Travis Hunter remains on the Jaguars’ injured reserve at this time, and he will not return in 2025. The two-way rookie recently underwent season-ending knee surgery, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
Rapoport specifies this was an LCL repair. No other ligaments were damaged in Hunter’s recent injury, he adds. As a result, a six-month timeline is in place for Hunter to receive full medical clearance. The Jaguars have since confirmed the expectation for Hunter to be ready for full football participation again in six months. In the meantime, Jacksonville will move forward without a key contributor on both sides of the ball.
Considering Hunter’s injury sequence — on a noncontact play at practice — and his importance to this Jaguars regime’s mission, this shutdown is not too surprising. The 2024 Heisman winner is under contract through 2028, and barring the two-way player entering full-on bust territory, the deal will run through 2029 once his fifth-year option is exercised. Jacksonville will take a big-picture approach at this stage of the former college phenom’s pro career.
The Jakobi Meyers trade hinted at this IR stay lasting longer than the four-game minimum, and the Jags also played without Brian Thomas Jr. in Week 10. Thomas is not on IR, and the team has seen promising work from Parker Washington. Though, this season has not brought the Trevor Lawrence turnaround the organization hoped. The former No. 1 overall pick has remained inconsistent, and the Jags’ loss Sunday hurt their chances of booking a wild-card berth. The team remains in playoff contention, but Lawrence will need to play better for the club to realize those aspirations.
With a lengthy rehab process ending Hunter’s rookie season, his NFL debut will go down as a disappointment. The Colorado product finishes the year with 28 receptions for 298 yards. He finishes Year 1 with a 67% snap share on offense and a 34% participation rate on defense.
The Jags steadily used Hunter more on defense, where many thought he should end up as a pro. Jacksonville, however, was among the franchises that viewed Hunter as a better receiver. GM James Gladstone declared that would be the 6-foot-1 prospect’s primary position, and coming out of the team’s bye week, buzz about Hunter seeing a bigger offensive role emerged. This injury nixed those plans.
A six-month recovery timetable would move Hunter on track for a minicamp cameo, though it would not surprise to see the Jags exercise caution and give him an onramp toward a training camp reemergence. It will be interesting to see if the team’s usage plans for Hunter change in 2026, given his struggles to make an impact this season. The team did not begin using Hunter on both sides of the ball in the same workouts until training camp last year, and his in-game cornerback participation spiked in Week 2.
Hunter’s best stat line came in a London loss to the Rams before the Jags’ bye, as he caught eight passes (on 14 targets) for 101 yards and his first career touchdown. But the Rams had set a blowout game script in place by the time the Lawrence-to-Hunter connection got going. Considerable work is ahead for that duo, but the Jags certainly remain high on a player that cost them their 2026 first-round pick to acquire. The duo’s next chance to work together on the field will come during OTAs — at the earliest.
Adam La Rose contributed to this post.
And a lot of these fanboys said he’d be able to handle playing offense and defense at the nfl level. All you ended up with was mediocre play on both sides of the field, and a troubling knee injury encountered in his first season.
Ox this is a horrible take.
Not really. For Two firsts, one being the 5th overall, a 2nd, and a 4th you want a player to be a star caliber talent who’s NFL ready. What you got was a wr3/4 at best and a middle of the pack corner, who most practical people said due to the physical nature of the game today, said his body would not hold up. For the price you had to pay to move up, for a second overall pick, his play, and now that he’s suffered a major knee surgery midway through his first year; he was not worth the pick, nor resources given up.
Ox, Hunter has a passer rating of 68.3 on balls thrown his way with a 50% completion allowance, with zero missed tackles, and zero TD allowed.
That kid is more than average.
At any point has he shown that he will be anything but OK at either position?
An average offensive player combined with an average defensive player is NOT an elite player.
Never understood the hype here.
Most players don’t fully actualize in their rookie years while playing one position. Seems reasonable to not expect him to be great as a rookie.
Hunter has a passer rating of 68.3 on balls thrown his way with a 50% completion allowance, with zero missed tackles, and zero TD allowed.
These are rookie CB numbers. For reference, Gardner’s rookie year he posted a 53.5% completion allowance, 1 TD allowed, and a passer rating of 62.7.
That season earned Gardner a pro bowl, all pro, and rookie of the year. To be fair, Gardner also had 20 passes defended, and Hunter only 3. Also to be fair, Hunter played less snaps on defense.
Gardner had one of the greatest defensive rookie seasons in recent memory, especially for a corner. That’s not a reasonable standard bearer.
Exactly. So taking one of the best seasons for a rookie corner and seeing that Hunter before injury had less completions allowed on average, roughly the same or on pace for the same TD allowance, and a QB rating allowed that was similar goes to show that Hunter was producing at a level higher than “OK” according to Beast.
Time to stick to defense. This team isnt going anywhere without one. Maybe later on he can do more on offense. Unless Sanders shows something in the next seven games, and I dont believe he will, this year has been a disaster for both players, though rookies have to learn.
It was non contact, but that could just be due to the wear and tear of years of doing 2-way. It just won’t be possible in the NFL.
This goes down as a bust for the Jags. He might still end up being a good player, but he needed to hit the ground running, on both sides of the ball, to create the type of value they gave up to draft him.
Not really.
Cope harder.
The most jags thing ever
Traded 2026 1st rd just to move up 3 spots this yr to draft him
Mediocre results
Then out for the season
Incompetent/Cursed franchise
I laughed so hard the moment they did that trade. He had to be pro bowl caliber on both sides of the ball while the team won the division for it to be worth trading so much.
He needs to focus on WR. That game against rams in London showed flashes of a top tier wr2 slot player.
I think he needs to focus on CB. He can play WR in some limited packages. When it comes to the development of elite talent, teams need to stop looking at their short term needs and focus on how to get the best out of a player.
Mehhhhh
Most scouts before the draft thought Hunter was a better CB than WR. The Jags wanted him to focus on WR because that’s what they needed this season.
Idk he’s a meh corner to me
The guy had 324 snaps on offense 162 on defense and 3 on special teams so we would probably need larger sample sizes to make an meaningful analysis about his future potential.
Now instead of arguing whether or not he should play offense or defense they can argue about how many snaps he should play at all to protect his now repaired knee. Let the debate begin. Could be just like the failed baseball CBA negotiations coming up. A lot of talk that goes nowhere.
Theoretically, it’s better health wise to deliver a blow than to be on the receiving end. If the Jags have to limit his snaps, defense probably makes more sense but playing him where they have the greatest need is also a logical approach.
I hate injuries. Hope he heals up strong for next season.
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