Regardless of having been probably the most tantalizing participant in school soccer final 12 months, profitable the Heisman Trophy and being chosen second total within the draft, Travis Hunter says he nonetheless will get a bit nervous.
Previous to his first NFL motion, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 31-25 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers to open the preseason, Hunter mentioned he had some jitters earlier than the primary ball on offense was snapped.
“It felt nice, a bit nervous, however it felt nice,” Hunter, who began the sport at receiver, mentioned Saturday. “It positively settled down once I acquired that first catch, when that first play occurred.”
Hunter performed 13 offensive snaps, ending with two catches for 9 yards. He didn’t gentle up the field rating, however he did have one catch negated by a block within the again penalty. The starters additionally performed only a single drive. In line with Coen, Hunter requested to play extra offense however was shut right down to deal with his first defensive drive the place Hunter joined in with the second staff.
“He made a pair good catches on some choice routes,” head coach Liam Coen mentioned Saturday. “He missed that one sort out, that I seen. I should watch the tape on how he operated defensively a bit extra however I believed offensively he made the suitable choices. He made an excellent catch, virtually broke out of 1.”
Whereas he was on offense, Hunter was utilized in quite a lot of methods to get him shifting. His first catch of his profession got here after he was despatched in movement, then again to the slot to assist diagnose protection. On his second catch, Hunter broke inside and virtually used his signature spin transfer after the catch to squirt free. Had he stored his footing and made the flip, he had round 10 yards of house and only one defender to beat.
“I did fairly good. If we had extra alternatives, we’d have proven what we might actually do,” Hunter mentioned.
Hunter’s defensive night time was much less noteworthy for what he did in comparison with what he didn’t do. The rookie acquired caught a bit flat-footed across the 48-yard line and was a step behind Steelers’ working again Kaleb Johnson on an out of doors run. As everybody has seen, Johnson stiff armed Hunter to the grime. Like with Jarrian Jones making the quilt of Madden, Hunter had an excellent chuckle about his play, or lack thereof.
“We will flush it immediately and simply get again to enterprise,” Hunter mentioned. “I do know what I’ve to do subsequent time.”
The bizarre factor with corners is the much less you hear about them, the higher they doubtless performed. Throughout Dawuane Smoot’s sack within the second quarter, Hunter was in protection on the receiver Mason Rudolph was focusing on as considered one of his final reads. Rudolph turned his consideration to Hunter’s facet of the sphere after scanning the left, pump faked, however was compelled to scramble out and couldn’t outrun the veteran Smoot. Hunter received’t get any credit score for that statistically however did nonetheless assist pressure a protection sack.
Among the best issues a rookie can do is keep out of penalty bother like Hunter did Saturday. The rookie didn’t commit any penalties personally, although his staff did loads of that on his behalf. The Jags as an entire dedicated eight penalties, together with the one which worn out a Hunter catch.
“We simply have to return to work,” Hunter mentioned. “Self-inflicted wounds we’ve got to scrub up. We all know what we’ve got to do and make the progress we all know we have to make.”
On Monday, Coen was requested about what he realized from going again and viewing his younger star’s first recreation. Coen didn’t maintain a lot again when evaluating Hunter’s recreation. Offensively, Coen needs Hunter to be crisper on his routes, particularly when the coaches have him shifting round a lot pre- and post-snap. On protection, Coen wants the previous Colorado star to work on his angles.
“His route approach we have to proceed to work on,” Coen mentioned. “I believed he made the suitable choices, his alignment and task was all correct and clear. Defensively, we’ve got to scrub a number of issues up from an alignment standpoint and keep within the run, within the match. That’s observe and repetition.”
Even with accidents within the secondary to guys like Buster Brown and Tyson Campbell, Hunter will nonetheless work principally with the offense. Throughout Tuesday’s observe Hunter will take the day to primarily be on protection, in line with Coen, however will probably be again to taking part in each methods throughout Thursday’s intrasquad scrimmage.
Saturday’s recreation was an enormous second for the Jaguars, their followers, their coaches and their coveted first-round rookie. It wasn’t a showstopping night time however a step in the direction of an unprecedented future for a two-way participant within the NFL.
And it made Hunter just a bit nervous pregame. No less than we all know he’s human.