerback are extremely impressive and make him look like a high-level cornerback prospect. Unfortunately, his production during his first season with Colorado just doesn’t match the hype he has received from draft analysts.

That doesn’t mean he is a bad cornerback prospect, though. The fact that he has decent production in every area is impressive and he has the size and athleticism to be a very good corner in the future. Also, we've oonly looked at his production at Colorado. His production at Jackson State was more impressive, so keep that in mind. Even considering his numbers from two seasons ago, I would like to see him improve next season and produce at a high level vs. Power Five competition before labeling him an elite prospect.

What position will Travis Hunter play in the NFL?

Although Travis Hunter made the impossible seem possible last season by playing wide receiver and cornerback full-time, he will not be able to do that in the NFL. He will have to choose one position to play and I think he eventually chooses to be a cornerback instead of a wide receiver.

Statistically speaking, Hunter isn’t quite elite at either position. However, his potential as a tall, athletic outside corner is higher than his potential as a slot receiver. Good outside corners are simply more valuable due to their rarity and Hunter’s physical tools and playmaking ability could allow him to be a very impactful outside corner at the next level.

Another important question to answer is whether or not Travis Hunter is truly an elite prospect. I know many draft analysts love Hunter as he is the No. 5 player on the consensus big board, but I’m a bit skeptical that he is good enough as a wide receiver or a cornerback to be a top five player in the 2025 NFL Draft.

He isn’t a bad prospect, I’m just not sure his profile is quite good enough for him to rank so high, especially in a really good draft class. Perhaps playing just one position would allow him to be more productive at that position because playing both sides of the ball is physically taxing and it can’t be easy to play well consistently when you are playing so many snaps.

That’s important context to consider when evaluating his game, but the numbers are the numbers and his production does not pop off the screen as an elite statistical profile. Still, Hunter is an impressive prospect and the fact that he has been good as both a wide receiver and cornerback while playing Power Five football is insane. That is not normal and we’ll probably never see someone do this for a very long time.

If Hunter has a strong final season and performs well at the NFL combine next year, he could be a special prospect. For now, I think he is a good prospect but not quite an elite one. We’ll see if that changes when I revisit his profile in a couple of months.