Back within the day, you may need spent your weekends tearing open Topps Soccer Sticker packs, hoping to seek out your favourite participant to slap into an album. Now, fantasy football drafts are the place that obsession lives-and in 2025, Travis Hunter is the sticker everybody needs.
The hype is sensible. Hunter is not only a standout prospect. He is attempting one thing nearly no one in trendy soccer has: enjoying either side of the ball full-time. Assume Deion Sanders meets Chuck Bednarik-only with extra snaps and much more fantasy implications.
Travis Hunter examined the brand new Oakley AI efficiency glasses, showcasing his abilities throughout all sports activities
That is what makes Hunter one of the vital intriguing (and complex) names on fantasy draft boards this season. He logged an insane 1,552 snaps at Colorado final year-753 on offense, 799 on protection. That is practically triple the workload of the typical FBS extensive receiver. Undertaking that over 17 NFL video games, and also you’re 2,030 snaps. For context? Jerry Jeudy led all NFL receivers in snaps final 12 months with 1,055. Tyreek Hill performed 900.
He Would possibly Be the Most-Used Participant in NFL Historical past-And That is the Drawback
No different trendy participant has come near that sort of workload. Not even Sanders, who briefly performed WR and CB for Dallas in 1996. He caught 36 passes and performed 12 video games on offense earlier than shutting it down. After that season, Sanders returned to full-time cornerback duties and by no means seemed again.
Hunter’s position would possibly comply with the same arc, particularly contemplating what Jaguars GM James Gladstone informed SiriusXM NFL Radio. “We’re loading him offensively throughout the offseason,”Gladstone stated, “however he is naturally extra comfy on protection.” Translation: even the group is not completely positive the place to place him.
And that is the place fantasy homeowners begin sweating. Until you are in an IDP (Particular person Defensive Participant) league, defensive snaps do not rating factors. So if Hunter does not get vital offensive utilization, he is perhaps all hype and no return-like drafting a shiny sticker that by no means truly sticks.
But when Jacksonville commits to letting him run routes and rack up touches? He is a fantasy unicorn with league-winning potential.
After all, there’s threat. Can his physique maintain up for 1,900+ snaps in a league constructed on velocity and collisions? Even the legends had their limits. Chuck Bednarik himself as soon as scoffed at trendy gamers trying two-way soccer, telling Sports activities Illustrated in 1993, “There is no approach in hell they will go each methods.”
Hunter goes to strive anyway-and perhaps show everybody mistaken. Identical to these childhood sticker books, you both full the set… or it finally ends up amassing mud within the basement.
