Travis Hunter played offense and defense in university football and won a Heisman trophy. He and his head coach of Deion Sanders University think He can be a double -meaning player In the NFL too.
But it's also just to wonder if it's realistic. University football and NFL are practically separate sports, physically and mentally. There is a reason that in the era of the Super Bowl, No one has played in both directions for more than a short time.
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John Harbaugh is one of the best NFL chief coaches. He has been with the Baltimore ravens for 17 seasons and has been on a likely path of the fame of fame. While most of the NFL publicly said that they did not think it was impossible for Hunter to play both sides of the ball in the league, Harbaugh had a different angle.
Harbaugh was not as optimistic as Hunter about the feasibility of a full -time bidirectional player in the NFL.
John Harbaugh: “I don't know if there are enough hours during the day”
Harbaugh did not say that someone could not play in both directions in the NFL on a limited basis. He said it was possible. Having it full time could be difficult, however.
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“To say that you are going to be completely immersed in everything there is to know in attack and defense … I do not know if there are enough hours in the day so that a player can do this,” said Harbaugh Via Jamison Hensley d'Espn.
“You can certainly do it, I would think on one side of the ball and then I have a kind of package on the other side of the ball, which is to assume how the team will do wherever it goes.”
Travis Hunter's excellence in attack and defense led him to win a Heisman trophy. (Photo of Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
It is interesting that Harbaugh mentioned the mental aspect of the game in both directions. There was more emphasis on how he could carry the hunter physically.
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NFL regimes are more complicated than in college, and professional coaches are obsessed with details. An out of words, even as physically as good as Hunter, can ruin a whole part of the NFL competition. Hunter cannot be in two places at the same time during position meetings during the week before a match.
There is no reason to believe that Hunter is not immersed in football and would not put time to be as ready as possible in attack and defense. But it will be a hell of a challenge.
Can Travis Hunter make him a two-way player?
Hunter, Deion Sanders and others have taken a similar angle on Hunter's chances of succeeding as a two -way player in the NFL: why not? He did it at university, they will say, so maybe he can be the unique player to remove it from the pros.
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There is a validity to that. No one has played in both directions as a full -time player since the early 1960s for several seasons, but there has not been a player like Hunter since then. He did it at such a high level at university, it seems to at least try it in the NFL. Hunter said he wanted to do it. Sanders, who spent much of the 1996 season with the Dallas Cowboys playing attack and defense, thinks that this can be done.
This is what Cleveland and perhaps the New York giants must answer. Hunter is very likely to go either with the second choice to the Browns or the third choice of the Giants, and the big question after the choice of hunter will be the vision of this team for Hunter.
If a team decides to use Hunter in attack and defense, even in a limited set on one side of the ball as Harbaugh suggested, there should be a plan for how to execute it. Hunter seems to be all all about the idea. We will see if the team that writes it next week is also confident.
