Travis Hunter wants to play both offense and defense. Will the NFL let him?

Colorado’s Travis Hunter has a message for the NFL and the team that plans to select him in Thursday’s draft: Don’t tell me I can’t do it. 

Hunter made history at the University of Colorado last season not just for his unicorn role — starting at both cornerback and wide receiver — but for his prolific success doing so. And he has the hardware to show it, having won the prestigious Heisman Trophy, as well as awards for most outstanding receiver and defensive player of the year. 

Expected to be one of the first names called by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Hunter has been at the center of a massive debate among football insiders and draft obsessives about how teams should best use his incredible talents while also protecting their significant investment. 

To Hunter, the answer is clear, one he has repeated for months whenever he’s asked what position he’ll play in the NFL: “I do both.”  

“They say nobody has ever done it for real, the way that I do it. But I tell them I’m just different, I’m a different person,” Hunter told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. “I know I can do it.”

Hunter paved new ground during his Heisman season, becoming the first winner to play meaningful snaps on both sides of the ball since Michigan’s Charles Woodson in 1997. But while Woodson, recognized as one of the best defensive backs in football history, had 14 touches and three touchdowns on offense to go along with seven interceptions that year, Hunter’s 2024 was on another level. 

Hunter played more than 90% of Colorado’s offensive and defensive snaps, according to the school (excluding injury) — finishing in the top five nationally for receptions and receiving touchdowns, all while cementing his status as a shutdown man-to-man corner (his 11 pass deflections were tied for 14th nationally).

“There’s an argument for him as the No. 1 overall pick, whatever position you want, which is kind of insane,” said Connor Rogers, an NBC Sports NFL draft analyst. “We always love the cliché of [a player] keeping a coordinator up all night. The fact that Hunter can legitimately do that on both ends of the ball, not just be average at one and great at another, is pretty, pretty unique stuff.”

The spotlight has followed Hunter since his high school days, when he was one of the nation’s top recruits, playing both offense and defense on a state championship-winning team in Georgia.

Lenny Gregory, who coached Hunter at Collins Hill High School, told NBC News that he immediately realized Hunter was “special” the first time he went to practice as an incoming freshman after having recently moved to the area. Despite having missed all of offseason training, he “smoked every kid” during the on-field conditioning test, a performance Gregory said he had never seen before. Months later, he was already telling scouts visiting campus that this ninth grader might be the best player in the country.

“There are a lot of kids who say they love football, but to really love football, you’ve got to show up every day and you’ve got to work. This dude not only says he loves football; he never missed nothing,” Gregory said. “His footwork, his ability to catch a ball, it’s just different. He’s really special. People don’t have the passion for the game like this kid does.”

Having initially committed to Florida State, he flipped his commitment to Jackson State, a historically Black university, to join its new coach, Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. He transferred to Colorado when Sanders took the head coaching job there. 

Hunter and Sanders’ son Shedeur (one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s draft) were the stars of Sanders’ attempt to put Colorado football back on the map. Injuries slowed Hunter down a bit in 2023, but he fully broke out last year.

He showed the big-play ability that makes him a threat on both sides of the ball, eclipsing 100 yards receiving in eight games and scoring multiple touchdowns in five. Along with his four interceptions, he also forced a timely fumble that won the Buffaloes a game against Baylor in overtime.

Analysts like Rogers are enamored with that home run threat and how it transfers across offense and defense. 

“He could flip the game at any moment — he could just find the ball and take away the football at any given moment,” he said. “If you could do that on any given touch on offense but then on any given throw on defense, that’s pretty unique,” he said. 

But while his athleticism and skills are clear, how exactly they should transfer to the NFL isn’t. 

Can his body hold up to the extreme physical demands of playing one position, let alone two? Will spending time analyzing film and game-planning for full-time roles on both sides of the ball limit his upside given the NFL’s steep learning curve? Would it be better for him to prioritize one position and play a handful of high-leverage snaps on the other side of the ball? 

Even some top executives in the mix to draft Hunter don’t fully agree, and it’s possible where he lines up on the field might depend on what the team that drafts him needs more: an impact wide receiver or cornerback.

Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry said during the NFL combine that while “part of what makes him a bit of a unicorn is the fact he can do both at a high level,” the Browns would “see him as a receiver primarily” because his main threat is his “ball skills.” But as the draft drew closer, Berry praised Hunter’s elite conditioning and compared his potential two-way ability to that of Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar pitcher and designated hitter.

“You obviously get a unicorn if you use him both ways,” Berry said.

Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan, speaking at the combine, praised Hunter as a “unique player,” adding that he “probably starts at corner, and then you find ways to inject him into the offense as he gets more comfortable.”

And New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen said last week that if Hunter “gets hurt doing something that he’s not doing full time, you’re going to kick yourself. But he’s a unique athlete that I think will be able to do both.”

Former Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey told NBC News that one challenge for Hunter no matter where he plays will be the learning curve — “how fast and how physical and how violent the NFL is compared to college.” 

Mularkey coached in the NFL for 25 years. He earned the nickname “Inspector Gadget” for his unique ability to use athletic talents like former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El, who both played some quarterback in college before they entered the league. Mularkey was also instrumental in coaching two-way player Adoree’ Jackson, a first-round pick who also played both defensive back and some receiver at Southern California.  

Mularkey recalled that the Titans used Jackson primarily on defense but created a handful of offensive packages to leverage his game-breaking ability. He said part of the decision was to not overload Jackson physically in his first season as a professional. 

It’s instructive about how he thinks Hunter’s NFL team should handle him — pick a primary position, allow him to get used to it and then create abilities for him to make an impact on the other side of the ball. 

“I would do it just like I did Adoree’ — let him be really good at one thing and use those skills on the other side in a handful of plays,” Mularkey said. “If he’s a receiver and you want to put him [on defense] as a nickel cover guy because maybe there’s a tight end like a [Travis] Kelce or somebody, he needs to cover one on one. But don’t put everything on his plate on both sides, or he’s not going to be as good at either phase. Let him be really good at one, and he can be a threat in the other.” 

The question continues to swirl as the draft draws nearer. As far as Hunter’s concerned, it has been asked and answered. 

“It’s not my job to figure it out,” he said at the NFL combine. “If they give me the opportunity to play both sides of the ball, I’m going to play both sides.”