Jacksonville swung for the fences when trading up to No. 2 overall to select Travis Hunter in April's draft.
After spending some time working together during offseason workouts, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence likes what he's seeing from the rookie entering the NFL with great expectations.
"He's got a lot of juice," Lawrence said of Hunter on Monday, the first day of organized team activities. "He can run all day. A lot of energy. I love it. Good energy. … High motor. He's like a kid, he can just run around all day. He doesn't get tired it seems like. You can't have enough of that.
"As far as just talent, it speaks for itself. Ball skills, run after the catch. He's very explosive. I didn't realize how explosive he was in and out of cuts. He's impressive to watch. I've gotten to connect a couple of times. It's only going to get better and better, we've only worked together a couple of days now. So we've got some time to really dial in on the details."
Hunter used the aforementioned energy to play an absurd amount of snaps in college as a two-way superstar. According to the University of Colorado athletics website, Hunter played 1,460 of 1,725 possible snaps combined between offense and defense, participating at a rate of 86.8% of offensive snaps and 82.9% of defensive snaps in his 2024 Heisman Trophy-winning season. No other Football Bowl Subdivision Series player participated in more than 56% of his team's snaps last season, per Colorado.
Evidently, he hasn't lost a step in the draft process.
"I think so far, so good," head coach Liam Coen said of his initial impressions of Hunter. "The one thing you notice is for a guy who hasn't played a ton of football or been out conditioning maybe for the last two months because he was on a little bit of a tour, the guy can run forever. … You can tell he's in football shape."
Hunter was selected with the idea of playing primarily on one side of the ball and being used in sub-packages on the other in order to limit the physical toll on him. We won't know for certain how that will look until the Jaguars begin their 2025 season, but it's clear Hunter is prepared for whatever they ask of him.
Lawrence, meanwhile, is simply focused on building a rapport with Hunter. It might be a little more challenging to do so with Hunter digesting offensive and defensive playbooks, but Lawrence seems optimistic.
"You work around that. You get as many reps as we can," the Jaguars QB said. "Talk as much as possible. … Just to get him up to speed because obviously he's learning a new system. Super talented, really smart. But it takes some time to learn the system. So we're just trying to get him up to speed so he can go play fast and free and not have to think about it."
Visions of a receiving corps featuring 2024 rookie star Brian Thomas Jr. and Hunter have been dancing in the heads of Jaguars fans since the moment they traded up to the second pick. It will soon become a reality in one form or another. What's clear now, though, is the Jaguars appear prepared to maximize Hunter's skills wherever they can -- and he's willing to run wherever he's directed.
