Deion Sanders on Travis Hunter's NFL potential: 'Everybody's gonna wake up'

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter is officially three games into his professional career. The Jaguars are 2-1 and just narrowly lost on the road to the Cincinnati Bengals. Hunter, who has played both offense and defense, has hauled in 10 catches for 76 yards. He’s also recorded nine tackles.

Although Hunter was selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, he hasn’t quite been used like a top-three pick. Head coach Liam Coen has limited his snaps, which led to Colorado head coach Deion Sanders saying that Hunter needs to stay strong in the face of adversity.

“Travis is doing good,” Sanders said on Thursday. “Mentally he just has to stay strong because he’s used to being heavily involved in the offense as well as the defense. He’s gonna get there. Trust me, everybody’s gonna wake up.”

Sanders went further into detail earlier this week about how he feels about how Hunter is being used in Jacksonville.

Travis Hunter not being used right, per Deion Sanders

“They’re not using him enough like, you know, I’ve seen it with my own eyes on an everyday basis for three straight years,” Sanders said on New Heights. “So I know what he’s capable of, and I know how you got to take care of him. He never practiced on Tuesdays. He’s practiced on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Was ready to play hundreds of snaps on Saturday. So you didn’t need to use him on a Tuesday or Monday. You don’t use him like that.”

“But Travis is a big kid, man. He just loves the game. He loves football, he loves studying and he loves the preparation. (Travis) always had at least five hours of study in each week. Because we keep that list. We know how much everybody’s studying. And he is just a phenomenal athlete, one of the greatest I’ve ever seen do both simultaneously, and he dominated. My rule is, I’ll let anybody do it. As long as you dominate, you got to be dominant. I can’t let you out there when you’re getting killed on the corner.”

There was an interesting breakdown of Hunter’s snaps and playing time week to week. In Week 1, he had eight offensive targets and played 10% of the defensive snaps. The following week, he had six offensive targets while playing 60% of the defensive snaps. Week 3 saw a significant shift too. Against the Texans, Hunter had two offensive targets while playing 69% of the defensive snaps.

Hunter is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner for his stellar play at WR and CB while at Colorado during the 2024 season. His NFL journey just began, so he’s still got ample time to make his mark on the league.

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this article.