NFL Draft: Why Travis Hunter’s plan to be a two-way star might not work, according to Super Bowl-winning coach

After playing both offense and defense during his time at Colorado, Travis Hunter has made it clear that he also wants to play both ways in the NFL, which has made him one of the most intriguing prospects in the draft this year. 

Hunter is so set on playing both ways that in a recent interview with CBS Sports, he said he’d rather RETIRE than be forced to play just one way. Although the teams at the top of the draft — like the Browns and Giants — seem open to the idea of Hunter playing both receiver and corner, the reality of the situation is that there’s a reason no NFL player has really been able to pull it off over the past 70 years. 

Only one player over the past 15 years has been on the field for at least 100 offensive snaps and 100 defensive snaps in the same season and that’s Baltimore’s Patrick Ricard, who played both fullback and defensive tackle in 2019. Ricard’s coach was John Harbaugh, so if anyone is qualified to talk about what it would take to play both ways, it’s definitely the Ravens‘ longtime coach. 

According to Harbaugh, the biggest thing that will hinder Hunter’s plan is that there just aren’t “enough hours” in the day to learn everything you need to know about both positions. 

“It’s going be interesting to see how they do it, wherever he goes,” Harbaugh said this week. “But to say that you’re going to be completely immersed in everything that there is to know on offense and everything there is to know on defense, I don’t know if there’s enough hours in the day for a player to be able to do that, and to have every detail locked down.”

Although a team might try to let Hunter play both ways full time, Harbaugh thinks he’ll eventually have to pick one position and then play the other one part of the time. 

“You certainly could do it, I would think, on one side of the ball and then have some sort of a package on the other side of the ball, which is my guess is how the team will do it, wherever he goes,” Harbaugh said. 

If the Browns end up taking Hunter with the second overall pick, that apparently will be their plan. During an interview on Thursday, Browns general manager Andrew Berry said his team would likely try to have Hunter focus on playing receiver while still giving him an opportunity to play some corner.

“We wouldn’t put a cap or a governor in terms of what he could do,” Berry said. “We would see his first home at receiver and his second home on the defensive side of the ball.”

If Hunter is forced to pick one position, former NFL agent Joel Corry recommends receiver with the big reason being that receivers make a lot more money than cornerbacks. 

One other issue facing Hunter in his bid to play both ways is that he’ll be facing top talent every week and that can take a toll on you. The talent level in college is uneven, so you’re not facing future NFL players every week, but in the NFL, you’re facing the best of the best every time you step on the field. 

Hunter’s plan to play both ways is bold and he’s certainly talented enough to try and make it work, but if Harbaugh is right, it’s a plan that probably won’t end up working.