Adam Schefter details Jaguars' plans for Travis Hunter on defense in Week 2

In his debut with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis Hunter played nearly all of his snaps at wide receiver rather than at cornerback. He’ll see more defensive opportunities this weekend, though, it appears.

On ‘Get Up’ on Thursday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on the Jaguars’ game plan for Hunter in their Week 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He noted the expectation that Hunter will play more snaps in the secondary this week, with it being unknown how much that’ll affect his snaps at receiver as they continue to work through this process early.

“Liam Coen, the Jaguars’ head coach, said yesterday that Hunter is going to play more defense this week, and that’s really been part of the Jaguars’ plan all along,” Schefter said. “Last week, as you mentioned? Full-time receiver, situational defensive back. In this particular game, when you go up against Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and the wideouts in Cincinnati, you want all the defensive reinforcements you can get. So, they’re going to use him more this week on the defensive side of the football.”

“This fascinates me,” show host Mike Greenberg went on to say. “I would love to see this thing work, but, if you’re trying to do too much, then maybe you wind up getting almost nothing.”

This comes after Coen spoke to the media on Wednesday, saying Hunter will see “a likely uptick” in his defensive snaps. That’s after playing 42 snaps (87.5%) at receiver and six snaps (12.5%) in the opening win this past weekend against the Carolina Panthers.

“Likely, you know. Probably. It’ll be a likely uptick,” Coen said of Hunter’s role on defense. “It’s more so – you know, going into week one, it was, okay, we’re probably, we know it’s not going to be a ton on defense. The goal is to increase and continue to increase. It just so happens that we’re playing Cincinnati, with two good wideouts this week.”

In those six snaps defensively, Hunter helped to post one tackle. But, offensively, Hunter went on to be their leading receiver on the afternoon with six catches, on eight targets from Trevor Lawrence, for 33 yards.

Hunter got his first chance to play at the next level, doing so almost exclusively at receiver to start. Now, in Week 2, his ability in the secondary will be challenged immediately against likely the best wide receiver duo in the league.

“This is going to be a week-to-week decision for the Jaguars in how to deploy Travis Hunter,” Schefter said. “There’ll be weeks where they play the Bengals, where they’re going to want to use him more at the defensive back. There’ll be weeks where they want to play him at wide receiver. Now, Liam Coen loves his receivers, so you always slant to receiver, but Travis Hunter is going to get plenty of use on both sides of the football.”