The story of Travis Hunter as a two-way player was cut short during his rookie season after a season-ending knee injury limited him to just seven games. However, the 2026 season has brought a different chapter for the former first-round pick. Not only has Hunter returned from injury, but he has also delivered his best performance of the season, recording both a touchdown and an interception against the Houston Texans in Week 6.

Of course, the Jacksonville Jaguars lost 34-31 to its division rivals, but as Hunter had a historic performance, his wife, Leanna Lenee, was ready to hit back at critics who questioned her husband’s ability to excel on both sides of the ball, particularly NFL legend Shannon Sharpe.

“Anyways…@shannonsharpe84 When you speak about my husband make sure you put ‘TWO WAY’ player in front,” Lenee wrote in one of her Instagram stories.

Her comments came after Hunter made his presence felt on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter of the Week 6 matchup against Houston. Jacksonville entered the final quarter trailing 31-21, but quarterback Trevor Lawrence connected with Hunter on a second-and-goal from the Houston seven-yard line. The seven-yard touchdown reception cut the Texans’ lead to 31-28.

The Texans then took possession, only to find Hunter making an impact on defense. Lining up as a cornerback rather than a wide receiver, the two-way star came up with a crucial play on second-and-goal from the Jacksonville four-yard line. Texans quarterback CJ Stroud targeted wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson with a short pass, but Hunter intercepted the throw at the Jacksonville four.

Hunter finished the game with four receptions for 59 yards and a touchdown on offense, along with three tackles and an interception on defense. And once again, the conversation around Travis Hunter’s two-way ability once again came to light.

Just last year, the wide receiver/cornerback came under scrutiny for his ability to play at both sides. Shannon Sharpe discussed Hunter’s ability to play on both offense and defense, while acknowledging the difference between playing at the college level and in the NFL.

“I don’t think he realizes how many 100-snap games in the NFL,” Sharpe said on his Nightcap podcast in 2025. “People don’t realize that. There’s a difference between college and the NFL.”

And this week, Sharpe’s co-host Chad Johnson echoed the sentiment, while admitting:

“It’s such a huge difference, Unc, because in college, yeah, you might have a guy or two on the team who may have a child, right? But in the pros, man, this is these dudes’ livelihood. You know what I mean? I think it’s a huge difference. See, in college, when you’re coming out of high school, you can go dominate college right away, man. When you come to the pros, bro, it takes a minute, man. Especially in football here, it takes a minute for you to really get going.”

Hunter’s rookie season was far from ideal, as the Jaguars utilized him more frequently on offense than on defense. Before a knee injury ended his season, he played 324 offensive snaps, accounting for 67% of the team’s offensive workload. On defense, however, he logged just 162 snaps, representing 36% of the team’s total defensive snaps.

That approach has changed in 2026, with Hunter taking on a significantly larger role on defense. During the offseason, Jaguars general manager James Gladstone confirmed that the team planned to increase Hunter’s defensive workload, signaling a shift from the offensive-heavy usage he received during his rookie campaign.

“He is set to play both sides of the ball,” Gladstone said in the offseason on The Rich Eisen Show. “The piece that I think we can expect to see is actually an uptick in corner usage. Last year it was a higher volume, higher percentage of wide receiver usage than it was corner. I think we can expect to see that corner percentile and count go up. That’s not to say anything impacts his availability and usage on offense. It just means that cornerback usage will increase.”

So far, the numbers back up the GM’s stance on Hunter’s use on defense. Against the Cleveland Browns in the team’s season opener, Hunter logged in just four offensive snaps compared to 29 in the secondary. A week later, while the offense snaps rose to six, the defensive workload also jumped to 37 snaps. Through the first five weeks of the season, Hunter played 249 defensive snaps compared with just 21 offensive snaps.

That means Travis Hunter has logged roughly 12 times as many snaps on defense as on offense. While he showed promise as a wide receiver during his rookie campaign, the second-year star is now making his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball as the Jaguars continue to expand his role at cornerback.