Former Colorado star Travis Hunter is making a good impression in his first offseason with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner who was selected No. 2 overall in the NFL Draft last month, Hunter starred at receiver and cornerback at Colorado over the past two years. He’s now aiming to be the first NFL player in several decades to play offense and defense extensively.

“He’s a special guy because he’s a really, really bright guy,” Jaguars defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile told local reporters after practice Tuesday. “Everybody has been really impressed with his ability to retain the information. He has been out there with us on defense. He was on offense (Tuesday). He has done a great job with that. I can’t imagine another guy being any better suited to handle that. Travis is really certainly suited to do that.”

Campanile added that the team has a plan for Hunter to learn offense and defense and “it’s been going very well to this point.”

Jaguars head coach Liam Coen told reporters Tuesday that Hunter will not work on both sides of the ball in the same practice during the offseason organized team activities (OTAs).

“We won’t put him in that situation to have him do that, although I’m sure he’d probably want to,” Coen said. “He still meets defensively every day that he’s on offense, so he’s getting the mental part of it and being able to catch up on some of the communication, some of the corrections off the film from the defensive side of the ball.

“He’s getting a lot of the mental, and it would probably be unfair to put him out on the grass and do both and ask him to go do that and see success.”Once the season begins, however, that plan will likely change because Hunter will have to prep each week to play receiver and corner.

“In season, he’s going to probably have to, just because it’s the way practices are kind of organized,” Coen said. “He’s definitely going to have to do that. I envision maybe a third-down day in season where he’s playing receiver, but he’s also going to have to go get some reps on defense and be able to do some of those things. It will come up, absolutely.

“Just from the teaching and the initial stages of it, don’t really see that being something we’ll do anytime soon.”

Hunter was a first-team All-American on offense and defense last season for the Buffs.

McKinney on watch list

Colorado cornerback DJ McKinney was named to the preseason watch list for the Lott IMPACT Trophy on Wednesday. The Lott IMPACT Trophy, named for Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, is presented annually to the best defensive player in college football who also makes an impact off the field. IMPACT is an acronym for integrity, maturity, performance, academics, community and tenacity.

The Lott IMPACT Trophy was one of several national awards won by Hunter last year.

Notable

Former Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders had his second day of OTAs with the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday. According to ESPN radio in Cleveland, Sanders went 7-for-9 with three touchdowns in team drills. Sanders threw more TD passes than the other three quarterbacks he’s competing with — Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel — but also had the fewest reps. The other three each threw at least 14 passes. … On Wednesday, CU announced that single game tickets for the 2025 football season are now on sale at CUBuffs.com.