Travis Hunter gets a chance to further impress Browns at Colorado pro day

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft, standout multi-positional prospect Travis Hunter has drawn comparisons to Deion Sanders, Hunter’s college coach, and fellow Hall of Famers Charles Woodson and Champ Bailey.

The Cleveland Browns are up on the comparisons, and they appreciate Hunter’s immense talents, regardless of whether he ultimately focuses on wide receiver or cornerback while making cameo appearances in both spots. But in making their choice with the second pick in this year’s draft, the Browns are probably thinking less about Woodson and Bailey and more about another Sanders: Deion’s son Shedeur, Hunter’s quarterback at Colorado and Jackson State.

Taking a quarterback, another player or a two-way talent in the first round involves subsequent potential decisions involving players such as Kirk Cousins, Kenny Pickett, Greg Newsome II and more. Right now, Pickett is the only healthy quarterback on Cleveland’s roster.

At the NFL’s just-completed annual meeting, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam told reporters that in trying to “dig ourselves out of the hole” caused by the failure of the Deshaun Watson trade and Cleveland’s 3-14 season in 2024, the team is focused on finding the best players — not just the best available quarterback — and will continue to try “for two or three years,” if necessary.

That would indicate the Browns are willing to wait on a quarterback in this draft, in which Miami’s Cam Ward is expected to go No. 1 to Tennessee. If the Browns don’t think a quarterback is worthy of the No. 2 selection, they might be left to choose between Hunter and Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter, who are generally regarded as the top overall prospects.

With the league meeting concluded, the Browns’ traveling contingent headed to Colorado on Wednesday. Shedeur Sanders and Hunter are the featured participants in what Colorado is calling an “NFL showcase” on Friday, a workout that was intentionally placed at the end of the pro day calendar. Over the next several days, the Browns will take Sanders and Hunter to dinner and spend time with their families while also putting Sanders through a private workout.

Haslam has never met Deion Sanders. Browns general manager Andrew Berry and Deion had dinner in January to discuss Hunter and Shedeur. The Berry-led Browns group then interviewed Shedeur during the East-West Shrine Bowl in late January and hosted Sanders and Hunter on the same formal pre-draft visit in early March. Soon, Cleveland will reach the end of a carefully planned stretch to meet with as many premium prospects as possible to help finalize its draft plans.

Last week, the Browns visited and held private workouts with Ward at Miami, Jaxson Dart at Ole Miss and Jalen Milroe at Alabama. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski stayed in Mississippi to attend Dart’s pro day, and a group that included the Haslams and Berry went to State College to have dinner with Carter and his parents. Carter has not worked out during the pre-draft process because he’s still recovering from a Dec. 31 shoulder injury and suffered a hamstring strain while preparing for the NFL combine.

Haslam said he has “high confidence in the process” and is not on the trips to offer any kind of football evaluation but to meet with the prospects and their families.

“No. 1, you really get to know the person, and it is hugely important to understand what kind of person they are, how important football is to them,” Haslam said. “It’s great when you can meet the parents and understand their background. The other thing is it gives us a great opportunity to spend time with our guys.”

Travis Hunter, left, and Shedeur Sanders could both be in consideration for Cleveland at No. 2, and are expected to work out at Colorado’s pro day. (Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

On the road again

In January, Berry said he viewed Hunter as a wide receiver first because he’s so dynamic and the Browns would want the ball in his hands. This week, Berry clarified that Hunter can play either side and that the Browns wouldn’t want to put any ceiling on him if he’s drafted at No. 2.

“I think he’ll play both sides of the ball in the NFL. I truly do,” Berry said. “How that balance looks, I think, depends on the relative schemes on each side of the ball and then how much he can handle, probably more physically than mentally. He’s brilliant from a football standpoint. He has a rare intelligence, so I don’t think that there’s necessarily a limit in terms of how you can use him. I think he’ll be good at each point.”

Stefanski called Hunter “a special talent” who might have the best ball skills of any player he’s ever evaluated. While playing both sides of the ball full-time last season, Hunter was good enough to win not only the Heisman Trophy as college football’s most outstanding player but also the Bednarik Award as the top defensive player and the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s best wide receiver.

The Browns are probably talking up Hunter because they’re legitimately impressed. But with Berry and Stefanski insisting they have not reached any final decisions with their draft plans, they could be at least subtly nudging the New York Giants at No. 3 or the New England Patriots at No. 4 to give up capital in a potential trade up for Hunter, which would allow the Browns to add picks and still get Carter, a quarterback or a lineman with their first-round selection.

It’s all part of the business as the Browns hold their final meetings with Hunter and Shedeur over the next several days.

“I think every team is having that discussion (about where Hunter would play),” Stefanski said. “I think he’s very capable of both. How you structure it, where you start him, is really important to figure out.

“I could see him as a wide receiver who moonlights at defensive back. The easier thing that you’ve seen over the years is (a player starts at) defensive back, then gets a package of plays on offense, so every team is talking through that and how they would structure it, but this is a unique young man in his ability to do both.”

The Browns have Jerry Jeudy as their clear-cut No. 1 receiver for now, and they like what they saw from Cedric Tillman in a short stretch last year before his season was ended prematurely by a concussion. Jeudy and Tillman are under contract for two more seasons, and there’s not much behind them on the depth chart.

At cornerback, the Browns also have a true No. 1 in Denzel Ward and two players coming off disappointing seasons: Newsome and Martin Emerson Jr., who are under contract through only this season. Newsome is on a fully guaranteed fifth-year option of $13.3 million, and the Browns would incur no dead money if they traded him at any point this season.

The Browns hope to get a strong season from Newsome, regardless of whether they add Hunter, but drafting the two-way star could make Newsome expendable if Cleveland needs to create salary-cap space to add a quarterback or if a cornerback-needy team is looking for help between the summer and November trade deadline.

The quarterback waiting game

Stefanski and Berry said the team is excited to add Pickett and confirmed that the 2022 first-round pick will be given a chance to compete for the starting job. But even with the certainty that the Browns will draft at least one quarterback, they will have three or four on their offseason roster.

So, probably just after the draft, the Browns will revisit their thinking on the availability of players from a list that could include Cousins, Joe Flacco, Carson Wentz, Drew Lock, Case Keenum and any other quarterback who’s on a roster but might become a trade candidate.

Cousins has always made sense as a potential target for the Browns, given he was replaced as the starter by the Atlanta Falcons late last season and has previous experience working with Stefanski.

In March, Atlanta picked up a $10 million bonus for 2026 that keeps Cousins on its roster for now, but at the annual meeting, Falcons coach Raheem Morris acknowledged that Cousins has asked for a chance to become a starter elsewhere.

Because the Browns and Falcons would have to agree on trade compensation and how to share Cousins’ salaries for 2025 ($27.5 million guaranteed) and 2026 ($10 million guaranteed on a $35 million base salary), there’s no guarantee a deal can get done even if Cousins is willing to waive his no-trade clause for a chance to become Cleveland’s starter. Though Cousins’ wanting to be moved might push the Falcons to ultimately agree, the cap-strapped Browns also might be hesitant to meet the price, in terms of a draft pick or picks and the salary.

In either case, Cousins would wait until after the draft to try to choose a new home based upon current quarterback depth charts and potential rookie transition plans. The Falcons’ choosing to pay Cousins instead of cutting him allows them to be patient. If there’s no deal in the wake of the draft, the Falcons could keep Cousins as an expensive backup and potential trade option if another team loses a starter to injury.

If the Browns wait until outside the top 50 picks to take a quarterback, they’re either saying Pickett is their likely 2025 starter or signaling there’s a real opportunity for Cousins to be their QB1. If the Browns take a quarterback early in the first round, that player will become the starter sooner rather than later, even if it’s not this September.

By early next week, the Browns will know if they like Shedeur Sanders enough to take him at No. 2. Or if they’ll place him in the second tier of quarterbacks and decide how they value that group at pick No. 33 or via a potential trade, either back into the first round on the first night or at some point on the second night. Over the next few days, the Browns will watch Sanders throw twice.

“I think throwing live is another piece of this,” Stefanski said. “It’s a small piece, but a piece of it. Getting around him, going to dinner is important, but then the whole process — getting in and listening to the rest of the coaches, the rest of the scouts, how they see the entire draft board — is (important). Certainly, Shedeur is someone that I think has done a really nice job throughout this process.”

(Top photo: Mike Watters / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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