Moments after acquiring the second pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night, Jacksonville Jaguars general manager James Gladstone called Colorado star Travis Hunter.

“We’re moving from pick five to pick two,” Gladstone told Hunter, “and we’re doing it because you’re the one we’ve been hunting up.”

Hunter quickly responded: “Yes sir, that’s the best decision.”

The Jaguars got their man, and Hunter couldn’t be happier as he begins his NFL journey following two sensational seasons with the CU Buffs.

“It’s been exciting,” the Florida native said during his introductory press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., on Friday. “I normally go to sleep on planes, but I stayed up the whole time just looking out the window. Just excited to get here, be able to come back home and be able to get to work.”

The second Heisman Trophy winner in CU history and just the second Buff to be drafted as high as No. 2, Hunter was the first full-time two-way player in college football in decades. He starred at receiver and cornerback for the Buffaloes, and the Jaguars would love to see that translate to the NFL.

“We know he’s going to be able to do both. We feel that in our bones,” Jaguars head coach Liam Coen said. “We’re going to set that up that way, from a schedule, an operations standpoint; the way we’re going to operate for him to set him up to have the most success that he can to, in fact, then help the Jacksonville Jaguars become the best version of ourselves.”

Hunter caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns last year for the Buffs in winning the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver. He also had four interceptions and 11 pass breakups, won two national defensive player of the year awards and was the Big 12 Conference defensive player of the year.

“What do we want it to look like?” Coen said. “Well, we want it to look like what it looked like at Colorado. That would be pretty good for us.”

Hunter is eager to work hard to prove himself as a two-way player in the NFL.

“I don’t think anything is going to be easy to me,” he said. “I’ve got to work for it. I had to work to play both sides of the ball, even being with Coach Prime (CU head coach Deion Sanders). You all just happened to see the perfect end, but I did a lot of work to get to where I’m at. I’m going to continue to put in the work, continue to grind and I’m just gonna continue to do what I do.”

Gladstone said the Jaguars’ bold move to trade up for Hunter — giving Cleveland the No. 5 pick, a second-round choice (No. 36), a fourth-round pick (No. 126) and their 2026 first-round pick — was a statement.

“A statement for how we plan to move, who we are, and we want him to be nothing more than him,” Gladstone said. “Because when he is, he elevates the space around him, from the football field, to the city, to the game of football itself, Travis Hunter is who we’ve been hunting up.”

Hunter, who was born four hours south of Jacksonville in West Palm Beach, said it will be extra motivation in knowing how much the Jaguars gave up to get him.

“It gives me the sense that they believe in me, they trust in everything I’ve done thus far, and I’ve just got to go out there and prove them right,” he said.

Jacksonville selected Hunter 30 years after taking Fairview High School graduate Tony Boselli with the No. 2 pick in 1995. Boselli, a star tackle from USC, was a five-time Pro Bowler in his seven seasons with the Jaguars and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022.

Now the Jaguars’ executive vice president of football operations, Boselli hopped on the call with Hunter on Thursday night to tell him, “You’re gonna do great things here. We were coming after you from the beginning, man. We want you here and we can’t wait to get you in the building.”

Notable

On Thursday, CU safety Malakai Murphy put his name in the transfer portal. Murphy, from Starke, Fla., played one season with the Buffs but did not appear in any games. He has four years of eligibility remaining. … Former Buffs center Cash Cleveland, who started the last four games of the 2024 season as a walk-on true freshman, announced Thursday that he is transferring to Texas Tech.