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Liam Coen weighs in on Travis Hunter's usage in Jaguars' Week 1 matchup vs. Panthers
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- Liam Coen weighs in on Travis Hunter's usage in Jaguars' Week 1 matchup vs. Panthers
Jacksonville Jaguars' GM James Gladstone confirmed last week that Travis Hunter will be available for the team's Week 1 matchup against Carolina.
Towards the latter portion of training camp and the preseason, Hunter was sidelined and then limited in practice upon his return with an upper-body injury.
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However, when it comes to what Hunter's workload will look like against the Panthers, and whether he starts on both offense and defense, still remains to be seen as of Monday.
"We're still working through it right now," Liam Coen said after Monday's practice . "He obviously missed a lot of time there that can impact playing anybody, nonetheless a rookie that misses quite a bit of time. So what that usage looks like, we're still working through."
After roughly the first two weeks of training camp, we started seeing Hunter practicing regularly on both offense and defense during the same practice. In the Jaguars ' preseason opener, he was on the field for the first offensive possession and then the second and third defensive possessions.
When it was all said and done, Hunter's practice rep count between receiver and cornerback was fairly equal. But in terms of the number of practices this season spent on offense vs. defense, Hunter saw more time at wideout--the position where Coen thought more refinement was needed.
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As Coen mentions, regardless of where a player is drafted, those practice reps that are missed due to injury are extremely valuable. So that could impact not only Hunter's usage on offense vs. defense this coming Sunday, but his overall workload.
If I were to guess, I could see him having more snaps at wide receiver, with some opportunities at cornerback during obvious passing situations, where his ball skills can be on full display.
I think what we saw in the preseason opener is the blueprint early on for Hunter's usage, and of course, it is subject to change.
(Please note that this article will be updated.)
This article originally appeared on Jaguars Wire: Jaguars vs. Panthers: Travis Hunter's Week 1 usage still TBD
