Travis Hunter will be making his NFL debut in less than two weeks, as a father.
The Jacksonville Jaguars rookie and his wife Leanna De La Fuente recently welcomed their first child, a son, he announced with a video on his YouTube channel. Hunter did not say what his son’s name is or the exact date he was born, but he can be heard saying he “looks just like me” when the child starts crying at the end of the video.
Hunter married De La Fuente in May. Their relationship goes back to 2022, when Hunter was still at Jackson State under Deion Sanders. They had not even announced the pregnancy, instead choosing to surprise fans with the announcement.
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Between the birth of his child, his wedding, winning the Heisman Trophy, the draft process and training camp, it has been an incredibly busy year for Hunter even bore his first NFL action. He recently encountered an obstacle with a preseason upper-body injury, but that appears to have been only a speed bump.
Jacksonville Jaguars general manager James Gladstone told reporters Wednesday that Hunter is “rolling full speed” ahead of the Sept. 7 opener against the Carolina Panthers.
Hunter didn’t play in the Jaguars’ final two preseason games, and he didn’t participate fully for four practices, according to ESPN’s Michael DiRocco. That said, Hunter teased his two-way potential in Jacksonville’s first exhibition, recording 19 total snaps: 11 on offense and another eight on defense.
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Gladstone said Wednesday that the Jaguars are still planning on deploying Hunter on both sides of the ball against the Panthers even though his workload has been limited recently.
“There hasn’t been any shift on that front,” Gladstone said, via ESPN. “We expect him to be who we know him to be, and that’s somebody who impacts both sides of the football.
“Can’t wait to see that on Sundays. And one Monday night.”
DiRocco reported that, of the 364 snaps Hunter accrued in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 competition over the 15 practices he participated fully in, 188 snaps featured him on offense, and 176 saw him on defense. During training camp, Jacksonville eased Hunter into practicing both positions, allowing him time to fully focus on each playbook before he played two ways in the same day.
The Jaguars are planning to utilize rookie Travis Hunter on both sides of the ball. (Photo by Logan Bowles/Getty Images)
(Logan Bowles via Getty Images)
First-year Jaguars head coach Liam Coen went on “The Rich Eisen Show” earlier this month and suggested 80% of the Jags’ offensive snaps as a potential game-by-game target for Hunter this season, with the hope of him trying to match that snap count percentage on defense as well.
“We’ve done more offense because that was where more of the development was necessary,” Coen said of Hunter’s work in camp at the time, via “The Rich Eisen Show.” “It’s so much more natural [for him] to just go walk out on the field and play corner. That’s what he’s done. He can go do that. Now, there’s a lot of checks, there’s a lot of calls, there’s a lot of different things that go to that. But offensively, we felt like there was a little bit more development that was necessary, and it’s a lot more ball — just a lot more scheme and words and calls.
“Every single day is completely packed, from the moment that he arrives to the moment he leaves, with making sure that he is meeting with somebody at all times.”
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Hunter is coming off a prolific final season at Colorado, where he played 753 snaps on offense, 776 on defense and 23 more on special teams in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus. Along the way, he caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns, plus he ran for one additional score. At cornerback, he picked off four passes and notably forced a fumble that clinched an overtime victory against Baylor.
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Hunter’s lone preseason performance took place in a 31-25 defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He started on offense and played with the second-team Jaguars defense. He ran seven routes on Jacksonville’s opening drive, including a short option route that resulted in a third-down catch. Even though he was short of the first down marker, the grab was the first of three short receptions he collected, the second being a screen that was called back because of a penalty and the third another third-down connection that ended shy of the sticks.
His two catches against the Steelers amounted to a mere 9 yards, but his usage was notable. As was his status the following two exhibitions, except Gladstone alleviated concerns about Hunter’s regular-season availability Wednesday.
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Hunter was a popcorn-worthy college player and a unicorn NFL prospect. He’s now an intriguing rookie ready to officially start one of the league’s most captivating experiments to date, not to mention a father.
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