One day, Jacksonville Jaguars’ cornerback Jourdan Lewis might be competing against Travis Hunter, and the next, the two are then going through positional drills together.
“He’s very energetic, man,” Lewis said of Hunter. “He’s very shifty, and when he gets the ball he can go. He’s a very special talent.”
As was the plan since the start, the bulk of Hunter’s playing time has come on offense up to this point, which, as GM James Gladstone put it, is where they wanted to onboard him at.
But through OTAs, Hunter has steadily been seeing his workload on defense continue to increase. This included playing cornerback during the first minicamp practice, which happened to be the first time that the media got to see Hunter on that side of the ball in a practice setting.
While Hunter has been eased into the defensive side of the ball when it comes to practice reps, he’s been learning the playbook and terminology, and has been in the defensive meetings since he arrived in Jacksonville. After a recent OTA practice, Liam Coen mentioned how natural Hunter looks playing the cornerback position.
The next step for Hunter in his practice progression will be playing both wide receiver and cornerback during the same practice–something that will begin taking place during training camp, said Coen on Tuesday.
“He’s just honing those things in,” added Lewis, “especially on the defensive end, just understanding what we like to do and the different techniques. He has the aptitude to understand how to do it on offense and defense, and I believe he can get it done.”