The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Travis Hunter with the No.2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, for a purpose never seen before: to be a full-time player on both sides of the ball.

Hunter will be entering his second season.

He has faced plenty of doubters since he was drafted, mostly about his ability to play both receiver and cornerback, as he did in college.

His rookie season got off to a modest start. Hunter compiled 28 receptions for 268 yards and one touchdown in his first seven career games. He recorded his first and only 100-yard receiving game against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 7.

Hunter’s playtime heavily favored offense, taking two-thirds of the team’s offensive snaps compared with just under 36% of the team’s defensive snaps.

Unfortunately, that game in London turned out to be his last of the season. Hunter tore his lateral collateral (LCL) ligament in his right knee during practice the following week and underwent season-ending surgery. At this point, concerns about his long-term durability seemed to be validated.

New Year, Same Question for Travis Hunter

Going into his sophomore season, the question remains: Can he maintain this role without significant wear on his body in the NFL?

So far, he has been on schedule with his rehab and has been slowly working his way back onto the field.

Head coach Liam Coen remains adamant about Hunter playing wide receiver and cornerback as his rehab continues.

“I think it’s kind of an unspoken understanding of knowing that there are some depth things (at cornerback) that he can come in and help us,” Coen said.

“But the focus (of the talks) have just been about the day-to-day and, ‘How are you feeling today? How are you doing?’ and getting to see him smiling and moving around again in the facility.”

What’s Next?

Hunter showed flashes of brilliance on both sides of the ball in the short time he played. The potential to be a two-way star is clear, but how Coen and the Jaguars decide to use Hunter could depend on injury concerns in his rookie season.

Jacksonville hasn’t made any substantial additions in the secondary this offseason, so it’s reasonable to expect him to have a significantly larger defensive role than last year, likely evening out his snap count numbers on offense and defense.

Time will tell how well he recovers from his torn LCL, but current signs have been promising. He has impressed the organization, and the Jaguars have high hopes for him in the 2026 NFL season.

The post Is Travis Hunter’s Two-Way Role Sustainable for the Future? appeared first on The Lead.

Fabrizio Romano has provided further insight into the surprise Granit Xhaka to Chelsea transfer story that has broken today.

The experienced Switzerland international is not the typical kind of signing Chelsea have made in recent years, with the current Blues ownership focusing a lot on recruiting the best young players in the world.

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Still, Xhaka is 33 years of age and so clearly wouldn’t be a particularly long-term signing for Chelsea, though it seems new manager Xabi Alonso was eager to work with him again.

The pair enjoyed a lot of success together at Bayer Leverkusen, and Romano has spoken on his YouTube channel about why Alonso felt it was important to add him to his new team.

Granit Xhaka can be Xabi Alonso’s manager on the pitch for Chelsea

Discussing the Xhaka story, Romano made it clear that the former Arsenal midfielder has communicated that he’s really keen for this move to go through.

Alonso also seems to have been a major driving force, along with Xhaka’s desire to live in London again.

See below as Romano has given some insight into what Chelsea fans can expect from Xhaka under Alonso…

“The relationship (between Xhaka and Alonso) is fantastic – they were together at Bayer Leverkusen, winning together, showing a perfect match,” Romano said.

“Granit Xhaka was the manager on the pitch for Xabi Alonso and so to have Granit Xhaka for Xabi Alonso is absolutely considered as a priority in this summer transfer window.

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“Now it depends on club to club, it depends on what’s going to happen between Chelsea and Sunderland in terms of conversations, but Granit Xhaka already told Chelsea that he wants to go back to London and he wants to make this move happen.”

Granit Xhaka can lift Chelsea out of their rut

Xhaka was a key part of Arsenal’s revival under Mikel Arteta, and he also clearly clicked really well with Alonso at Leverkusen.

In short, this is a special character who can surely have a big impact on a Chelsea team that has found itself out of sorts and lacking leaders for a while now.

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CFC fans might have reservations about Xhaka because of his age, and it’s true that he won’t be the most long-term addition to this squad, but he’s also still playing at a very high level and can be important for what he does off the pitch as well as on it.

This will surely be seen by many Chelsea supporters as a very welcome change of direction that means it’s not all about throwing together a bunch of talented young players and hoping something happens.

The post “Manager on the pitch” – Fabrizio Romano explains how important Chelsea signing would be for Xabi Alonso appeared first on CaughtOffside.

Chelsea star Cole Palmer seems to be a fan of the idea of his club bringing in Sunderland midfielder Granit Xhaka as he liked Fabrizio Romano‘s post about it.

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The Blues have been linked with a surprise move for the experienced Switzerland international, who notably played under new manager Xabi Alonso when they were at Bayer Leverkusen together.

See below as Romano has now re-posted Chelsea account Pys on X, who highlighted that Palmer had been seen liking the original story about CFC targeting Xhaka…

? Cole Palmer is a fan ? (@FabrizioRomano) pic.twitter.com/RhKxGSxbyj

— Pys (@CFCPys) June 27, 2026

This story has some slightly out of the blue today, and it represents an exciting change of approach from Chelsea in the transfer market.

Xhaka is 33 years of age and so will clearly not be a long-term signing for the west London giants, but he brings the kind of experience and know-how that this youthful squad is lacking.

Chelsea’s current owners perhaps now seem to be recognising the need to balance their approach of recruiting the best young players in the world with also having some old heads around who can help them in their development.

Granit Xhaka to join the long list of those who’ve played for Arsenal and Chelsea

Xhaka is well known for his time as an Arsenal player, and one imagines he remains popular with most Gunners fans for the way he bounced back to rebuild his career there after some difficult moments.

Still, it now looks like he’s going to join a long list of players who’ve represented both of these major London clubs.

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In just the last few years we’ve seen Arsenal sign Jorginho, Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke, and Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea, while they’ve also raided the Blues for Petr Cech, David Luiz, and Willian if you go a bit further back.

Meanwhile, big names like Ashley Cole and William Gallas also moved directly between these two clubs, and others such as Emmanuel Petit, Cesc Fabregas, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all played for Arsenal first before later ending up at Chelsea, coincidentally all playing for Barcelona in between.

The post Cole Palmer likes Fabrizio Romano’s post about major Chelsea transfer target appeared first on CaughtOffside.