Deion Sanders displeased with the Jaguars' usage of Travis Hunter and he's right

Jason Jones

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Deion Sanders displeased with the Jaguars' usage of Travis Hunter and he's right image

Deion Sanders was recently a guest on the New Heights Podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce. The 45-minute episode highlighted many topics, but none more interesting than Coach Prime's takes on NFL topics. Including but not limited to his sons and Travis Hunter. The Colorado Buffaloes head coach’s comments on Hunter were brief but deserve a deeper dive. These were his comments when asked, “Do you like how he’s being used yet?”

"No, no, no. Absolutely not. They’re not using him enough. I seen it with my own eyes, ever day basis for 3 straight years. So, I know what he’s capable of and how you gotta take care of him. He never practiced on Tuesdays. Practice him Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and he’s ready for a hundreds of snaps on Saturday. Travis is a big kid man. He just loves the game. He loves football. He loves studying, he loves the preparation."

Hunter’s NFL workload was arguably the second biggest offseason topic of discussion after Shedeur Sanders’ draft slide. Every conversation on his behalf followed the same blueprint and had the same problem. College football is one thing, but he won’t be able to do that in the NFL. Most analysts and sports personalities who chose to lend their voice to this topic, did so from a place of fear. One way or the other. Fear that Travis would get injured if not a shortened career playing both. Fear of reflection. Many were former players who adopted the notion, “if I couldn’t do it, neither can he”. With a consistent avoidance for one specific concept.

Hunter is a literal unicorn by NFL standards

What is a unicorn? “A mythical creature the likes of which we have never seen before.” By its very meaning, we as the viewers must consider that what he is, we’ve never seen before and cannot be compared to anything we have seen before. The biggest issue when discussing sports on any level is the compulsion to need to compare this to that. It’s why Draft analysts always have an NFL comp for any NFL draft prospect. It's why people say this player will be the next (fill in the blank). We need to know who this player compares to. Doing that with Travis Hunter is a literal impossibility. No one has ever done what he has and therefore, he cannot be compared to anyone.

The other important aspect about a unicorn is that if a player is a true unicorn, they’ve always been that. A player isn’t just a promising young player who decides one day to be a unicorn. Just like in a fantasy movie/show/book context, a horse doesn’t wake up one day and grow a horn making him a unicorn today when he wasn’t one yesterday. The most important factor in discussing Hunter the football unicorn, is that he doesn’t know any other way to be. Travis Hunter has played both ways, most of the game, every game since he was six years old. He literally doesn’t know another way to play football.

Due to that fact, Travis is who he is, because that’s the only way he knows how to play. Scaling down his workload makes about as much sense as me trying to convince you that you should start walking backwards everywhere you go. To do so, it would require you to unlearn everything you know about walking. That’s what people are suggesting when they say Travis should start at one or the other and specialize occasionally on the other side.

Is Jacksonville asking Hunter to unlearn everything he knows about football?

Travis is only the Travis we think about if he is permitted to play the entire game, coming out as infrequently as possible. Travis Hunter possesses a focus most players don’t have. For being a fun, loving life, type of young man that he is, when the game starts, he is a different human being. That focus comes from a constant engagement in the game that he never turns off.

Unlike 99.9% of every football player who has ever played the game, Travis never comes out. He never accepted only playing one side. He’s not programmed to expect a break. He’s not conditioned to need a break. He’s not wired to run a 15-play drive and think about sitting on the bench for ten minutes. Once the 15-play drive has concluded, he’s already mentally checked in for the other side of the ball. It’s surprising he didn’t insist on playing all special teams snap for Colorado as well.

Whether it’s a sports analyst on ESPN or a coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, any suggestion that Travis needs to be on a pitch count is highly counterproductive. As I said countless times in the pre-draft process, if a team plans on drafting Hunter to even play ‘mostly’ on one side, that team will not get the Hunter they think they are drafting. Playing both sides all game long is what makes him Hunter. Does it fly in the face of conventional football logic? Yes, without a doubt. But he’s a unicorn. You don’t get a unicorn and then suddenly decide he needs to be treated like a Standardbred horse.

The one concern analysts and teams had with Hunter was the logistics of doing what he does. That was a perfectly acceptable concern. You cannot have a player who plays equally on both sides all game and think practices, meetings, film sessions and other day-to-day operations won’t have to be altered for him. If Travis gets Mondays off or gets additional practice reps after practice or has meetings he doesn’t attend sent to him to be viewed on his own time, players might feel a certain way about that. Until they see it in action. When they see the work he puts in and the results that come from it, every player would cease to have an issue with his preferential logistics.

Hunter isn't being used to his full potential

Many fans and analysts have already begun asking if Hunter was a reach based on his draft position which is completely connected to his production through three weeks. Throughout three weeks, Hunter has 10 receptions for 76 yards and no touchdowns on offense. As well as 9 tackles, 6 solo, no interceptions and one pass deflected. Its understandable to see those stat lines and think they are both very un-Travis-like. That would be a correct assessment. Why is that? Because Hunter is not being used the way he needs to be used to be the Hunter you remember from Colorado and Jackson State. This isn’t an option; it is a requirement. For Hunter to be the game wrecker fans remember, he must play most of the game and both ways. Darn conventional thinking as he is not a conventional player.

Travis must play both ways, most of the game. That should not be debatable at this point. If he is not, regardless of why, he won’t be the player people expect him to be. Quarterbacks often are referred to as elite processors of information. That’s what makes a guy like Tom Brady the best of all time, despite less than elite physical ability. Travis is also an elite processor. The catch to that is he must continue digesting information, nonstop, throughout the game, on both sides. When he’s not in the game, he is not processing. That interruption in his processing detracts from the focus he brings. What Travis is, he cannot turn on and off like a light switch.

If Hunter is to be used the way pundits say or how the Jaguars have used him to this point, he will continue to just be a nice piece and not much more. The moment the Jaguars coaching staff takes the training wheels off, everyone will see the Travis they expect. Perhaps, Jacksonville is just creating an on ramp for him to adapt to the speed, power and rigors of the NFL game.

It's time to let Hunter be HIM

If that is the case and it's not a matter of if, but when Jacksonville cuts him loose, then fine. They can do that, but in time it will not serve as anything other than delaying the inevitable and potentially wasting games or years of his career if it takes them that long. His snap counts and targets are remotely close to high enough. Getting less offensive work and more defensive work is a plan that might work for someone, just not Hunter. Those numbers need to start at 80% of all offensive and defensive snaps. Until then, Hunter will continue to just be a nice young player.

The Jaguars need to listen to Sanders on this one. They aren’t going to reinvent this particular wheel. The concern for his health or his transition is admirable, but it’ll only prove to be a waste of time. In this regard, Hunter is a binary situation.

Either he plays all games and is what he is, or he is handled with kid gloves and won’t be who he is until they stop doing that. Travis Hunter can be a unicorn and have a hall of fame career, but that won’t even begin until Jacksonville is willing to “let Travis be Travis.”

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Jason Jones

Jason Jones is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He has covered all major sports for the past two decades. Jason began his career in sports radio broadcasting, working for WKNR in Cleveland and KKML in Denver as a show host, producer and director of production. He previously worked as an NFL Draft analyst and reporter for Yahoo Sports Radio.