Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall pick for the Jacksonville Jaguars Travis Hunter is truly a unicorn as a top cornerback AND wide receiver prospect in the NFL. We still don’t know exactly how much Hunter will play on offense and defense, but it sure looks like he will play both to start his career. And that is exciting for those who play in Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues.
Will Hunter receive fantasy points for offense in IDP leagues?
The answer, for the most part, is yes. The default settings for IDP leagues allows fantasy teams to accumulate points from both sides of the ball. You will need to pay close attention to your settings, but unless the commissioner changes things up, Hunter is going to be in line to put up good numbers from a usually low upside cornerback slot.
Yahoo breaks it down here and most platforms have a similar set up:
How much will Hunter play on offense/defense?
This is the biggest question we need to figure out for Hunter. We got a taste of his playing time last weekend when the Jaguars faced the Steelers in Week 1 of the preseason. In that game, Hunter played on all but one of the first 12 snaps with the starters. That puts him currently at WR3, behind Brian Thomas and Dyami Brown. He also lined up in the coveted slot position on half his snaps and caught two targets and another that was called back on a penalty.
At this point Hunter would come off the field when the team goes to two receiver sets, but as you can see, they did that just once when the starters were in the game. And, head coach Liam Coen has consistently led offenses that rank in the top 10 or better at using three receiver sets. There is also a chance Hunter is just too good offensively to keep off the field that often.
As far as defense, Hunter didn’t play on the first drive, but played every snap on the second and third drives, per PFF. How much he plays defense in the regular season is up for debate, but there’s little doubt he will play defense enough to keep his IDP eligibility and push his total fantasy points up in the process. There is some risk the team backs him off defensively and fantasy sites remove his IDP eligibility, but he would need to truly get zero snaps on defense for multiple games for that to happen.
Does Hunter need to finish as the No. 1 IDP player to be the No. 1 IDP pick?
No. In usual IDP scoring linebackers dominate the total IDP fantasy points and Hunter, even with a good offensive season, could easily end up behind those high scorers. But, when looking at position scarcity, the CB position is usually one of the weakest in terms of fantasy points. Last season the top CB finished 48th in IDP scoring and the tenth best CB finished 91st, whereas there were nine linebackers in the Top 10 overall. You can grab one of those likely top 10 linebackers after you solidify your CB spot with a likely top 30 fantasy wide receiver with upside for more.
As usual with IDP, scoring can vary widely. Here are the default scoring settings used for IDP fantasy points noted above:
- Solo Tackles — 1.5 points
- Assisted Tackles — .75 points
- Tackles for Loss — 2 points
- Sacks — 4 points
- Interceptions — 5 points
- Fumbles Forced — 4 points
- Fumble Recoveries — 4 points
- Defensive Touchdowns — 6 points
- Safeties — 2 points
- Passes Defended — 1.5 points
If corners are given a big bump in your settings or you don’t have cornerback slots at all, it would make Hunter less desirable, but, he still has more upside as a two-way player no matter how the cookie crumbles or the football fumbles.
Overall, I could see going safe with a tackling machine like Zaire Franklin as the first IDP player off the board, but you’re missing out on tremendous upside with Hunter, Yes, there is a bit more downside as well, but I like the risk and the reward here.
