Op-Ed: In the case of Travis Hunter, stop comparing a unicorn to horses

Colorado two-way star has unprecedented talent and shouldn't be viewed otherwise

CU Buffs

Travis Hunter will likely be at the forefront of NFL Draft conversations for the next eight months. There is no end to the positive descriptors people will use for HIM and the supremely talented athleticism he brings. He has virtually zero negatives as an NFL prospect. However, what needs to stop being said by almost everyone is that he needs to pick one side of the ball at the next level. 

This is a classic ‘put him in the same box as everyone else’ narrative. The problem is that “Saucy-T” is different. Some would even say generational to the game of football, but truly he’s a “unicorn”. We’ve never seen anyone play like Hunter. Yet, the vast majority of the media covering the Buffs can’t stop themselves from comparing a unicorn to mere horses. 

Who is the benchmark for greatest athlete or two-way player we can think of? That’s right, it’s Deion Sanders. Ask Coach Prime who was the better athlete and football player at 21-years-old. He will not hesitate to tell you it’s Hunter. That’s not some throw away comment Prime said once and moved on from. This is something the Hall-of-Famer has gone out of his way to say on numerous occasions. It has also been an ongoing theme with any conversations around the Buffs star and what he will be at the next level. 

The masses see a phenomenal athlete, then they try to compare him to someone who has blazed a trail to Canton. Since there has never been a “Hunter-type” in the NFL, they struggle to make sense of it. They certainly aren’t listening to Sanders.

From Stephen A Smith to Dan Patrick, Uncle Shay Shay and Ocho, Champ Bailey and Paul Finebaum, they all suffer from the same thing. They can’t seem to wrap their heads around trying to play two positions in the NFL. If the pundit in question was not a former NFL player, they are simply looking at a history of players and thinking “no one has ever done in the NFL what Hunter is doing at Colorado, therefore what he’s doing can’t be done.

Where ESPN has Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter going in 2025 NFL mock draft

Once upon a time, the same thing was said for an unorthodox mobile QB, yet we live in a reality where Patrick Mahomes exists. If the pundit in question is a former NFL player, even a Hall of Fame NFL player, they seem to be leaning on “I could never have been able to pull that off as a player in this league, so that must mean neither can Hunter. This is the biggest problem facing this discussion. Whether you are willing to accept this or not, we have never seen anything like Hunter before and therefore, we cannot continue to compare him to things we have seen before. 

You could put in one room Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Calvin Johnson, Shannon Sharpe, Deion Sanders, Champ Bailey, Darrelle Revis, and Patrick Surtain II and ask them to discuss their experience and why Hunter cannot play the majority of snaps on both sides in the NFL. The question is what would that reveal? Absolutely nothing relevant to this conversation. They can discuss the grind, the physical demand, the step up in competition, or even the difficult logistics of doing both from a team preparation standpoint (meetings, practice reps), and all that counts for almost nothing when discussing Hunter. 

Not because that information is not accurate, it would be. What’s missing in the typical discourse is how Hunter got to this point. The vast majority of athletes that reach the NFL do so by specializing. Most athletes begin playing multiple positions in multiple sports. It’s not unheard of for a Pop Warner player to play both ways because they’re young and still developing into a player. Even for a guy like Sanders, outside influences determine a player’s strengths and have them focus on that. Make no mistake about it, Prime was a cornerback who was also a return specialist who could be called upon to play receiver. It was the same case for Charles Woodson, who played offensive snaps here and there. Those are just two names’ people will invoke on why Travis can’t keep playing both ways. However, those players, as elite as they were, did not play the vast majority of snaps both ways. 

Hunter is not comparable to anyone in football History. Let that sink in. What might stop his progression is NFL teams having one position for one paycheck with the NFLPA stepping in. However, what we’re witnessing with Hunter seemingly unheard of and off-the-charts on how rare it truly is. The biggest difference is Hunter never accepted specializing in one position. He has played a majority of the game snaps on both sides of the ball in every game since the age of six. He does not know any other way to play. Did Prime play 90 percent of the offensive and defensive snaps the entire way, every game, since before he learned multiplication tables? No, of course not.

The other huge topic everyone invokes is the fatigue factor. Just watch him work. The man does not tire out during the course of a game. The only time anyone could make the argument that Hunter looked fatigued would be in his return from his lacerated liver last year. Which was completely a “game shape” situation. Consider this: if you trained for a marathon by running that distance once a day for six months, you would have an understanding of what is good, bad, or even possible, performance wise based on your training and experience. Now imagine you run that same distance 20 times on the days you train for 15 years straight, your perspective on what is possible would be dramatically different. 

What ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. said about Travis Hunter in the 2025 NFL Draft

These analysts are seeing what Hunter does and trying to fit him into an NFL box that already exists. The issue with that is once again, we’ve never seen this before. That factor cannot be ignored or downplayed. Hunter is something we’ve never seen before and therefore cannot be boxed in. To put this into a slightly different perspective, no one has ever done 40+ snaps on both sides each at this level or higher. It was a novelty when he did it at Jackson State. It was surprising when he did it against TCU in the 2023 season opener. By the time we get to North Dakota State, it should no longer be surprising. This is who he is.

If any NFL GM takes Hunter in the top five based on what he is doing in college and plans to play him on only one side of the ball, they’re not getting the best of his talents. Pushing Hunter to play only one way (CB or WR but not both) would essentially be a waste. Instead of taking Hunter in the top five and handcuffing him, that team would’ve been better served to trade back and draft just a CB or just a WR, instead of wasting a draft pick. 

Travis is a simple kid. He loves football, fishing, video games and quality time with those people he enjoys in his inner circle. He’s not a club guy or flashy. Hunter is easy and with that comes a streamlined off-the-field lifestyle. Is it really so crazy that after doing it this way for 15+ years, that this is just who he is? He’s able to keep the “main thing, the main thing”, as Coach Prime would suggest.

As long as he’s able to do that, being the player he is, there is no logic whatsoever to believe that he can’t continue doing this at the next level. Hunter is not like anything we’ve ever seen before. To all the sports pundits who keep pushing this “Travis Hunter will need to pick one side at the next level” narrative, just stop. You’re comparing a unicorn to horses.