Travis Hunter has season ending surgery
Just two weeks after being placed on injured reserve, Travis Hunter will undergo season-ending surgery on his LCL. Three days before playing the Las Vegas Raiders, Hunter suffered a non-contact injury in practice, which landed him on the injured reserve list.
Most fans and media thought this would be a month-long injury, and that we would see Hunter again this season. After receiving surgery, this was no longer the case, and the last time we will see Hunter in a Jaguars uniform in 2025 will be across the pond in London against the Los Angeles Rams back in week 7.
What this means for the Jaguars moving forward
In the short term, this will hurt the Jaguars. While Hunter did not have a statistically dominant season, his impact was felt every time he touched the ball. With Hunter gone along with Brian Thomas Jr.'s unknown injury status, this severely depletes the wide receiver room.
On defense, Hunter was by far the team's best cornerback despite playing just 36% of the defensive snaps. Hunter allowed a 50% completion percentage, a 68.3 passer rating, and 106 yards when targeted in 7 games. With Jourdan Lewis injured as well, the Jaguars have virtually no strong options in the secondary.
For the long term, this could be very bad for the Jaguars. Hunter's impact being missed will likely lead to most lost games, and the Jaguars do not own their 2026 first-round draft pick. This pick was traded to the Cleveland Browns during the 2025 draft to select Hunter. If they are to miss the playoffs, not owning their first-round pick will be detrimental to a team that still has a lot of holes to fill.
How the Jaguars can learn from this
Many fans and media members will point to the workload as to why Hunter got injured, but this is simply untrue. Hunter played 67% of the offensive snaps and 36% of the defensive snaps. The injury was also a non-contact injury in practice, 11 days since the team had last played. The biggest problem with how the Jaguars used Travis Hunter was his involvement in the game plan offensively, not his usage rate.
In 3 of his 7 games played, Hunter received 5 or fewer targets, and did not see his first double-digit target game until week 7 against the Rams. This was easily Hunter's best game, catching 8 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. The offense has been sloppy all season, and a big reason for this was the lack of targets towards the best players. The lack of targets were frustrating, and the targets he received appeared to be forced, rather than getting them through the flow of the game. Liam Coen will now have 9 months to put a better plan in place for Travis Hunter going forward offensively and defensively.