{"id":40953,"date":"2025-04-17T14:19:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/?p=40953"},"modified":"2025-04-17T14:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:20:05","slug":"stephen-a-smith-has-a-powerful-message-for-top-nfl-draft-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/stephen-a-smith-has-a-powerful-message-for-top-nfl-draft-prospect\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCome On Bro, Be Better Than That\u201d \u2013 Stephen A. Smith Has a Powerful Message for Top NFL Draft Prospect\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado Buffaloes&rsquo; star wide receiver and cornerback, Travis Hunter, has been in the news recently for his obsession with playing on both sides of the ball. Hunter is one of the top draft prospects in this year&rsquo;s draft class, and it&rsquo;s not only because he can play both offense and defense. In fact, most teams in the league would prefer he concentrates on his cornerback play since that will be his first position.&nbsp;<\/p><p>However, the Buffaloes&rsquo; alum has been playing both receiver and corner since the start of his footballing journey, and more so during his collegiate career with immense success. Generally, in football, there are several examples of receivers who aren&rsquo;t so good at catching the ball, and change their positions to become defensive backs. Unfortunately, with <a href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/travis-hunter-ready-to-play-100-snaps-in-the-nfl-provided-he-gets-the-chance\/\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>Hunter<\/a>, that is not the case as he is incredibly talented at the receiver position as well.<\/p><p>As a result, the 2024 Heisman winner has made it known in the media that he is not only willing to play 100% of the snaps in <a href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/nfl\/\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>NFL<\/a> games but also that if the team that drafts him does not allow him to do so, he will quit playing football.&nbsp;<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Travis Hunter would rather &ldquo;never play football again&rdquo; than play one position in the NFL<br><br>Hunter told CBS Sports writer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/garrettpodell?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>@garrettpodell<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/izBAcmRyKP\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/izBAcmRyKP<\/a><\/p>&mdash; NFL on CBS &#127944; (@NFLonCBS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLonCBS\/status\/1912209293446721686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>April 15, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stephen A Smith&rsquo;s Message to Travis Hunter&nbsp;<\/h2><p>Whether or not Travis Hunter would get the opportunity to play on both sides of the ball in the NFL has been a topic of mass discussion of late, especially after the player himself has come out and addressed his intentions.&nbsp;<\/p><p>While some experts and analysts are on board with the idea and letting him try it, there are a number of others who are not in favor of it. The main issue at hand remains that football is a highly physical game and the NFL has a grueling 17-game season, which places a massive toll on the body.&nbsp;<\/p><p><strong>Also Read:<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/browns-take-the-tried-and-tested-route-under-center-with-another-1-year-deal-for-joe-flacco\/\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>Browns Take the Tried and Tested Route Under Center With Another 1-Year Deal for Joe Flacco<\/a><\/strong><\/p><p>Stephen A. Smith is a staunch supporter of the latter and has issued a message on ESPN&rsquo;s First Take show to Hunter asking him to play smart and not to lie about playing just because he may not get everything his way.&nbsp;<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>&ldquo;Yo Travis, check this out bro, cause I know you&rsquo;re watching. Your junior year at Colorado, you took 1,443 snaps, that averages out to 120.3 per game. That&rsquo;s an absurd amount of work to put on your body. With the future that you have, you shouldn&rsquo;t even want to do it that much because ultimately, attrition kicks in and the opportunities that you have to monetize all that you&rsquo;re doing and all that your exploit demands ultimately get compromised.&rdquo;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>&ldquo;So my young brother here&rsquo;s how you do this you get drafted you walk up to the coach and let them sporadically give you what you want, just not all the time. Don&rsquo;t come in lying to yourself, talking about &ldquo;Oh you ain&rsquo;t going to play football&rdquo;. What you going to do you just going to go into the working world, you know, working somewhere else as opposed to the millions of dollars that you&rsquo;re going to be able to make playing a game that you love.&rdquo;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote><p>While the co-host of First Take, Stephen A. Smith acknowledges Hunter&rsquo;s superstar abilities, he does raise a good point with respect to the pressures of the game and how it may eventually cost the youngster a longer career with the ability to earn millions more.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Furthermore, it does make sense for teams to allow Hunter to play both positions but that should be limited to only the most important plays or downs. Eventually, it may be in Hunter&rsquo;s best interest to heed the advice of others; if not, his professional career could very well get off on the wrong foot.&nbsp;<\/p><p><strong>Read More:<\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/will-johnson-nfl-draft-projection-where-will-the-michigan-cornerback-land\/\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>Will Johnson NFL Draft Projection &ndash; Where Will the Michigan Cornerback Land?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"mm-layout mm-layout-type-post mm-layout-slot4\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith wants Travis Hunter to make smart decisions!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":40959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mux_skip_reasons":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2148,82,131,1588],"class_list":["post-40953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-2025-nfl-draft","tag-nfl","tag-stephen-a-smith","tag-travis-hunter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&ldquo;Come On Bro, Be Better Than That&rdquo; &ndash; Stephen A. Smith Has a Powerful Message for Top NFL Draft Prospect&nbsp; - The Playoffs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First Take co-host and NFL analyst Stephen A. 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