Analyst Makes ‘Bold Prediction’ For Jaguars

Now that the regular season is almost upon us, we have a pretty good idea of how every team will look for Week 1.

It's the best time to make predictions for the upcoming campaign, so we can all look back after a few months to see what we got right and what we couldn't have gotten more wrong.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars are one of the NFL's most interesting teams this year. Coming off an amazing 13-4 season, the Jaguars are out to prove that last year wasn't a fluke and that they are here to stay as one of the AFC's top teams.

Head coach Liam Coen told his team earlier in the offseason that it would take more than a single season of success to earn respect from outsiders.

That has proven to be true. Recent power rankings ranked Jacksonville 17th among the NFL's 32 teams, a shocking placement for a team coming off a 13-win season that also has plenty of young, top-end talent.

Though plenty of people have doubts about Jacksonville this season and wonder if the Jaguars are a one-year wonder, the team also has its share of believers.

Chris Simms of NBC Sports called the Jaguars "a Super Bowl football team."

Pete Prisco of CBS Sports took his confidence in Jacksonville even further, predicting the Jaguars will defeat the Dallas Cowboys for their first-ever Super Bowl title.

Now, Dan Graziano of ESPN is getting in on the fun. Instead of power rankings or Super Bowl chances, Graziano instead decided to make one "bold prediction" for each of the NFL's 32 teams.

For the Jaguars, Graziano is predicting that Travis Hunter will come close to being a full-time cornerback this season.

Workload Caution, Need At CB Higher

Graziano's reasoning for Hunter to be almost exclusively used on defense is sound. We have known for months that the Jaguars planned to make cornerback Hunter's primary responsibility this season. However, Coach Coen has publicly stated that Hunter will still be deployed on offense, just not as much.

Jacksonville's terrific group of wide receivers, even without Hunter, greatly lessens the team's need for the second-year star to play offense. Coming off a serious knee injury, Graziano believes the Jaguars will be a bit cautious with Hunter's workload and not risk playing him on offense very much.

"Don't be surprised if ... hybrid player Travis Hunter is pretty close to a full-time cornerback.

"What I'm hearing: The Jaguars still believe Hunter can contribute on offense in addition to defense, and he sort of has to in order to justify the move they made to get him in the 2025 draft. But Hunter is coming off a major knee injury, and the team will be cautious about his overall workload this season. He has worked a lot more at corner than wide receiver this offseason, mainly because corner is where the Jaguars have more of a need. Last year, they believed they were thinner in the wide receivers room, and Hunter got more work on offense during camp.

"But with Parker Washington having emerged and the team having traded for and signed Jakobi Meyers, the receivers room has a lot of capable bodies all of a sudden. Jags coach Liam Coen has cautioned against assuming Hunter will play only defense this season. It's certainly to Jacksonville's benefit for opponents to at least wonder if they'll see him on offense. But the prediction here is that, while Hunter might evolve into more of a two-way NFL player in future years, Jacksonville will try to keep things simple for him as he works his way back from last year's season-ending injury."

Final Thoughts

I don't know how bold Graziano's prediction actually is, but Hunter is going to fight like crazy to remain a key part of the offense.

It will not be a surprise at all to see Hunter play significantly more cornerback than wide receiver this year. But I do think it will be at least mildly surprising if Hunter barely plays offense at all.

The Jaguars drafted Hunter second overall last season to be a two-way player. It was a big part of the reason why Jacksonville gave up so much to move up to draft him. They believed they were basically getting two star players with Hunter, which heavily increased his value.

I don't believe Jacksonville will be giving up on that vision this quickly. If the team is confident that Hunter is all the way back from his knee injury, I think he will still be an impact player on offense, even if he does play defense more.

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