Video: Deion Sanders Says NFL Game 'More Suited' for Travis Hunter to Be 2-Way Player

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders believes it will be easier for Buffaloes two-way star Travis Hunter to succeed at both wide receiver and cornerback in the NFL than it has been in the NCAA.

"The thing about Travis is, if you put him on, if he plays cornerback, and he's being dominant out there, and you sit up there and you can't move the ball at the next level, you're gonna say 'Well, my best receiver's on the sidelines, somebody come on'... Travis is a football player, and you can't have a football player on the sidelines," Sanders said Saturday on Fox Sports' Big Noon Kickoff (1:44 mark of the video below. "That's one kid that we know exactly what we're gonna get at practice, as well as in the game.

"And the pro game is much slower. Everybody goes to the huddle. There's no tempo. You don't hit anybody in practice, you barely hit anybody in the game now... the pro game is much more suited for Travis to do what he's doing now."

This is not the first time Sanders has professed his face that Hunter could succeed on both sides of the ball in the pros.

"Most teams you play, they run some type of a tempo or the transition is much greater than pros from snap to snap," Sanders said about Hunter's college play during a press conference last week, per USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer. "So with him getting that amount of rest, he cannot help but be a great pro."

Despite missing three full games last season, Hunter led the FBS in snaps played during his sophomore 2023 campaign as he competed on both sides of the ball for the Buffaloes.

That two-way dominance has continued in 2024. Most recently Hunter played 123 of 138 total snaps to help lead Colorado to a 28-9 win over Colorado State last Saturday, catching two touchdown passes as a wideout while recording an interception on defense.

Hunter recently told the Associated Press' Pat Graham that he has "equal" preference for playing at both wide receiver and cornerback.

Although CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz reported that some NFL scouts think that the intensity of the pros will prevent Hunter from playing more than 100 snaps her game at the next level, it sounds like both Sanders and Hunter plan for the cornerback/wideout to head into the 2025 NFL draft without deciding to specialize in either position over the other.