Liam Coen Explains Why Travis Hunter Was Biggest 'Curveball' for Jaguars in Offseason

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen pointed to Travis Hunter when asked about the "biggest curveball" during his first offseason coaching an NFL team.

Coen told The Athletic's Mike Jones that a level of buy-in was required at every level of the organization because of Hunter's desire to be a two-way player. From a coaching standpoint, that meant devising a training plan that allowed the No. 2 pick to get enough work without stretching him too thin:

"Every single person had to be truly on board with taking on this situation and opportunity. When you're talking about scheduling, that's a curveball and a half because you're saying, OK, we've got to make sure he's getting X amount of days on both sides of the ball, but on those days, he's not on one side, we're still making sure we're getting him in meetings on the other side of the ball. So talk about (assistant) coaches having to take some extra workload on. They don't get much of a break because if it's during special teams (portions of practice), he's not on a special teams unit but there's going to be an offensive or defensive coach meeting with him every single minute of his day that he is in our building. That took a lot of time to map out, and it was a curveball, especially for a first-time head coach trying to put together a whole operation."

During Hunter's introductory press conference with the Jaguars, Coen indicated the team would line him up at wide receiver primarily while getting him familiar with the defense. Over time, the situation would evolve.

The overarching message was that the franchise would put forth a good faith effort to fulfill Hunter's ambitions.

In what proved to be his only appearance of the preseason, his snap count was almost equally balanced between offense and defense.

Conversations over whether the 22-year-old can actually be a full-time two-way player have largely been framed from his perspective. The physical demands are massive, and mastering two different positions requires retaining so much information.

Perhaps not enough attention has been paid to the coaching side of this.

Coen is pretty much in uncharted territory here. Sure, he can reach out to Colorado coaches to learn how they handled Hunter, but preparing players for college is much different than for the NFL.

Everyone in the league would love to have a "curveball" like Hunter, but he presents a challenge nonetheless.