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After Thursday’s practice, Jaguars’ QB Trevor Lawrence discussed the growth that he has seen from Travis Hunter.
Over the last month-plus of offseason programs, when the Jacksonville Jaguars have been able to be on the practice field, quarterback Trevor Lawrence has seen a lot of growth from second overall pick Travis Hunter.
“He’s grown a lot,” Lawrence said after Thursday’s practice. “There’s a lot, obviously, being thrown on him, being a high pick, playing both ways. He’s done a great job.”
Throughout offseason programs, we’ve been able to see Hunter’s progression as the Jaguars implement their development plan for him and put more and more on his plate with each passing week.
As James Gladstone and Liam Coen described after the draft, Hunter was going to be onboarded at the receiver position, although he’s been learning the defensive playbook and terminology, along with being in meetings since he arrived in Jacksonville.
So early on, all of Hunter’s on-field time came at wide receiver. Then, as we got into Phase III of offseason programs, Hunter began practicing at cornerback as well, and the next step in that progression, as we saw during Thursday’s practice, is for him to play both wide receiver and cornerback on the same day, which will be the norm in-season.
Of course, it takes a very special player and person to compete at two positions, but as Coen mentioned after a recent practice, one aspect that helps Hunter to do that is his physical conditioning.
With the Jaguars now breaking for the next five or so weeks until training camp arrives, this will provide Hunter–and the rest of the team–with an opportunity to recharge, hit pause for a second, and really dive further into the playbook.
As Lawrence described, for rookies, there is very little opportunity to take a step back between the pre-draft process and then immediately beginning offseason programs.
“Obviously, this is going to be a big opportunity for him during this break,” Lawrence said. “You want to get your mind right, be ready to go, and be rejuvenated for camp, but you also gotta really be prepared and be ready.
“He’s got some time to get into his playbook, learn the system because rookies have a tough job coming in when we’re already halfway through the install, so they come in and half the playbooks in, and they’re just jumping in. So they don’t get to start off like all of us do with the softballs and work their way in. They jump right in the middle of it.”
Lawrence added that he and Hunter will be spending quite a bit of time together during this break to build chemistry and also further familiarize themselves with the offensive system.
And Lawrence, like the rest of us, is excited to see Hunter’s progression.
“I’m excited to spend some time with him this summer,” said Lawrence. “We plan on getting together quite a bit. Throwing, getting some timing down, but also just talking through the system. I got no concerns about him. I’m just excited to see him continue to get better. He’s a special player on both sides of the ball.”
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