Travis Hunter Might Have Changed the Draft by Declaring if He Can't Play Both Ways, He'll Never Play Football Again

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You can count me among all those NFL draft nerds outside of Cleveland who wrote off any possibility of landing Travis Hunter with this little Schefter bomb:

For those of us who watched our team let the No. 1 pick slip through its fingers like an Asante Samuel Super Bowl interception, any hope of still landing this utterly unique player has entirely been predicated on the Browns and Giants deciding they couldn't pass on Abdul Carter and Shedeur Sanders. It's as simple as that Sesame Street math, not calculus. But with Cleveland stuck with Deshaun Watson and New York signing both Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, any hope of either of them taking Sanders seemed lost. 

Until this week. Until Hunter started making demands that not every team is going to want to grant:

CBS Sports - The reigning Heisman Trophy winner is the sole player in FBS history (since 1978) with at least 1,000 receiving yards, 10 receiving touchdowns and three interceptions in a season, per CBS Sports Research. 

Upon meeting with teams around the league in the weeks leading up to the NFL draft, he's made it clear he wants to continue playing both sides of the ball as a professional -- something he told CBS Sports isn't an issue for any club he's met with. 

However, if an NFL team told him it'd only allow him to play either wide receiver or cornerback, Hunter would make it clear he's not playing football at all. 

"It's never playing football again," Hunter told CBS Sports last week. "Because I've been doing it my whole life, and I love being on the football field. I feel like I could dominate on each side of the ball, so I really enjoy doing it."

I wouldn't presume to know what the Browns think of Hunter playing both sides of the ball. Based on that franchise's history, I'd wager that whatever opinion they have is the wrong one. I mean, it's not a small sample size of boneheaded decisions in Cleveland. Trading for Watson and paying what they did is just the latest example in a long line stretching back to when they were first rebooted by the NFL. Nor would I bet on the Giants getting this right, given their recent track record.

What I am saying is that there's a healthy debate about whether Hunter should get his wish. There are Super Bowl champion coaches who would never allow it:

And draft pundits who say if you're not willing to let him Shohei Otani it in pro football, then he's simply not worth taking that high:

I can also confirm, without fear of contradiction, that the Patriots would give Hunter the opportunity. Not only because their coach had said he's willing to, but also because he himself was a two-way player. And let Hunter hear it at the Combine:

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To be clear, Vrabel is on record as saying at the pro level, a player would have to focus on one position, and more or less dabble at the other. (Not in those words, but you get what I'm saying.) That still counts as a "yes." 

Bottom-lining this, the very fact Hunter says he'd rather quit football and just go get a real job if he's forced to stand on the sidelines for half of every game like just some ordinary slappy, has got to change his dynamic going into the draft. 

No matter how positively he phrases it and how enthusiastic he is about doing something unheard of in the league, NFL GMs don't like getting ultimatums from 21-year-olds who don't even work for them yet. They also tend to be risk averse. You can see someone not wanting to explain to their owner how that No. 2 overall pick they drafted just quit because some coordinator doesn't trust a part time player on his side of the ball, messing up his precious gameplans. That kind of news tends to be bad for your professional growth. It's much safer to go with the blue chip defensive end. Or let your boss pressure you into taking a quarterback so he can sell more luxury boxes and season ticket packages. Or simply trading down to some team who does believe in Sanders. 

None of which means the winner of the Heisman, Biletnikoff and Bednarik Awards is coming to Foxboro for sure. It just means that Schefter report isn't chiseled in granite.