Travis Hunter’s NFL home is known, goes early in 2025 Draft

Colorado Buffaloes superstar Travis Hunter has been selected in the 2025 NFL Draft

Apr 24, 2025, 6:21 PM Updated: Jun 30, 2026, 1:37 pm

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With the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft the Jacksonville Jaguars selected Colorado Buffaloes superstar Travis Hunter. The AFC South team traded up to get the pick from the Cleveland Browns, who got the No. 5 pick among other assets.

Hunter has said repeatedly he wants to play both ways in the NFL, but will his team let him? ESPN already reports that the Jags plan to play him both on offense and defense. At the very least, Hunter gets to go home; he’s from West Palm Beach, Florida, and played high school ball nearby in Georgia.

One of the last notable players to give it a go on both offense and defense is his college coach, Deion Sanders. Prime was the NFL’s best cornerback and moonlighted as a wide receiver at times for the Dallas Cowboys. Other players have shifted positions or played one side rather than the other, but it hasn’t been since the early days of the league with guys like Sammy Baugh, that some players competed on both sides.

Hunter’s two-way skills are the main reason that he was honored as the most outstanding player in college football last fall. The Heisman winner did something no modern-day footballer has: playing offense and defense at the high level of power conference football. Not only did Hunter do it, but he thrived with obscene production during his two years in Boulder. He featured as the country’s award-winning best receiver and the nation’s award-winning best defender for his cornerback skills, Hunter led the Buffs to an Alamo Bowl appearance. He finished with a Big 12-best 96 catches for 1,258 yards, which were both fourth in the NCAA last fall. Hunter’s 15 receiving touchdowns were a school record, conference-best, and second-best in the nation. He’s also added a rushing touchdown on a jet sweep. It’s for all of this offense that Hunter won the Biletnikoff Award. Defensively, Hunter racked up 36 tackles, four interceptions, 11 passes defended, as well as a game-winning forced fumble on defense. Those ball-hawking skills placed Hunter at or near the top of the Big 12 leaderboard, which is why he won the Chuck Bednarik Award.

Hutner ties the selection of running back Bo Matthews in 1974 at No. 2 by the Chargers as the highest-picked Buffalo player ever. Byron White (1938) and Michael Westbrook (1995) are the only other CU stars to go in the top five. Hunter is the first Buffs player selected in the first round of the draft since 2011, when both Nate Solder and Jimmy Smith were selected. He is the first CU player selected into the NFL since Will Sherman went in the sixth round of the 2021 event.

Colorado fans will get to see Hunter in 2025, as the Jags are slated to play the Broncos in Denver this fall.