Mel Kiper: Travis Hunter is the 'best pure football player' in 2025 NFL Draft

Mel Kiper Jr. is at it again with the 2025 NFL Draft projections and he loves Colorado’s Travis Hunter. The cornerback and wide receiver is the best player in the draft.

That’s what Kiper said Wednesday, considering all the players going to the pros next year. Hunter is squarely in the Heisman race if he stays healthy, playing both ways.

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As far as what he does in the NFL, Hunter is more likely to go play wide receiver than corner as a pro.

“Travis Hunter of Colorado, is he going to be a corner? Yeah, he’s a great corner. Is he a receiver? Yeah, he’s great there,” Kiper said on Get Up. “But hey, changing that scoreboard is going to be too tempting not to keep him on the offensive side of the ball. Travis Hunter, because the quarterbacks are gonna get forced up, that’s what happened when Champ Bailey came out. Quarterbacks went one, two and three, couple running backs went ahead of him, right? 

“Well, guess what? Travis Hunter, I think, you can make an argument is the best pure football player in this draft. He’s great on offense. He’s great on defense. I think when he’s in the NFL early on, maybe playing both ways, but on offense, he’s too spectacular, too dynamic, they change that scoreboard, not to keep him on the offensive side of the ball for the most part.”

Travis Hunter the best football player in college?

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt is of the mind that Hunter needs to be managed. He doesn’t want to see Colorado’s star spread too thin.

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“Travis Hunter playing both ways. I know we all love to see it. We love to see it, and I’m not suggesting that they don’t play him both ways, but the plan for Travis Hunter has to change. It has to change,” Klatt explained. “He played basically every snap on defense and missed only two snaps on offense. So, he played — and he played seven on special teams. So, guess how many snaps he got? 136. 136! If he plays 136 out of 180, I’m like, ‘Okay, it’s 136. That’s what it is.’ But when it’s 136 out of 140, that’s too much, because that suggests that he was wasting effort.

“Listen, a game is kind of like a bell curve. There are snaps that become meaningless. Then, there are — the bulk of the snaps are kind of like in the middle, and then there’s these snaps on the other side, and there’s just a few that mean everything. What you have to do is you have to shove his snap total into the back half of the bell curve. You’ve got to get him off the field for this 10-12% of the snaps that don’t matter. That has to be part of the game plan. First downs, base defense on, you know, your opponent’s side of the territory. All these different things that you can do.”Hunter had an incredible showing against North Dakota State in Week 1, catching 7 passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns, while playing defense as well, amassing 136 total snaps on the evening.