• Unique talent: Travis Hunter is one of the few players in recent NFL history who has a legitimate chance to be great on both sides of the ball in the NFL.
• Cornerback may be his best fit: Hunter's measurables, PFF's wins above replacement and play style indicate a primary role as a corner would yield the highest return on investment.
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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
It feels like we just had this discussion, but with Colorado’s Travis Hunter once again putting on a show as both a receiver and cornerback this season, I wanted to take an even deeper dive into where he could and should play in the NFL with some PFF-centric data points.
Three games into the 2024 season, Hunter has recorded 30 receptions for 332 receiving yards and five touchdowns at receiver while forcing two incompletions, hauling in an interception and allowing just 81 receiving yards at cornerback. He has played 202 snaps on defense and 181 snaps on offense. At corner, he has earned an 84.3 coverage grade, and as a receiver, he is sitting with an 82.3 offensive grade.
He’s a top-five prospect on PFF’s 2025 big board, but where do you play him in the NFL? He plays two positions now, and if he can play both in the NFL, perhaps there doesn't need to be a debate. Nonetheless, he will likely have to choose one or the other.
Colorado lists Hunter at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds. As a wide receiver, that would rank in the 48th and 15th percentiles in the NFL, but as a cornerback, his height and weight would land in the 71st and 19th percentiles. Therefore, his size is more akin to an NFL cornerback rather than a receiver.
But what about the value of the positions themselves? For that, PFF has a wins above replacement (WAR) metric we can lean on.
In 2023, Charvarius Ward earned the highest WAR score for an NFL cornerback at 1.01 due to high single coverage and solid run-defense grades. Darious Williams, Jaylon Johnson, Trent McDuffie and Sauce Gardner all earned scores above 0.80 to round out the top five. Over the last five years, Jalen Ramsey has the highest WAR average at that position at 0.58. There are three other corners who have WAR averages above 0.50 in that time — Ward, Jaire Alexander and Kendall Fuller – Jamel Dean barely missed that cutoff at 0.49.
As for wide receivers, CeeDee Lamb recorded the highest WAR score in 2023 at 0.65. From a five-year sample size from 2019-2023, Davante Adams has the highest average score at 0.49. Justin Jefferson and Tyreek Hill are the only other receivers to have an average score above 0.40.
Now, what does this mean? The WAR scores are not meant to tell you that, as talents, cornerbacks are better than wide receivers. However, it does help contextualize value at certain positions and the scarcity that may exist with top-tier play within each position as well.
In simpler terms: There are more talented NFL wide receivers who are capable of great production than there are cornerbacks – or, at least, it is easier to get a collective of receivers to match great production than it is with corners.
It’s like that quote from “Moneyball: when Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, says “You're still trying to replace [Jason] Giambi. I told you we can't do it, and we can't do it. Now, what we might be able to do is re-create him. Recreate him in the aggregate.”
WAR tells us that it is easier to recreate top receiver production in the aggregate than it is to replace top-tier production at cornerback. Maybe the other receivers in the league can’t do it quite like Hill or Jefferson, but as a collective, it's possible. Nonetheless, no amount of receivers can equal Hill’s speed, for example, so there is certainly nuance at play here. Corners and receivers also have different alignments and roles and thus “replacing” production is different – coverage specialties, fit into a defensive scheme, or how they win as a receiver, for example.
There is also an element of highs and lows here. Though the highs of great cornerback play are notable, as you can see in the WAR scores, the difference between that top score in a single season and the best averages over a five-year span is about half. This points out how volatile cornerbacks can be, whereas receiver success is generally more consistent.
So when we talk about a player like Travis Hunter, there is some nuance, of course, but on a level plane, his value at cornerback does seem to trump his value at receiver, especially given his takeaway ability (ball skills) and single coverage ability.
We should also talk about contracts, as contracts can also be an indicator of value – NFL owners typically don’t lie with their checkbooks. Jalen Ramsey just signed a deal to become the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL with an average salary of $24.1 million per year. Justin Jefferson is currently the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL with a $35 million average. When it comes to guarantees, Denzel Ward has the most fully guaranteed money of any cornerback at $44.5 million while at receiver, Jefferson has the most fully guaranteed at $88.7 million. Stacked up against one another, Ramsey’s $24.1 million per year would rank 13th as a receiver, and Ward’s $44.5 fully guaranteed would rank seventh.
To wrap all this up, Hunter is a more unique talent at cornerback, so he should be drafted as such. However, he is good enough to play both ways in the NFL, just maybe not full time he does now. Maximizing his abilities on both sides of the ball is also more plausible if he's drafted as a corner. A world can exist where he can hone his craft as a corner while playing spot duty on offense every week. However, if he was drafted as a receiver, I think he would be great, but barring an injury, I don’t see him substituting in for a handful of cornerback snaps every week.
I don’t think there is a “wrong” answer here. Hunter is so damn good that he could thrive at either. However, in terms of where his highest value would lie, measurables, WAA, and play style would tell us a primary role as a corner would yield the highest return on investment.
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