Too Deep 96 #1: Travis Hunter Breaks the Draft

There hasn't been an NFL prospect like Hunter in half a century. But please, keep nitpicking his footwork or whatever.

Welcome to the first installment of the Too Deep 96! Today’s subject: Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter.

I’ve watched a lot of draft film of tiny-college phenoms over the decades. Not FBS programs like North Dakota State, or even Jackson State (where Hunter started his college career); there’s always a smattering of near-NFL talent on the field when programs at that level face off. I’m talking about footage, recorded on a camcorder mounted atop the pressbox, of some wide receiver from Prairie Dog A&Q who caught 333 passes in his final season, also took snaps at quarterback and punted, and won the Pappy McGillicuddy Trophy as the nation’s top player in the Field Strewn With Gravel Subdivision.

Such Nowhere State phenoms are usually as raw as steak tartare. You don’t watch them looking for precision fundamentals. You watch to see the best athlete within 40 miles of the field dominate a bunch of future pastors and gym teachers. Then you cross your fingers and try to project whether his skills will translate to the pros. Most of the time, the answer is “no,” but the viewing experience is a hoot.

Hunter is like one of those Nowhere State multi-position phenoms, except that he’s Mossing defenders and shutting down wide receivers from Oklahoma State and Texas Tech instead of a bunch of seminarians. If you focus on his rudimentary footwork and limited route tree on offense or the “go cover that guy” simplicity of his game on defense, you are missing the big picture: THIS DUDE IS JUST BETTER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE.

As a cornerback, Hunter mirrored his receiver and dissuaded quarterbacks from throwing the ball anywhere near him. He sometimes looked like a better route-runner as a cornerback than he did as a receiver. He generally looked like a sharper, more alert pass catcher than the pass catchers he covered.

As a receiver, Hunter’s game consisted mostly of screens, deep shots and comebacks. He was a boom-or-bust target on screens, in part because defenses knew they were coming and had three guys waiting for him. But Hunter has plenty of make-you-miss moves and can suddenly shift into fourth gear to turn a bottleneck into a touchdown. As a deep threat, meanwhile, Hunter can outjump Spider-Man and has the catch radius of a commercial fishing net.

Hunter lacks precision route-running chops as a receiver. That will happen when your free time is spent playing cornerback. He’s not smooth and technical at cornerback because he has, since high school, also played wide receiver. Anyone nitpicking his technique on either side of the ball needs to take a long walk in the sunshine. Hunter did things at the power-conference level that no one has done in decades. He’s special in ways undreamed of by draftnik philosophy.

So is Hunter a cornerback or a wide receiver? Hunter himself said at the Combine that he will push to play both: "If they say I'm coming in as a corner, I'm gonna say can I work for receiver." He also said he could kick field goals, so perhaps he’s not the most reliable self-scout.

I initially evaluated Hunter as a wide receiver, where I compared him to a smaller, quicker version of A.J. Brown. Conversations with several expert observers, however, convinced me that Hunter may be better off as an aggressive, playmaking cornerback (who also plays a little offense).

Here’s Charles Woodson, for example, insisting during Super Bowl week that Hunter should be a cornerback and “package” receiver:

When I watch him, he is always in position, in terms of making plays on the football and attacking the ball at the highest point.

He’s a willing tackler. We saw him, in the first game of the season if I’m not mistaken, make a play on the goal line and cause a fumble. It was him one-on-one with the running back. He made the play, knocked the ball out.

I believe he has the speed. He has the length – I stood next to him and he's probably probably a little bit taller than me – so he has all the tools. He’s quick. He's got good hips. Obviously he's gonna be a hell of a player.

Here’s the play Woodson was talking about against Baylor, in what was actually Colorado’s fourth game:

Woodson’s opinion matters because Woodson was the closest thing anyone has seen to Hunter in the past 40 years. Like Hunter, Woodson played on both sides of the ball in college, though he received just 30 offensive touches at Michigan in 1996 and 1997. Like Hunter, Woodson won the Heisman Trophy, a difficult feat for a defensive player.

The only other player with a broadly similar scouting profile to Hunter, unless we go back to roughly 1953, is Deion Sanders himself. And Sanders did not play offense at all in college, nor did he play much of it in his first six NFL seasons.

(Editor Jerry Wolper reminded me that Rod Woodson played some offense for Purdue in 1986. That was roughly during Primetime’s prime, and his two-way efforts were nowhere near the scope of what Hunter has done. And who can forget South Jersey’s own Gordie Lockbaum?)

Many of the coaches and executives who offered opinions on Hunter at the Combine considered him a full-time cornerback with added offensive value. Browns general manager Andrew Berry considers Hunter a receiver, but the Browns do things differently, and look where it gets them.

It’s worth noting here that Hunter cannot realistically start at both receiver and cornerback in the NFL. A player can only attend cornerback or receiver meetings (they are often scheduled simultaneously) and participate in first-team drills on either offense or defense (you cannot cover yourself). Moonlighting on both sides of the ball is possible in college, where “go get open” and “just cover #4” are viable strategies for a player of Hunter’s talent. NFL tactics are more complicated. And yes, Hunter’s fundamentals will need fine-tuning at any position.

If Hunter focuses on cornerback, a robust offensive package full of screens and bombs can be built for him. If he focuses on receiver, he could play a role in the defensive dime package. The limited offensive role would have a greater impact, because coaches could dictate when he takes the field and how he is used, as opposed to waiting for third-and-long situations or worrying about specific matchups. (Hunter is playing slot cornerback and looks winded from playing offense. Maybe if we motion Justin Jefferson inside …)

Assuming Hunter lands at cornerback, he could be a Derek Stingley type of physical, opportunistic defender. Like Stingley, who was injured for much of his college career and entered the NFL rather raw, Hunter will probably take some rookie lumps. Meanwhile, Hunter can also act as a Percy Harvin-type situational playmaker who makes the whole defense think, oh no, it’s time for this crap again every time he takes the field.

There’s also a chance that Hunter develops into one of the greatest players in NFL history and ushers in a new era of two-way athletes who change how football is played, coached and scouted. It’s a small chance, but not an infinitesimal one.

But go ahead, teams atop the draft board, and draft Abdul Carter instead because Hunter’s backpedal isn’t smooth enough, or because you need an edge rusher more than the one player who truly deserves the generational talent label. Yes, Carter is the safer pick and easier to project. Super Bowl teams are rarely built out of safe, easy projections.

Stat Notes: Hunter played 400 coverage snaps in 2024. Opponents targeted his receivers just 35 times, attacking teammates D.J. McKinney (50 targets) and Preston Hodge (51 in nine games) instead. Hunter allowed 16 catches for 177 yards, 1 touchdown, four interceptions and three dropped interceptions. His quarterback rating allowed was 34.1.

Hunter caught 11-of-23 targets of 20-plus air yards for 340 yards and four touchdowns in 2024. Notably, only 15 of those targets were marked as catchable by Sports Info Solutions.

Too Deep 96 FAQs

What is the Too Deep 96?

It’s a countdown of draft prospects. There will be 96 of them to represent the first three rounds of the draft, not counting compensatory picks. It might go beyond 96, because I will end up writing about 150 profiles when all is said and done.

Will there be 96 separate features? Because that sounds excessive and dreadful.

No! Many features will lump three to 10 players together. For example, top defensive tackles Mason Graham, Walter Nolen and Derrick Harmon will soon share one feature.

Will they all be as long as the Travis Hunter feature?

Heavens no. Quarterbacks will get longer profiles, guards shorter ones, the way heaven intended.

What if I find draft coverage boring?

First: please give Too Deep Zone’s draft coverage a try. I’m committed to minimizing the jargon and navel-gazing. Second, I plan to publish the Rams’ edition of the All-Time Top 5 QBs series before the draft, and will react to important NFL news. But bear with me as I focus mostly on the draft in April.

Will the full list of the Too Deep 96 be available for easy reference?

Eventually!

How much of the material will be for paid subscribers only?

Much of it, especially when we start taking deeper dives into lesser-known players. So don’t miss out!

Did you get sidetracked by free agency and your real life, discover you were hopelessly behind schedule, and are now playing catchup with this project?

What would even make you suspect such a thing? But it wouldn’t be late March and early April if I weren’t watching film of last year’s Michigan games while tamping down a minor coronary episode.

See you tomorrow with a profile of Ashton Jeanty!