Travis Hunter has made no secret of wanting to continue playing on offense and defense wherever he is drafted tonight (Thursday 24^th April), but there are those that believe the eagerness of youth needs to be tempered at the pro level.

Hunter recently told CBS Sports that he would rather ‘never play football again’ than be limited to one side of the ball ‘because I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I love being on the football field. I feel like I could dominate on each side of the ball, so I really enjoy doing it’, but it seems unlikely that any team in the NFL would be prepared to risk such a prized asset unnecessarily.

“I would start [him on] offense,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah told the media last week, “and I’m kind of saying that through this [draft] process. It’s different. First of all, we haven’t seen something like this, someone who wants to do

everything on both sides, but I don’t think I would do that initially. You have to major and minor. Historically, if you have a player that has value there, he’s

been a full-time defensive player with a package of plays on offense, that’s just been the way it’s always been. We haven’t really seen it the other way around, with the exception of maybe Troy Brown on a couple of snaps for the Patriots.

“To me, I think Hunter’s more valuable to your team on offense right now. I think he’s further developed on offense. I think he touches the ball more. He just makes more of an impact. I’m going to have him as a full-time starter at receiver and start there for a while, and then we can start maybe incorporating him into some defensive packages, whether that’s your dime, your nickel, whatever, but giving him an opportunity to get on the field and make some plays on some third downs defensively. Maybe that grows and evolves into more than that over time, but that’s where I would start with it.”

One crumb of comfort for Hunter could come from one of the teams most likely to draft him at the top of the opening round. With Tennessee seemingly hooked on QB Cam Ward — although nothing is certain in the 2025 draft — Hunter could find his name being called by the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants or, if they prefer to go a different route, possibly the New England Patriots, but it is the former who have hinted that they may be prepared to let the Colorado Buffalo try his hand both ways.

Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is one who is confident the early riser will have enough time in the day to make it work.

“Travis is somebody that is uniquely equipped to do both,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski told the media on the eve of the draft. “I remember having a conversation with him about there only being so many hours in the day, and having to meet extra with this coach or that coach, and he made a comment that he’s a fisherman. He gets up at five in the morning quite often, so that’s not a problem for him in terms of maximising his day.

“He’s unique, as we all know, and not many have done it how he’s done at the collegiate level, so you want to take his input in it — but I think we, and every team that’s in the top of this draft, have to come up with a plan of how you would see it. Then you really have to be able to adjust to what the player is doing really well, or maybe, ‘Hey, we need to do a little bit less of this and more of that’ or vice versa. I think it’s really so incumbent upon the player and what they’re able to handle early.”

For Jeremiah though, adding Hunter to the Browns offense opens up a lot of potential.

“I think you can get really excited if you are a Browns fan and you start thinking about what Jerry Jeudy did last year, and now we get a chance to throw Travis Hunter out there on offense as a really, really talented, explosive player who is outstanding with the ball in his hands,” he insisted. “That would make the Browns really, really fun to watch. I can tell you that.”