JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Travis Hunter admitted he was anxious before playing both ways in his NFL debut Saturday night.
But don’t read anything into that. The Jacksonville Jaguars’ rookie receiver and cornerback says that has happened before every game he has ever played.
“I was a little nervous at first,” Hunter said. “But after the first play, I was good.”
Hunter ended up playing 18 snaps in the Jaguars’ 31-25 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at EverBank Stadium. He played 10 snaps on offense — all coming with the first team on the game’s opening drive — and had two catches for 9 yards, with another catch nullified by an illegal block penalty on left guard Ezra Cleveland.
Per ESPN Research, Hunter ran six routes, five of which came from the slot. He and Brian Thomas Jr. tied for the most targets from Trevor Lawrence with two.
Hunter also played eight snaps on offense and had one missed tackle.
His head coach’s verdict? Solid work.
“He made a couple good catches on some option routes and missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Liam Coen said. “I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively, he made the right decisions on those option routes. Made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about, but I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”
Hunter’s missed tackle came against Steelers running back Kaleb Johnson near the line of scrimmage. There also was a play in which there seemed to be some confusion regarding coverage, because a Steelers receiver got behind Hunter inside the 10-yard line. The ball wasn’t thrown that way, but defensive backs coach Anthony Perkins talked to Hunter as he walked back to the huddle and safety Andrew Wingard also came over and talked to Hunter.
“We can flush it [the missed tackle] right away and just get back to business,” Hunter said. “I know what I’ve got to do next time.”
Hunter playing more on offense fits in with his training camp usage. Through the first 12 practices, Hunter has played 140 snaps on offense and 116 snaps on defense in 11-on-11 work.
