The 2025 NFL Draft began as expected, with the Tennessee Titans drafting quarterback Cam Ward out of Miami.
Travis Hunter ‘embodying belief’ made Jaguars go after him
Jaguars GM James Gladstone offers a poetic explanation for Travis Hunter pick
Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
Then, everything changed.
While Travis Hunter Jr., the incredible two-way standout from Colorado and the most recent winner of the Heisman Trophy, was the second pick Thursday night his landing spot came as a big surprise. Rather than the Cleveland Browns standing pat and taking Hunter at No. 2 — a player their general manager compared to Shohei Ohtani — Cleveland executed a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Browns moved down to No. 5, while the Jaguars came up to No. 2 to draft Hunter.
Friday the team introduced Hunter at their facility, and new general manager James Gladstone addressed the question of why he was willing to trade up to No. 2 for Hunter.
His answer is right out of Hollywood.
“As we sit here, Travis Hunter is a Jacksonville Jaguar,” began Gladstone. “Really what comes to mind for me, thinking about the sport of football and really the power of the game itself, right, is its capacity to ignite belief. Belief in ourselves. Belief in others. Belief in achieving what many may deem impossible.
“Travis Hunter, he embodies belief.
“He’s a rare person. He’s a rare player. But he’s also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged. And so the decision to select him was actually a statement.
“A statement for how we plan to move, for who we are, and we want him to be nothing more than him.
“Because when he is, he elevates the space around him. From the football field, to the city, to the game of football itself.”
You can see the entire clip here:
Hunter’s new head coach Liam Coen addressed how the team will use Hunter, and noted that the team has to be “fluid” with how they will utilize their newest player. But the plan is to use him on both sides of the football, and how they want it to “look like what it looked like at Colorado.”
Odds are, the Jaguars fans in your life were fired up Friday morning.
This press conference probably only added fuel to those fires.
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