Jaguars' Travis Hunter will move to defense after wowing fans on offense during rookie camp

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — After spending two days working solely at receiver during Jacksonville’s rookie minicamp, two-way star Travis Hunter will move to the other side of the ball next week.

Coach Liam Coen said Saturday that Hunter will start getting repetitions on defense when the team reconvenes for offseason conditioning. It should set the stage for Hunter’s expansive role during organized team activities.

“He’ll be able to get integrated next week on the defensive side of the ball,” Coen said. “He’ll start to roll on defense.”

He’s already rolling on offense. Hunter caught nearly every ball thrown his way over two days alongside fellow rookies. And the few routes or results that didn’t go his way? Well, Hunter went right back to the front of the line for a redo.

“The organization expects a lot out of me,” Hunter said. “They expect me to come out here and play right away. I’m going to do whatever it takes for me to play right away.”

The Jaguars traded up three spots, giving up a second-round pick, a first-rounder next year and more to make it happen, to select Hunter with the second overall pick in the NFL draft last month. He gives the franchise more star power than its had in decades — maybe ever.

Fans packed a small pro shop outside the practice field and waited in deep lines to buy his No. 12 jersey. The Heisman Trophy winner has his own YouTube channel, lights up rooms with his smile and elevates the play of everyone around him. He did it in high school in Georgia and did it again in college at Jackson State and at Colorado.

The Jaguars anticipate the trend continuing despite Hunter’s 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame. He caught Coen’s eye during practice Friday when Hunter’s cleat slipped off during a route, and he didn’t slow down or get sidetracked one bit.

“Made a great catch,” Coen said. “It’s more just his presence and the energy he does provide both in the classroom, in the meeting rooms and also out here on the field.”

Hunter became the first person in his immediate family to walk in a graduation ceremony when he took the stage at Colorado on Thursday while wearing Jaguars pajama pants.

“That’s the first thing I ordered off of Amazon when I got drafted,” Hunter said.

He donned his Jaguars jersey for the first time the following day. This one was teal. At some point soon, he’s expected to be swapping between teal and white during the same practice. Or, as Hunter suggested, maybe get his own color. No one would be surprised considering he’s that unique.

Hunter caught 96 passes for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns last season at Colorado and notched 35 tackles, 11 pass breakups, eight forced incompletions and four interceptions while allowing just one touchdown.

The Jaguars intend to use him in a similar role this fall, planning to have him working as a slot receiver on offense and as a cornerback in certain packages on defense. It’s familiar territory for someone who played more snaps (1,461) than anyone else in college football in 2024.

Hunter already has taken a leadership role among the rookies and hopes to do the same with the rest of his teammates. It could help that he has two former Colorado guys around him, defensive lineman B.J. Green II and safety Cam’Ron Silmon-Craig.

Silmon-Craig and Hunter first played together at Jackson State in 2022 and have been teammates since.

“It feels like a family here,” Silmon-Craig said. “It’s a new everything around here. We’re just trying to change the culture here and build a culture. Why not get a couple Colorado guys?”

Especially the Colorado guy.

“He’s a waymaker, a game-changer, a phenomenal person,” Silmon-Craig said. “If he comes out here and doesn’t dance one practice, I’m going to go ask him, ’You good? What’s wrong?'

“That’s what he does. He dances and flies around and has fun. That’s why I love him.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Fans try on Jacksonville Jaguars' Travis Hunter No. 12 jersey at a team store during the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter makes a reception during the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter speaks with reporters after practice at the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter performs a drill during the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter makes a reception during the NFL football team's rookie minicamp, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)