Jacksonville Jaguars followers watching Sunday’s 26-21 win over the San Francisco 49ers might have missed one thing about rookie Travis Hunter through the crew’s frenetic win on the street. It was that Hunter didn’t play in any respect on protection within the second half.
In whole, the rookie WR/DB performed 38 offensive snaps and simply 9 defensive snaps (all within the first half) through the crew’s journey out west. Each these numbers had been teetering on career-lows for the previous No. 2 general decide and represented the primary time the two-way participant was restricted to at least one facet of the ball up to now in his profession.
At this level, it’s arduous to inform. After head coach Liam Coen obtained performed with his spat with ‘9ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Coen famous postgame Hunter taking part in strictly offense within the second half was going to be saved near the chest.
“It was a private choice that we had been going by way of,” Coen mentioned Sunday. “It needed to do with a couple of issues we are going to maintain in-house.”
Montaric “Buster” Brown returned to the lineup in San Fran which could have contributed to some snaps defensively being taken from Hunter. Based on Coen on Monday, that wasn’t essentially the case.
”I don’t need to say we obtained impatient, however we’re going by way of the method,” Coen mentioned Monday. “We’re going to get him proper again into it this week. We actually wished to get Buster into the sport. That was gonna occur regardless. We’ve got all the boldness on the earth in Travis and Buster coming again and Jarrian (Jones) giving us reps. It’s nice to have these guys all play.”
In his receiver function, Hunter completed third on the crew with 42 yards. He caught three of his 5 targets, with a career-long catch of 28 yards. Hunter’s three catches had been his most for the reason that Bengals loss, as had been his targets. His general yardage gave him a brand new career-best.
Hunter’s offensive manufacturing, the 28-yard catch over the center represented a pivotal second within the sport for Jacksonville and doubtlessly a turning level second for Hunter as an NFL receiver.
Coen detailed Hunter was working an alert route primarily based on the protection over top-middle of the protection. The rookie cut up his route off and made a full extension to safe the ball whereas in visitors and whereas getting hit. With quarterback Trevor Lawrence throwing out of his personal finish zone on third down, an incompletion right here may’ve spelled doom for a sport determined by lower than a landing.
The play isn’t typically utilized in apply, based on each Coen and Hunter, however Lawrence noticed his man and layered the throw to transform. Jacksonville went on to attain a landing later within the drive.
“Big second,” Coen mentioned of the catch. “Climbing the ladder. Unbelievable contested catch. Nice throw, as a result of (Lawrence) needed to layer it over Fred Warner. That was a giant time second.”
That second did signify the one huge Hunter sighting of the sport nonetheless. He completed with two tackles and one fumble, recovered by an awesome effort from LeQuint Allen. Even with Dyami Brown sidelined, Hunter didn’t see a lot of an elevated workload which has drawn loads of criticism.
Whereas many are lamenting Hunter’s lack of catches, he did do the little issues higher Sunday.
Lining up as a blocker, performs just like the one beneath had been made all day by Hunter. For somebody that has had his justifiable share of troubles getting set and accumulating penalties, placing unselfish tape like this on the market has to bode effectively for the younger unicorn participant.
Based on ESPN Insights, Hunter has in whole performed 58% of the Jags’ offensive snaps in comparison with 38% on protection. The offense has been the unit in want of extra assist so it may make sense to insert the rookie extra there. Hunter ultimately needs to be utilized in some capability, so perhaps 4 video games into his profession being a receiver is the place his future lies.
At any time when he has been requested – and he has been requested quite a bit – Hunter has simply been proud to assist his crew win, irrespective of the place he performs or how a lot. Is it doable that’s all he must do at this level in his profession?
“When my quantity is known as, I simply go on the market and do my job,” Hunter mentioned in response to native media postgame. “I simply do my job. I’m excited to do my job.”