It's been decades since the NFL had a true two-way player, in the style of baseball's Shohei Ohtani — someone who plays a big role on the team on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
Thursday night that could change in the NFL Draft, where Colorado star and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter is expected to be one of the first names called.
It's still an open question how Hunter — who excelled in college at both wide receiver and cornerback — might be deployed in the NFL. But he's widely viewed as the best player available in a draft with plenty of other blue-chip prospects, including Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.
Yet the No. 1 pick could be headed for another player altogether: The University of Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who appears likely to be selected by this year's first team up, the Tennessee Titans.
This year's NFL Draft is being held in Green Bay, Wis. The 257 total picks will be spread out over seven rounds, the first of which will be held Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Rounds 2 and 3 follow on Friday evening, and the final four rounds take place Saturday. The draft will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network.
Here are some of the draft's top players:
WR/CB Travis Hunter, Colorado
That's right, two positions. Travis Hunter's remarkable run at Colorado included playing a majority of the team's snaps on both offense and defense. And he's a genuine talent in both positions: His 1,258 receiving yards were the fifth-most in FBS, the highest-level of college football. His 15 touchdowns were good for second. On defense, he snagged four interceptions.
Although two-way starters were common in the NFL's earliest days, before the Super Bowl era, they're now nonexistent. Some defenders appear in occasional offensive snaps, usually end-zone plays.
But only one player in the past 45 years — the All-Pro cornerback Deion Sanders — started at both WR and CB in the same game multiple times in his NFL career, according to NFL Research. Even then, Sanders seriously pursued two-way play only for a single season. Otherwise, he was predominantly a defender. (Sanders is now Hunter's head coach at Colorado.)
In other words, the NFL hasn't had a prospect like this in a long time.
"It's a little bit like Ohtani … If he's a pitcher, if he's a hitter, he's an outstanding player," Andrew Berry, the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, told reporters last week. "You obviously get a unicorn if you use him both ways."
QB Cam Ward, Miami (Fla.)
Ward's journey began in the small town of West Columbia, Texas, where his high school coach couldn't believe the talent he was seeing. But few collegiate coaches took notice of the teenager, and he didn't receive a single star on the widely-used five-star recruit scale.
Cam Ward played his first two college seasons at Incarnate Word before transferring to Washington State. After the 2023 season, he considered entering the NFL Draft. But last year's class was loaded with top-tier QB prospects (including Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye, all of whom ended their rookie seasons as starters on their NFL teams), and Ward decided to stay in college for one more year and transferred to Miami.
This year, there's little other competition for NFL-ready quarterbacks. The QB-needy Tennessee Titans have the No. 1 overall pick, and barring a stunner trade, they seem likely to use it in hopes that Ward is their quarterback of the future.
EDGE Abdul Carter, Penn State
In January, Penn State's best player — edge rusher Abdul Carter — had to leave the Nittany Lions' playoff victory over Boise State with a shoulder injury. Penn State fans worried: Would their team's dominant defensive end miss the semifinal against Notre Dame?
He didn't. Instead, Carter took the field and played like the star he'd been all season long, with a batted pass, two tackles for loss, and a key fourth-quarter sack that helped give Penn State a chance to take the lead. Penn State ultimately lost the game, but Carter looked like the best player on the field then.
Now, the Philadelphia native looks to be a lock to be the top pass rusher selected. Whether he's taken by the Browns at No. 2 or the New York Giants at No. 3 — or any other team that trades up or lucks out — Carter could be a day-one game-changer in the NFL.
RB Ashton Jeanty
A close second to Travis Hunter in the vote for the Heisman Trophy was Ashton Jeanty, the powerhouse running back at Boise State. Jeanty generated a lot of excitement in the 2024 college season when he came within 28 yards of Barry Sanders' long-standing single-season rushing record.
He's fast. He's undeterred by would-be tacklers. He has excellent vision and patience as a back. He delighted in highlight after highlight — shedding tackles, pushing through contact, and breaking free for 50-yard-plus touchdowns, one after the other. He finished his final season at Boise State with 29 touchdowns and 2,601 yards — almost 900 more than the next-closest collegiate rusher.
Now, he comes to the NFL at a time when running backs are making a resurgence. For the past decade or so, the thought had been that it was unwise to spend a high draft pick on running backs — the idea was their careers are often shorter than other positions, and they are relatively easy to replace.
But RBs are so back. Last year, the addition of Saquon Barkley turbocharged the Philadelphia Eagles offense and was a major factor in their Super Bowl run. Other teams will be looking to repeat that formula. Look for Jeanty to go in the top 10 — only the second time a running back has been selected that high since Barkley was drafted back in 2018.
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