Agent’s Take: Why two-way NFL Draft star Travis Hunter would be best served financially as a No. 1 receiver

Colorado two-way standout Travis Hunter has been adamant about wanting to continue playing both sides of the ball in the NFL. The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner raised some eyebrows with comments he made to CBS Sports about his playing preference. 

When asked about an NFL team limiting him to just cornerback or wide receiver, Hunter threatened to stop playing football. “It’s never playing football again,” Hunter told CBS Sports last week. “Because I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I love being on the football field. I feel like I could dominate on each side of the ball, so I really enjoy doing it.”

According to Hunter, his preference hasn’t been an issue with the NFL teams he’s met with during the pre-draft process. He is a projected top five in the 2025 NFL Draft that begins on April 24. 

Hunter could be taken as high as second overall by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns at least publicly don’t seem to have an issue with Hunter continuing to be a two-way player. “He can play both, and I think that’s what makes him special,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said while meeting with the media at the NFL Scouting Combine in late February. “We would see him as a receiver primarily first, but part of what makes him a bit of a unicorn is that he can do both at a high level. His superpower is his ball skills. That’s a position where you can use it 100 times during a season versus only maybe 30 on the high end [at defensive back].”

Hunter had a less controversial response to CBS Sports about Berry’s stance. “It’s not up to me,” Hunter said. “When they call my name, if they call my name, then we’ll figure that out, but it’s not up to me. That’s what they think about me right now.”

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen doesn’t have reservations about Hunter being a two-way player either. The Giants have the third overall pick.

“Travis is a unique individual,” Schoen said during his pre-draft press conference on Wednesday. “The ball skills, the route ability and then also the ability to go to the other side and play corner. You just don’t see that very often. A lot of times, if these guys can’t catch or play receiver, then they get moved to DB. But this guy can do it all.”

Schoen elaborated on the demands of playing both offense and defense. “You’re always worried about the length of the season in the NFL and training camp,” he said. “And if he 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. We would not be afraid to play him on both sides of the ball. … To me, what would have to be settled is the mental part of it. Because the offense is very hard to learn, and the defense on a weekly basis [is different]. How much can you handle mentally where you can go out and execute?”

If Hunter or his representatives are getting feedback to the contrary from teams with a realistic chance of selecting him, there are other ways to get the point across than drawing a line in the sand through a public declaration. The New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars have the respective fourth and fifth overall picks. Hunter’s camp could inform any teams planning to play him only on one side of the ball to draft someone else or trade their pick to a team that will utilize his unique skill set. 

It could be made crystal clear that ignoring the warning will result in a wasted draft choice because Hunter will sit out the 2025 season. Should Hunter remain unsigned on the date of the 2026 NFL Draft, he would be eligible to be selected again by any NFL team except the team that drafted him in 2025. Going this route is much more feasible of a draft eligible prospect because of the advent of NIL. As the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, Hunter is well-positioned to continue generating off-the-field income in the event he delayed the start of his NFL career for a year.

Practically speaking, Hunter wouldn’t retire after his first NFL season if his two-way opportunities were limited or nonexistent as a rookie because of the financial ramifications. A signing bonus is contingent on a player performing services. Depending upon where Hunter is selected in the top five, he should expect a signing bonus between $21.5 million and $25 million. A signing bonus is prorated over the four years of a rookie contract.

The Browns would have the right to demand repayment of three-quarters of Hunter’s signing bonus. That’s what happened when linebacker Chris Borland retired in 2015 after his rookie season with the San Francisco 49ers because of concerns about future brain injuries. Borland, who made the 2014 All-Rookie team, returned $463,077 of his $617,436 signing bonus to the 49ers. Approximately $18.75 million would be at risk with Hunter following in Borland’s footsteps.

Hunter will be better off financially being a wide receiver who also plays cornerback than the opposite like Deion Sanders, his head coach at Colorado, did for the Dallas Cowboys during the 1996 season. It really should be the other way around with the salary hierarchy, considering shutdown cornerbacks are rarer commodities than elite wide receivers. Sanders was on the field for roughly half of Dallas’ offensive snaps when he caught 36 passes for 475 yards with one touchdown. He earned All-Pro honors in 1996 as a cornerback. 

Wide receiver salaries started to explode in 2022 while cornerback salaries remained stagnant. In 2021, there were only three wide receivers with contracts averaging more than the league’s highest-paid cornerback, which was Jalen Ramsey with the Los Angeles Rams at $20 million per year. The number tripled in 2022 with nine wide receivers making more than Jaire Alexander‘s $21 million per year from the Green Bay Packers.

The cornerback market reached a low point shortly after the 2024 NFL Draft. For the first time during the salary cap era, which began in 1994, a safety became the NFL’s highest-paid defensive back. The four-year, $84.1 million contract, averaging $21.025 million per year, Antoine Winfield Jr. signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers replaced Alexander at the top of the defensive back salary totem pole.

In a matter of months, fortunes started changing for cornerbacks. The Denver Broncos gave cornerback Patrick Surtain II a four-year, $76 million contract extension, averaging $24 million per year, last September as the start of the 2024 regular season was approaching, making him the league’s highest-paid defensive back. 

At the same time, wide receiver salaries had another explosion. There weren’t any legitimate $30 million-per-year pass catchers when the 2024 offseason began. By the start of the 2024 regular season, there were six wide receivers at or above $30 million per year. Justin Jefferson became the fourth wide receiver since the 2011 lockout ended to become the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback with the four-year, $140 million extension, averaging $35 million per year, he received from the Minnesota Vikings last June.

A massive reset of the cornerback market finally occurred in March when the Houston Texans made Derek Stingley Jr. the league’s first $30 million-per-year defensive back with a three-year contract extension worth $90 million. It didn’t do much to narrow the gap between the top of the wide receiver and cornerback markets because the Cincinnati Bengals made Ja’Marr Chase the NFL’s highest-paid non-quarterback with a four-year, $161 million contract extension, averaging $40.25 million per year, a couple of days earlier. There are currently eight wide receivers with contracts averaging as much or more than Stingley’s deal.

Hunter establishing himself as a legitimate No. 1 receiver option regardless of how much he is playing as a cornerback is the best path to maximize his NFL salary. Should he ultimately end up taking the same path as Sanders where he’s a cornerback but consistently makes contributions as a wide receiver, not just for one season, he should get paid a premium. Being the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback primarily as cornerback wouldn’t be out of the question because of the value added by his unmatched versatility.