RADIO
John's fantasy football outlook for wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter. His breakdown for Hunter as a potential fantasy-football league winner in 2025.
Colorado wide receiver/cornerback prospect Travis Hunter is a polarizing player to discuss, mainly because... well, we've never really seen anything like him before. He won the Heisman Trophy by being one of the few highly productive two-way players in all of college football history.
There isn't a ton of precedent on how to handle him as a fantasy prospect. Obviously, it's unknown how much he'll play on either side of the ball, and that's a situation that could remain in flux after the season starts. It's a perplexing conundrum for many fantasy football managers who don't know what to do with their first and second-round picks.
I'm here to tell you today that it's worth spending a first-rounder on him, and in both dynasty and redraft leagues, he's an elite pick at his ADP. I'll justify it to the best of my ability below, but before I do, Hunter is a rare, special talent, and players like him just don't come around very often. Let's dive in.
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He Should Play A Ton Of Wide Receiver Snaps
Interestingly, it's not quite as difficult to see Hunter being a league-winner if he gets a lot of WR snaps, because his production was magnificent, he won the Heisman Trophy, and he's already gotten a ton of attention as a wideout. There are still many who are convinced that he could see a majority of snaps at cornerback, and while he's a fantastic CB prospect, I just don't see how it's possible for that to happen.
Sure, we technically don't know what his team's coaching staff will do with him. It's possible he lands on a squad that needs more help on offense than it does on defense (this will be updated after the 2025 NFL Draft, of course), but we can just do a little thought exercise.
If you were a general manager of a team, would you rather have Cincinnati Bengals WR Ja'Marr Chase or Miami Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey on your team, on a rookie contract, with the salary of a fourth-overall pick?
In honor of 9-1 day, here’s JaMarr Chase going for 266 yards and 3 TDs against the Chiefs his rookie year. pic.twitter.com/9wWvplyccv
— The Nati King (@thenatiking) September 1, 2024
Hunter has elite upside as a receiver. It doesn't really matter if he's a better CB prospect than WR prospect, though I'd argue that he has much higher long-term upside at WR, because he was as good as he was while still being pretty raw. However, we can take a look at what happened when both Ramsey and Chase entered the league.
In 2016, the Jaguars drafted Ramsey. Other than one playoff run in 2017, in which the defense actually allowed significantly more points (26.1) than they did in 2016 (19.5) and 2015 (23.5), the team as a whole continued to be absolutely terrible. Can we blame this all on Ramsey? No, of course not. But it's a fundamental reality of the position that a cornerback simply can't affect the game as much as a receiver can.
It's part of the reason WR salaries are so inflated.
In honor of 9-1 day, here’s JaMarr Chase going for 266 yards and 3 TDs against the Chiefs his rookie year. pic.twitter.com/9wWvplyccv
— The Nati King (@thenatiking) September 1, 2024
However, when Chase entered the league, there was a noticeable and immediate boost to the Bengals, both the offense and the entire team. While it was Burrow's second year as quarterback, he was coming off an ACL tear, which likely hampered his production. Regardless, there was an immediate and massive difference, as Cincinnati ended up scoring 27.7 points per game in the regular season and earned a Super Bowl berth.
Fundamentally, there are many ways to play around an elite cornerback prospect. You can throw the ball to the other side of the field, ignore the receiver he covers for the most part, shift to a more run-heavy game plan, move your WRs around the field in case that corner mostly plays on one side, and more.
You don't have to stop an elite cornerback. You can mostly scheme him out of the game plan if absolutely necessary.
JAMARR CHASE AGAIN 😭😭😭
HE HAS 238 YARDS 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/YlTJTFeCMZ
— Max Loeb (@loebsleads) November 8, 2024
You can't just "look the other way" to slow down a receiver. On every offensive passing play, an elite wideout can be a threat to destroy defensive game plans, pick up big games, and put his team in a better position to win. The best WRs elevate their offenses massively much more than the best CBs elevate their defenses. Even the best of pass-rushers have less of an impact on games than the best wideouts do.
I'm not saying Hunter will be a Chase-style prospect, but I think it's silly that a coaching staff would consider playing Hunter mostly as a cornerback for a moment. There would likely even be front-office and possibly even ownership intervention to correct this mistake.
There are a few teams out there that aren't desperate for WR talent. Most of the league's teams would benefit massively from a true WR1 or even a WR1B or WR2, especially, you know, every single team with a top-8 pick in the draft.
The fact that people think any of these teams aren't salivating at the thought of Travis Hunter being a WR for them and living up to his potential at that position is hilarious. Elite receivers have ~2x the positive impact on teams than elite cornerbacks do. pic.twitter.com/XkxGAYPKF6
— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 25, 2025
I've taken the stance that it would be insane (and a fireable offense) for a coaching staff to force him to play mostly at cornerback.
Do you really think he wants to sacrifice more than $10 million per year? When the time for an extension comes, Hunter will want it to be as a wideout.
I suppose the next part of the article should be where I convince you he is an elite WR prospect, though that's not very controversial.
Hunter Is An Elite Wide Receiver Prospect
He's my personal WR1 in the class because he has the highest athletic upside of any soon-to-be rookie wideout, and it's in a lot of areas that are very important for receivers. While speed, explosiveness, burst, and acceleration are all very important, and he possesses each to some degree, there are a number of ways in which Hunter can manipulate his body that are also very important.
It's not just about outrunning the guy across from you or mentally being a step ahead of him. Hunter can do things physically that not many other WRs can do, making it remarkably difficult to cover him.
Travis Hunter = Tempo King
He manipulates his defenders with speed transitions, tempo, and footwork.
Special talent.pic.twitter.com/uGkOR4sn49
— Snoog's Fantasy HQ (@FFSnoog) January 16, 2025
Route pacing is one of these things. Hunter has the best-in-class ability to quickly vary the speed of his travel on his routes, with very little wasted movement, and with suddenness that beats out the reaction time of defensive backs. He should be an absolute killer on any routes that require (or in which he can add extracurricularly) variations in his speed and acceleration into and out of his releases and breaks.
Travis Hunter in 1 clip.
-Improvises
-Elite body adjustment to ball trajectory
-Attacks the ball, big vertical
-Elite awareness
-Sells to the outside after the catch
-Hard jab fake to the outside, cuts back in
-Makes 3 guys miss
WR1 pic.twitter.com/XxlN0fMgR8— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) March 17, 2025
The suite of skills Hunter possesses makes him a nightmare after the catch and in contested catch situations. I should note that he also has great improvisational ability. We can watch a sequence of events above to see how he beautifully chains them together.
Hunter attacks the ball at a high point, tracking back towards it, then is able to turn his head before he lands (on one foot), keeping his balance, which is extraordinary. He then plots how to pick up extra yards, and does so with an incredible juke move. Hunter is a master of picking up hidden yards after the catch and setting himself up to do so before the catch, and even while he's falling from his apogee.
Shedeur Sanders is very, very lucky he had Travis Hunter pic.twitter.com/OzdOgEcVqm
— Dynasty Zoltan (@DynastyZoltanFF) March 15, 2025
Hunter also makes contested catches that just look impossible. Part of this is his elite vertical jump. He didn't test at the 2025 NFL Combine, but the film doesn't lie. He just makes insane plays on the ball when it's in the air in traffic. It's astounding and worth multiple looks.
Travis Hunter is legitimately UNFAIR at the catch point
➖ 68.8% contested-catch success
➖ Only 4 career dropsHe’s so good at separating that we rarely even get to see this skill from him… pic.twitter.com/LxxWJF3fq2
— SCOUTD (@scoutdnfl) December 18, 2024
Hunter is the most "never covered even when he's covered" receiver in this year's draft class. As I mentioned earlier, it's all about body manipulation. Hunter's body is like a Swiss-Army knife, for lack of a better term, and he's in complete control of all of its functions. Even while he's being twisted around, sandwiched in between defenders, taking a sizeable hit, or, you know, being choked out by a defender, Hunter is able to concentrate, make the grab, and hang on to the ball.
Imagine lining up as a DB and having to guard Travis Hunter… pic.twitter.com/Cg94nsumxY
— SCOUTD (@scoutdnfl) March 11, 2025
Of course, if you've read any of my articles, you'd know the most important thing a WR can do is separate from defenders. Despite being a raw prospect, Hunter excels at this. He's blindingly quick at, once again, manipulating his body to explode off his plant foot when making hard route breaks like in the video above. It's just obscene.
Pausing the video at the point where he plants and takes off, the sharpness of the angle between his planted leg and the ground is notable.
Friendly reminder that Travis Hunter is WR53 on Underdog best ball drafts
Behind Josh Downs, Darnell Mooney, & Rashid Shaheed
— Own The League FF (@OTLFFootball) March 22, 2025
Crazy, crazy stuff.
He's This Good, And Still Raw
It's a GOOD thing that he's this raw. It makes him cheaper in all formats, so you can invest less draft capital in him. If you get him with a second-round pick in dynasty fantasy football rookie drafts, that's insane.
A few years from now, and I guarantee this, unless his coaching staff is full of people who want to get fired as quickly as possible for playing him at cornerback, getting Hunter after the first-round in dynasty rookie drafts will be seen as one of the biggest steals of the decade.
Travis Hunter is a nuanced route runner despite being a bit raw at the position still.
The tempo, footwork, twitch, and speed off the LOS is artwork.pic.twitter.com/BEt5teLBvx
— Snoog's Fantasy HQ (@FFSnoog) January 20, 2025
Draft him in all leagues. Redraft, best ball, dynasty rookie drafts, and start-ups, I don't care. He's easily worth a first-round pick in rookie drafts and worth reaching for in all other formats. The upside, especially long-term, is legendary.
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