Travis Hunter the next Shohei Ohtani? Browns GM compares top NFL Draft prospect to two-way baseball star

Two-way Colorado Buffaloes superstar Travis Hunter is dead set on playing both cornerback and wide receiver in the pros. He recently told our Garrett Podell that he would rather retire than only play one of the two positions. 

The team considered most likely to select Hunter in the upcoming NFL Draft — the Cleveland Browns, who own the No. 2 overall pick — appears to be willing to at least let him try to play both ways. General manager Andrew Berry gave Hunter one of the highest compliments possible when he made a cross-sport comparison to another two-way star.

“I don’t see it that way. I think it’s — and I’m going to use a [cross-sport analogy] now — it’s a little bit like [Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei] Ohtani, right?” Berry said at his pre-draft press conference, via ProFootballTalk. “Where he’s playing one side, he’s an outstanding player. If he’s a pitcher or he’s a hitter, he’s an outstanding player. You obviously get a unicorn if you use him both ways.”

Ohtani, of course, is already a four-time All-Star and three-time Most Valuable Player, so it may be a bit premature to put Hunter on that level; but there just aren’t many athletes who are analogous to a guy who truly played just about every single snap on both sides of the ball in his amateur career. Ohtani really is the only one that makes much sense. 

Berry also identified one of the reasons he thinks that Hunter, like Ohtani, can actually make it work.

“So I think one of the things that is, like you can’t probably fully appreciate until you see Travis play live, is just his elite conditioning,” Berry said. “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 is a pro game …

“That being said, what he would attempt to do, has not really been done in our league. But, we wouldn’t necessarily put a cap or a governor in terms of what he could do. We would want to be smart in terms of how we started him out.”

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Garrett Podell

Hunter himself also pointed to conditioning as the one thing that will help determine whether or not he can go both ways in the pros. 

“To be honest, I think I just need to see if my body will allow me to take all of this and continue to take all this,” Hunter said, via The Associated Press. “But I do a lot of treatment, so I’m able to keep up with my body and with what I need for my body.”

Wherever he lands, and whatever his new team decides is the best path for Hunter, it’s certainly going to be exciting to watch someone try to do something that has, essentially, never been done in the modern era. And in that way, it’s going to be exactly like Ohtani. 

The 2025 NFL Draft will take place from April 24 to 26 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. More draft coverage can be found at CBSSports.com, including daily mock drafts, consensus prospect rankings, biggest team needs and more.