Jacksonville put the two-way experiment on full display this summer, and honestly, watching Travis Hunter swap helmets mid-practice has been electric. But of course, it comes with a cost. Hunter wished to go two-way, and Liam Coen gave his nod. Was that a good decision or an expensive risk?

Bluntly put, Jags have been riding Hunter hard in camp, and piling an upper-body knock on top of a full-tilt joint practice against Miami’s physical secondary feels like playing with fire. That’s not workload management; that’s daring the injury bug. Reporter Cameron Wolfe revealed that “the hope is he’s good to go Thursday and he can start playing both sides against the Dolphins. And yes, he will be the two-way star they intend him to be. And he’ll get more reps as the season progresses.” Well, that’s quite a gamble, to say the least.

Before the injury, Travis appeared in just one preseason game, where he played a total of 18 snaps: 10 on offense, 8 on defense. He also finished with two catches for nine yards. He played both ways, sure. But it felt like more of a test run. In emergencies, it can be useful, but doing that for 17 games sounds like a lot of physical stress, making Hunter injury-prone.

Now add to the workload he’d already piled up in camp. ESPN’s Michael DiRocco charted Hunter at around 188 snaps on offense and 176 on defense. That’s across just 15 practices. That’s a massive two-way load for one summer, and that’s before you even tack on 11-on-11s, scrimmages, and preseason reps.

So, even when Cameron says that “it’s something minor,” it can turn out to be something major if you don’t balance that workload. The only way to go forward is obviously with a curated plan. Pick your spots. Give him red-zone looks and defined route trees on offense, sprinkle in situational snaps on defense (nickel, slot, or matchup-specific), then build it out slowly from there. The first few weeks should all be about figuring out just how many snaps his body can manage.

Playing two-way also means putting yourself at risk. Just how dangerous can this dream of Travis Hunter be for his NFL future?

Why two-way work can be dangerous for Hunter

Two-way players sound like superheroes, sure. Take Chuck Bednarik, Deion Sanders, Troy Brown, and more, but the modern NFL tells a different story. The league shifted to specialization for a reason. Bednarik was the last true full-time two-way guy, closing out the ’60s as a center and linebacker, remembered as an outlier from a slower era with lighter snap counts. Today’s speed and volume? They’ve shut the door on full-time two-way workloads for decades.

Even the legends who tried it had guardrails. Deion in ’96? Yeah, he snagged 36 balls for 475 yards while still playing shutdown corner, but he wasn’t out there grinding 90 snaps a week. And Troy Brown’s 2004 cameo at corner for the Pats? Iconic, but it was an injury band-aid, not a blueprint. Those moments remind you what freak athletes can do, but they also spell out what coaches won’t risk every Sunday.

And we all know this. It’s Injury 101. Every medical analysis of the sport would tell you the same thing: load guys up with heavy snap counts and short recovery windows, and the injury risk climbs fast. In today’s NFL, coaches and medical staffs already micromanage starter workloads, as they should. And if a rookie’s trying to juggle both sides of the ball, that caution has to go up another level.

So, the “full go” shouldn’t translate to more reps. Not now at least. Not before we’ve reached week 1, at least. We all know Hunter will play both ways this season. And the Jags fully intend to. It’s all about curated reps. This scary experiment might just work if they find the right balance. But that can’t happen if Liam Coen is not cautious.