On the night of the first round of last year’s draft, the Browns and Jaguars made a trade that allowed Jacksonville to select Travis Hunter at No. 2 overall.
While Hunter was regarded as a dynamic player who could play both offense and defense, a knee injury suffered in practice midway through the year sidelined him for the rest of the season.
Even before that, however, Hunter hadn’t made many splashy plays on offense or defense. He caught 28 passes for 298 yards with one touchdown while recording 15 total tackles, three passes defensed, and one fumble recovery on defense in seven games.
As the Jaguars get ready to play the Browns in their season opener, head coach Liam Coen was asked whether his offensive plan for Hunter is more fluid entering this season.
“Yeah, I would think so,” Coen said in his Friday press conference. “I think that you’re going to continue to try to get him in positions that he can do things that he’s good at. That’s what we’re trying to do. Those are different ways of getting him the football while also letting him just go play, too.
“It [isn’t] always going to go scheme to him when he’s in the game, right? He’s a damn good blocker. He can run routes in terms of, maybe the ball’s not schemed up to go to him and still get open and still have a chance to play. I’m not, obviously, having a count in my head with how many plays and what we’re exactly going to do with him. But, he definitely will play both.”
Coen also noted he doesn’t have a feeling of “we have to get Hunter in” on offense.
“No. Not at all,” Coen said. “I think you do, but we don’t. I don’t.
“I have a lot of confidence in Travis to go out and compete for us. He hasn’t played a lot of football since he got hurt. And it’s really — at the end of the day, this is about winning football games.”
Kickoff for Sunday’s matchup between the Jags and Browns is set for 1 p.m. ET.
