Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is one of the most fascinating players to enter the draft in years. He’s one of the rarest of breeds: A true two-way player.
However, Travis Hunter is telling anyone who will listen that he intends to play both ways in the NFL. He’s gone so far as to say he wants Commissioner Roger Goodell to announce him as a receiver and defensive back and threatened to walk away from football if he’s not allowed to do it. The trouble is that reality might trump Hunter’s desire to spend that much time on the field.
Why Can’t a Player Play Both Ways?
During a Ravens presser, John Harbaugh had a pretty straightforward explanation as to why playing both ways full-time is next to impossible. “To say that you’re going to be completely immersed in everything 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,” Harbaugh said.
But that doesn’t mean Harbaugh doesn’t think Hunter can perform a hybrid role, though. “But you certainly can do it, I would think on one side of the ball and then have some sort of package on the other side of the ball,” Harbaugh reasoned. “I assume we’ll be playing against him, so we’re about to find out how that team does it.”
Hunter isn’t the first player to play both ways. Deion Sanders returned kicks and had pass play packages designed for him throughout his NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, and Dallas Cowboys. The last player to play significant snaps on both sides of the ball was Roy Green with the St. Louis Cardinals way back in 1981. Significant injuries on the Cardinals forced Green to pull double duty, but he became a full-time wide receiver in 1982.
No one has played as much on both sides of the ball in Division I since Charles Woodson did when he won the Heisman in 1997 at Michigan. However, when Woodson was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, he became a full-time defensive back and kick returner.
Hunter’s ambition to play both ways stems from how he dominated in college with 96 receptions for 1,258 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. On defense, he had 35 tackles, 11 passes defended, and four interceptions.
The trick is balancing Hunter’s desires with reality. Harbaugh has a point, and others have pointed out the harsh reality of playing 100 snaps in a game, much less 100 snaps every game.
We’ll soon find out who has the luxury of having what a lot of people would consider a good problem to have.
