Sports

The Jaguars want wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter to be the NFL's only true two-way player in decades, but through two games he's not a full-time player on either offense or defense.

Hunter has played 61 percent of the Jaguars' offensive snaps and 37 percent of the Jaguars' defensive snaps in the first two weeks of the season. That's highly unusual; only four NFL players have played on both sides of the ball this season and the other three (Philadelphia's Cooper DeJean, Cleveland's Adin Huntington and Pittsburgh's Jalen Ramsey) are almost exclusively defensive players who have played less than 5 percent of offensive snaps.

But contrary to suggestions that the Jaguars would give Hunter a bigger workload than he could physically handle, Hunter actually isn't playing an extraordinary number of snaps. Hunter has played a total of 133 snaps this season. More than 100 NFL players, including nine on the Jaguars, have played more total snaps than that. It's just that those other players are playing only on one side of the ball, and sometimes some special teams.

So far, Hunter hasn't had a huge impact. He's caught nine passes, but only totaled 55 receiving yards, and only one of his nine catches got the Jaguars a first down. On defense he has no interceptions, one pass defensed and three combined tackles.

Hunter is doing something unique by getting significant snaps on both sides of the ball, but through two weeks he's not a major impact player.

Edge rusher Preston Smith is heading back to Washington.

NFL Media reports that Smith is going to sign with the Commanders. Smith entered the NFL as a 2015 second-round pick of the team.

Smith spent four seasons in Washington and recorded 168 tackles, 24.5 sacks, four interceptions, four forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries. He signed with the Packers in 2019 and remained with the team until being traded to the Steelers during the 2024 season.

Smith has 443 tackles, 70.5 sacks, five interceptions, 10 forced fumbles, and seven fumble recoveries over his entire career.

Von Miller and Dorance Armstrong are the current starters on the edge or the Commanders.

Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh hasn’t been shy about singing the praises of quarterback Justin Herbert since being hired in 2024 and Herbert isn't the only member of the team who elicits those kinds of reactions.

Safety Derwin James is also in that category. James had seven tackles in Monday night's win over the Raiders and he deflected a pass that was picked off by teammate Donte Jackson in the fourth quarter. After the game, Harbaugh said that James was "flying around" all night and went on to call him "the best safety I've ever seen in the history of the National Football League."

Harbaugh was then asked what James does to be on top of that list. Harbaugh said "there's nothing he's not great at" while rattling off some of the things that jump out to him about James.

“It's like being around greatness every day, whether it's the practice environment, the training environment, the meeting environment, the way he is on the sideline and most of the way he is and during the game. He's incredible. It's just enthusiasm unknown to mankind. When he tackles, he gets him down. He can cover, he can play any position in the in the secondary. I guess what jumps out the most is he can play nickel, he can play dime backer, he could play corner, he could play in the deep half, he can play in the deep middle, he can blitz. You have to compare him to Willie Mays at that point. He’s a five-tool, six-tool secondary player. It’s incredible what he can do. . . . It's like Superman when he puts on the armor, when he puts on that suit and wears that number three. He’s donning the cape. He’s a Superman out there.”

Others could make good arguments for different players as the best safety in league history, but trying to convince Harbaugh of their argument would likely be a fruitless task. James is the quarterback of the defense for the Chargers and continuing to do everything Harbaugh wants from him in that role will mean more odes to his ability in the future.