Can a football player catch a pass AND tackle himself? I investigate The Curious Case of Travis Hunter in this week’s episode of Why Can’t You Just Come up with a Normal Title for Once?
Let’s start with how we think Hunter will be used this season, and how his dual eligibility will affect IDP leagues. For the sake of not letting this run longer than a CVS receipt, I’ll focus on Travis Hunter’s 2025 IDP fantasy football redraft value. His dynasty value is a dip into the Multiverse of Madness.
Travis Hunter, the Wide Receiver
The Jaguars say they are planning on using the rookie out of Colorado as their starting slot receiver. In Jacksonville’s first preseason game, Hunter played all but one snap with the starting offense, catching 2 passes for 9 yards. In his 11 snaps, he played 5 in the slot and 6 outside. Last season, the Jags’ slot receiver was Christian Kirk, who played 7 full games before suffering a season-ending collarbone injury. In those games, Kirk logged 27/379/1, averaging 9 FPG in PPR.
If Hunter averaged those pedestrian numbers in 2025, he would be Minkah Fitzpatrick (9.0 FPG in 2024). And that’s without playing a single snap on defense.
Top DBs average around 12-15 FPG in balanced scoring. Hunter needs to do an average job as a slot receiver and make a few tackles or a PD on defense, and he’s a top-10 DB. If he never plays defense, he’s still a DB 2.
The Brain Trust at Fantasy Points thinks he’ll do better than Kirk did last year. They have him landing on 12.8 FPG for 2025. For comparison, the aged and hobbled slot-specialist, Adam Thielen (WR52), managed 13.9 FPG on a…well, let’s call them less-than-awesome Carolina Panthers team last season. If Hunter can do that, he’s a top-10 DB. And again, he hasn’t played a snap on defense in these scenarios.
Travis Hunter, the Cornerback
Coaches and preseason usage tell us that Hunter is seen as a backup outside CB. He was listed as a 2nd-team CB on depth charts (not always reliable, of course). In his first preseason game, he played 8 snaps, all with the 2s. 7 of those snaps were at LCB, according to PFF. So far, the Jaguars have been true to their word on his usage.
So, does that mean he’s not playing much defense this year? Not so fast.
There will almost certainly be opportunities for Hunter to play corner on Sundays. For starters (no pun intended), when Jacksonville goes into Dime, they will often use a 4th cornerback. We’re going to assume that the top 3 CBs - Jarrian Jones, Tyson Campbell, and SCB Jourdan Lewis - will be out there for Nickel. But the Jags ran Dime 23% last season. Their #4 was Montaric Brown. Brown had 75 tackles, 6 TFL, 8 PD, and 1 INT. Now, he got a lot of those because he was pressed into starting service due to injuries. However, that is exactly what happens to NFL backups: they occasionally receive starts due to injuries or illness. Or if Hunter were diabolical, he could trick the starters into missing curfew from time to time to get some live reps. What? A fella can dream, can’t he?
So, let’s back up to Brown’s 2023, when he didn’t get nearly as many snaps as a backup. In 2023, Brown played 475 snaps and had 34 tackles (25 solo) and 4 PD. Pretty sad numbers by themselves. In balanced scoring, Brown’s 2023 sad little tackle production was worth 63 FP.
Add 63 FP to Allen Lazard, and he’s the #6 DB in fantasy last season.
That’s a sentence I never expected to type. Thanks, Travis, for making me sound ridiculous.
We took a backup CB’s lackluster production (Brown was DB199 in 2023) and combined it with a lackluster receiver’s production (Lazard was WR59 last season), and ended up with essentially a top-5 DB. That’s Hunter’s FLOOR.
I’ll spare you the rosier outlook of his ceiling. When I started toying with the idea of Hunter being a good receiver and a 700-snap CB, I fainted.
But we’ll dip our toe in that water by creating a realistic projection.
Travis Hunter, the 2025 Projections
As just a wide receiver, we have him at WR33, projected for 193 FP in 2025. That would already make him DB19 in IDP, and — say it with me — that’s without playing a SINGLE SNAP on defense. If he racks up 50 FP as a DB (a grossly conservative estimate in balanced scoring), he’ll be DB#1. If you have a CB-required league, you should draft Hunter 1st overall. The positional advantage is so significant that you don’t want to risk losing out at a position known for remote-control-throwing madness in variance.
How easy is 50 FP as a CB? We’ve projected Billy Bowman, Jr. to score 58 fantasy points. If you just said “Who??” then you’ve made my point. He’s DB165 for us. Dead last. If you combine ol’ Billy B’s bottom-feeder production with our WR projections for Hunter, he would be the 14th overall IDP. More than Maxx Crosby, Budda Baker, Ernest Jones, and Bobby Okereke. If he does what we think he’ll do and produces modest CB numbers as a dime defender, he’d come in around 90 FP. Which means he could push for 300 FP in a PPR. In America. He’ll eclipse every IDP by a country mile. Oh, and at a position where you’re lucky to get 100 FP.
Travis Hunter, the Bonus Player
Beyond the projections and rankings, Hunter carries another advantage: a bonus offensive weapon when you run short.
If you start three wide receivers, you are now starting four with Hunter in the DB slot. That part is evident if you’ve read this far into the article. But the ancillary benefits of that are huge. If you have an injured receiver or a tough bye week, you can simply move Hunter into the WR slot and then go get a DB off the waiver wire. So, instead of starting a weaker bench wide receiver, you can use Hunter plus a scrub defender off the WW.
As Thomas Simons and I have chronicled multiple times each year — to the tune of “we know, we know!” — you can find serviceable DBs on the waiver wire each week. The number of cornerbacks and safeties who put up at least 4-5 tackles each week approaches triple digits. I randomly picked Week 3 from last season using our filter function on the Fantasy Points site, and 84 DBs recorded at least 4 tackles.
You can hold your own at the DB slot that week while putting a better offensive weapon in your WR slot when the need arises. And in most platforms, when you slide Hunter into your WR slot, you’ll also get whatever defensive production he may put up that week. Which could make him a better WR option than your other WR3/WR4 bench players. In other words, losing a wide receiver and adding a WW DB just turns you from a dominant roster to a good roster.
Travis Hunter Across Fantasy Platforms
OK, all that’s great, but can you actually use this unicorn? Well, it depends on your fantasy platform. But the short answer is most likely yes!
Fantasy Life’s Jonthan Fuller did some digging to see where and how Hunter can be used. It turns out that in most platforms, you can use his dual eligibility as long as you’re in an IDP league. If your league does NOT start IDPs, Hunter’s IDP scoring won’t help you. But there is one exception.
Platforms where Travis Hunter is a WR/CB, and his offensive production can be used as a CB and vice versa:
Yahoo!
Sleeper
ESPN
CBS*
* For CBS, your commissioner has to manually select Hunter as a CB and manually add his defensive points each week.
If you play in a non-IDP league, his defensive production won’t count in the above platforms.
Platforms where Travis Hunter is a WR only:
- NFFC
- FFPC**
**If Hunter scores a defensive TD (IE, a pick-six, etc.), it counts even though he’s a WR.
Platforms where Travis Hunter’s WR and CB production count, no matter which league configuration:
- Fleaflicker
If you play on Fleaflicker in a non-IDP league, Hunter’s CB production counts. And his WR production counts if you play him in an IDP league as a CB.
Travis Hunter’s IDP Draft Value
Here’s a draft window for Hunter based on league size. We will assume balanced scoring (1.5pts per solo, 0.75pts per assist, 2pts per PD, 4pts per INT, 6pts per TD), but I’ll offer notes on less evolved scoring, where you get 1pt per tackle and 1pt per PD. We’ll call this PPT (point per tackle), which is an older scoring system, but it is still used enough to warrant the inclusion.
IDP Roster: 1-3 Flex Positions
Hunter Draft Strategy: Rounds 3-5. Closer to Round 5 in PPT.
We don’t want to miss out on our RB1s and our WR1s. They are fantasy gold. Get 2-3 of those before you take this shot. You’re essentially drafting Hunter as your WR2, but you’ll move him to CB and take another WR2 in the next few rounds.
IDP Roster: DL/LB/DB (one each)
Hunter Draft Strategy: Same as 1-3 IDPs: Rounds 3-5. Closer to 5 in PPT.
How can it be the same strategy? Because you’re still only dealing with a handful of IDPs, regardless of position. This means if the Hunter experiment fails, there are still tons of options on the waiver wire. The drop from Hunter at DB to the #13 DB (best DB not drafted) still gives you a great option at DB. I list several of these options in my 2025 IDP Draft Plan.
IDP Roster: 2 DL/3 LB/2 DB
Hunter Draft Strategy: Hunter is my 2nd round pick. Take my shot at my anchor offensive weapon in Round 1, and then I’m grabbing Hunter. In a league this size, he won’t last long. You don’t want to miss him. This league size rarely still uses PPT scoring, so you should be good here.
IDP Roster: 4 DL/5 LB/3 DB
Hunter Draft Strategy: Hunter is my 2nd round pick. The strategy is the same in this slightly larger league size. These leagues often have a CB requirement, so I’m not opposed ot taking him in Round 1 if you want to be aggressive.
I’m encouraging you to be aggressive in acquiring Hunter for two reasons. First, as I’ve laid out, his floor is so high that if he’s healthy, he’ll be a massive advantage at DB, even if he has a “bust” rookie year. And if he has a strong rookie campaign, he could be your league winner.
Secondly, you are a Fantasy Points subscriber. Which means you have access to the brightest minds in the business when it comes to drafting offensive players. Your middle and late rounds will be full of value. Full of upside. You can be aggressive, knowing that your information on undervalued talent is so good, your roster can catch you back up if Hunter is ONLY a dominant asset as a DB.
Travis Hunter: Conclusion
The chances of Hunter sticking as a two-way player for his career are very slim. The chances of injury are much higher than for an athlete on normal rest. The chances of production falling off due to fatigue and learning two schemes at once are high.
Jacksonville’s plan to have him focus on WR but still play a handful of snaps at CB is the ideal situation to prolong his career while giving him a good shot at being elite. It also happens to be the ideal situation for an IDP manager to use him as a cheat code. Hunter’s floor is a top-10 DB. His ceiling is prime J.J. Watt.
