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For the first time in four years, Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders will not be teammates when their football season begins.
Hunter, the second general selection of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Sanders, who waited two more days to listen to his name in the fifth round of the Cleveland Browns, starred together in Jackson State and Colorado during his university days.
Now, they hope to have an impact for their respective franchises on the NFL.
A large attention center looms on both players entering their rookie seasons for different reasons. For Hunter, the GM James Gladstone has already vocalized the expectation that Hunter will be the generational talent that elevates the team, as well as the city and the football game, during what he sees as a race in the Hall of Fame.
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The open receptor of Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis Hunter, #12, meets with the media after the rookie minicamps in the Miller Electric Center. (Travis Register-Imagn images)
In the case of Sanders, he will be put in a battle of Mariscal de Campo that includes Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel, the Oregon product that was recruited two rounds before him last month.
Hunter said he has spoken with Sanders since his fall on the NFL Draft board, and knows that his former teammate and great friend is ready to do exactly the same thing he will do to start his NFL trip.
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“We will simply go to work, man,” Hunter said as he argued his emotion to associate with Panini America, who will give him his first rookie commercial card at the Nflpa newbody premiere in Los Angeles.
“We both lower our heads and do what we have to do. There are many skeptics for him, and he will go to work. I’m going to work and I will only do what we have always been doing.”
While the world of football has been looking closely at how Sanders and Gabriel were competing in the rookie mini -signs, Hunter has exceeded the expectations that the Jaguars already had for him.
Tony Boselli, the Executive Vice President of Football Operations of Los Jaguars, told NFL Network that, although he understands that Hunter is not even working on the pads, the team has been retired to see him closely with his new teammates.
The open receptor of Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis Hunter, #12, makes a reception during the NFL football team mini -fair on Saturday, May 10, 2025 in Jacksonville, Florida. (AP Photo/John Raux)
“We had high expectations. He has exceeded my expectations,” Boselli said. “You see the athlete in the countryside, you see how it moves, the change of direction, the control of the body, but it is the person that I am most in love.”
As Hunter acclimates his life in the NFL, he is also very aware of the leadership aspect of being a superior choice. The Jaguars already have players like Trevor Lawrence, Travon Walker and Josh Hins-Allen as the veteran presence in the locker room, but Hunter knows that he can be added to the mixture whenever he does his job first.
The same goes for Sanders with the Browns.
“We definitely had to be leaders, especially me,” Hunter explained. “I was the general choice number two, so I have to enter and be a leader. Shedeur, he has to go there and work, win his job like me. But he also has to go there and be the head of the offensive, so he has to go there and be a leader.”
Hunter said his time with the Jaguars has been “excellent” so far, and will only continue since Otas will finally lead to the training camp this summer.
One of one
As Hunter continues to work at work, he is also excited by an important milestone in his early career, seeing himself on a NFL commercial card for the first time.
Hunter associated with Panini America, along with several other incoming rookies, where they will receive their first commercial Panini NFL cards at the NFLPA rookie premiere.
Travis Hunter smiles while opening the Panini NFL Panini NFL trade card packages. (Panini America)
“Simply excited to see me on my own card, so it’s definitely a blessing,” he said.
One day, Hunter’s rookie card could be worth a lot. But he understands that it depends on him to make that happen.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked how much he would pay for his rookie card. “I still have to work.”
