James Gladstone: Travis Hunter will play both ways

Will he or won't he?

Conflicting reports emerged this offseason about whether Travis Hunter will play on both sides of the ball this season. Jaguars General Manager James Gladstone put the talk of Hunter focusing on defense to rest.

Hunter will continue to see action at wide receiver and cornerback this season.

"He is set to play both sides of the ball," Gladstone said on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday. "The piece that I think we can expect to see is actually an uptick in corner usage. Last year it was a higher volume, higher percentage of wide receiver usage than it was corner. I think we can expect to see that corner percentile and count go up. That's not to say anything impacts his availability and usage on offense. It just means that cornerback usage will increase."

Hunter played 324 offensive snaps and 162 defensive snaps in seven appearances as a rookie before his season-ending knee injury. He had 28 catches for 298 yards and a touchdown on offense to go with 15 tackles on defense.

The Jaguars have a bigger need at cornerback this season.

"It's not to say [his snaps] won't increase on offense either, but it was lower on the defensive side this past season," Gladstone said. "We also have a different defensive cornerback room and the bodies are different than it was a year ago. Our roster construction is different than it was a year ago, so it's more fitting to slot him at corner than it was last year."

Hunter has made clear he wants to play both ways and plans to play both ways. He played 688 defensive snaps and 672 on offense in his Heisman Trophy-winning season at Colorado in 2024.

"He wants to play both ways," Gladstone said. "He wants to do exactly what he set out to do when he first started putting that into action all those years ago. That's his dream, and we'll support that in the best way we can and do what we feel like is in the best interest of winning football games. That's putting him in position to do what he does best and that's with the ball in his hands and in defending some of the best receivers."