Cleveland sees potential draft pick as a WR first, then a CB. But do they possibly have that backward?
The Cleveland Browns are just one week away from being on the clock at the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.
With each passing day, the consensus has grown that when Rodger Goodell announces the No. 2 overall selection, it will be Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter who will be putting on a Cleveland Browns draft hat for the party.
Related: Travis Hunter Draft Profile
If/when that happens, the conversation will quickly turn to how best to utilize a player who excelled at both positions in college. Have him play exclusively (or primarily) as a wide receiver? Or is cornerback the way to go with a few of the always popular “package plays” mixed in on offense?
Perhaps the Browns will turn back the clock to 1960, when Chuck Bednarik or the Philadelphia Eagles was the last full-time two-way player in the NFL, and grant Hunter his wish of playing on both sides of the ball on a regular basis.
General manager Andrew Berry was asked about that scenario on Thursday during his pre-draft press conference and shared how the Browns view the situation (quote via a team-provided transcript):
“I think one of the things that is like, you can’t probably fully appreciate until you actually see Travis play live is just his elite conditioning. Like going out and seeing him play at Colorado, he really never comes off the field. And it’s unbelievable because there are more plays in a college game than there are in a pro game. And it’s like the guy, he barely pants, like that kind of thing. So, it’s quite incredible.
“You know, that being said, what he would attempt to do has not been really done in our league, but we wouldn’t necessarily put a cap or a governor in terms of, like, what he could do. You know, we would want to be smart in terms of how we started him out. I think I’ve mentioned before, we would see his first home as receiver and his second home on the defensive side of the ball.”
Berry has been consistent in stating that the Browns believe that Hunter brings more value as a wide receiver than a cornerback, but could the team have that backward?
If Travis Hunter plays both ways, he could be “the most valuable non-quarterback in the NFL.”https://t.co/oC6cM0fZ2P
— PFF (@PFF) April 17, 2025
They might, at least according to Dalton Wasserman at Pro Football Focus, who writes that because of their scarcity in the NFL, having an elite cornerback can bring more value than an elite wide receiver:
We’ll start with Hunter’s value at cornerback. First, there are fewer elite cornerbacks in the NFL than wide receivers. Cooper DeJean, a rookie, led all qualified cornerbacks with an 86.3 PFF overall grade in 2024. Ten qualified wide receivers finished with an equal or higher PFF overall grade last season.
That level of positional scarcity makes Hunter more valuable among his peers at cornerback. When looking at PFF WAR, the elite cornerbacks stack up well with the top wide receivers, but the drop-off toward average is a bit steeper and cornerback performance year-over-year is far more volatile.
Wasserman goes on to write that if Hunter can become one of the league’s best cornerbacks while being a top-40 wide receiver, then his combined WAR would rank ahead of some of the league’s quarterbacks. Even if Hunter was “only” a top-15 cornerback and a top-40 wide receiver, he would be the most valuable non-quarterback in the league, according to Wasserman.
It is an interesting debate and one that the Browns have surely gone over during their preparation for the draft.
If the draft prognosticators are correct, fans will get to see this play out in person if the Browns select Hunter next week in the draft.