Use PFF statistics to determine which position Travis Hunter should play in the NFL

• Unique talent: Travis Hunter is one of the few players in recent NFL history who has a real chance to be great in the NFL on both sides of the ball.

• Cornerback could be the best choice for him: Hunter's MeaPFF's wins over backup and style of play suggest that a primary role at cornerback would yield the highest return on investment.

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

It feels like we just had this discussion, but with ColoradoWith Travis Hunter once again excelling at both receiver and cornerback this season, I wanted to dig deeper into where he could and should play in the NFL using some PFF-centric data points.

Through the first three games of the 2024 season, Hunter has made 30 catches for 332 receiving yards and five touchdowns as a receiver, while forcing two incomplete passes, throwing one interception and allowing just 81 receiving yards as a cornerback. He has played 202 snaps on defense and 181 snaps on offense. As a cornerback, he has earned a coverage rating of 84.3, and as a receiver, he has an offensive rating of 82.3.

He's a top-five prospect on PFF's 2025 list, but where would you have him play in the NFL? He currently plays two positions, and if he can play both in the NFL, there might not need to be a debate. Still, he'll likely have to choose one or the other.

Colorado lists Hunter as 6'1″ and 185 pounds. As a wide receiver, that would put him in the 48th and 15th percentile in the NFL, but as a cornerback, his height and weight would be in the 71st and 19th percentile, making his size more like an NFL cornerback than a receiver.

But what about the value of the positions themselves? For that, PFF has a Wins Above Replacement (WAR) metric that we can rely on.

In 2023, Charvarius Ward achieved the highest WAR score for an NFL cornerback at 1.01 due to his high individual coverage and solid run defense numbers. Darius Williams, Jaylon Johnson, Trent McDuffie And Gardner Sauce all achieved values ​​above 0.80 and thus took the first five places. In the last five years Jalen Ramsey has the highest WAR average at this position at 0.58. There are three other cornerbacks who have a WAR average of over 0.50 during this time – Ward, Jaire Alexander And Kendall Fuller – Jamel Dean This limit of 0.49 was narrowly missed.

As for wide receivers, CeeDee Lamb recorded the highest WAR value in 2023 at 0.65. From a five-year sample from 2019 to 2023 Davante Adams has the highest average score of 0.49. Justin Jefferson And Tyreek Hill are the only other recipients whose average score is above 0.40.

So what does that mean? WAR numbers aren't meant to tell you that cornerbacks are better talent than wide receivers, but they do help put into context the value of certain positions and the scarcity that can exist for top players at each position.

To put it simply, there are more talented wide receivers capable of peak performance in the NFL than there are cornerbacks—or at least, it's easier to get a group of receivers to peak performance than it is to get cornerbacks to peak performance.

It's like the quote from “Moneyball”: when Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, says: “You're still trying to [Jason] Giambi. I told you we couldn't do it, and we couldn't. What we can do now is maybe recreate him. Recreate him in his entirety.”

WAR tells us that replicating the performance of a top receiver overall is easier than replacing the performance of a top receiver at the cornerback level. Maybe the other receivers in the league can't do it quite as well as Hill or Jefferson, but as a collective, it's possible. Still, no number of receivers can match Hill's speed, so there are certainly nuances at play here. Cornerbacks and receivers also have different alignments and roles, and so “replacing” performance is different – coverage specialties, fit in a defensive scheme, or how they win as a receiver, for example.

Again, there are ups and downs. While the highs of great cornerback play are notable, as you can see from the WAR ratings, the difference between that top rating in a single season and the best averages over a five-year period is about half that. This shows how fickle cornerbacks can be, while receiver success is generally more consistent.

So when we talk about a player like Travis Hunter, there are obviously certain nuances, but on one level, his value as a cornerback seems to trump his value as a receiver, especially given his takeaway ability (skills with the ball) and his ability in one-on-one coverage.

We should also talk about contracts, because contracts can also be an indicator of value – NFL owners don't usually lie with their checkbooks. Jalen Ramsey just signed a contract to become the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL with an average salary of $24.1 million per year. Justin Jefferson is currently the highest paid wide receiver in the NFL with an average salary of $35 million. When it comes to guarantees, Denzel Ward has the highest guaranteed salary of any cornerback at $44.5 million, while Jefferson has the highest guaranteed salary of any receiver at $88.7 million. In comparison, Ramsey's $24.1 million per year would rank him 13th as a receiver, and Ward's $44.5 million would put him 7th.

In summary, Hunter is a more unique talent as a cornerback and should therefore be drafted as such. However, he is good enough to play both ways in the NFL, just maybe not full-time as is currently the case. It is also more plausible to maximize his ability on both sides of the ball if he is drafted as a cornerback. It is possible that he could hone his craft as a cornerback and be used as a backup on offense every week. However, if he were drafted as a receiver, I think he would be great, but barring an injury, I don't see him filling in for a handful of cornerback snaps every week.

I don't think there's a “wrong” answer here. Hunter is so damn good that he could succeed in either area. However, as far as his highest value, measurables, WAA, and style of play would tell us that a primary cornerback role would yield the highest return on investment.