Liam Coen owes the football world an explanation for why the most dangerous two-way weapon of the modern era entered Week 6 with two catches for 17 yards. Across five full games to open the 2026 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars treated the second overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft like a situational ornament on offense. Then Sunday arrived at Wembley Stadium, the Houston Texans pushed Jacksonville to the brink, and Coen finally took the bubble wrap off Travis Hunter.
What happened next in London is Exhibit A in my indictment of Jacksonville’s early-season offensive conservatism. With 11:26 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Jaguars trailing, Hunter ran a crisp red-zone route and hauled in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence to cut Houston’s lead to 31-28. Seven minutes and 33 seconds of game clock later, Hunter lined up on defense, read C.J. Stroud’s eyes in the end zone, and snatched Stroud’s first interception of the entire season with 3:53 left to play.
Hunter became the first NFL player in 24 years to catch a touchdown pass and record an interception in the same game, a feat nobody had touched since Philadelphia’s Brian Dawkins did it on a fake punt against Houston on September 29, 2002. You have to go all the way back to Roy Green in 1981 to find another regular-season player in the Super Bowl era doing both without a special-teams trick play. Yet the Jaguars still walked out of Wembley with a 34-31 loss on Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 49-yard field goal at the gun, dropping to 4-2 because they were too slow to unleash their generational talent.
The Pitch Count Excuse Dies at Wembley
The Jaguars have spent the first month of this season keeping Hunter primarily at cornerback and rationing his offensive snaps, and I suspect the logic is protecting his body after the LCL tear that ended his 2025 rookie year after seven games. That argument sounds responsible in a Tuesday meeting room, right up until you look at the schematic tax it places on Trevor Lawrence.
When Hunter sits on the offensive sideline, opposing defenses can play two-high safety shells and bracket Jacksonville’s primary receivers without fearing elite ball skills in the slot or on isolated boundary routes. Putting Hunter on the field for four receptions and 59 yards on Sunday forced Houston to respect his burst at the point of attack, helping Lawrence throw for 306 yards and four touchdowns. You do not trade up to No. 2 overall for a Heisman Trophy, Biletnikoff, and Chuck Bednarik winner just to hide him on half the playbook.
Listen to how Hunter explained that fourth-quarter touchdown to the Associated Press after the game. He told his coach, “‘I’m ready to go whenever you’re ready for me.’ He put me in the right position and called the right play for me to go out there and do what I do.”
Read those words again. A second-year superstar had to remind his own play-caller in Week 6 that he was ready when called upon! Leaving a weapon of that caliber in the holster for five weeks is an act of offensive negligence.
A Two-Way Masterclass Squandered
What separates an all-time competitor from a guy just collecting a paycheck is what happens after he gets beat. Earlier in Sunday’s game, Hunter was flagged for pass interference on Nico Collins in the end zone, handing Houston a touchdown on a silver platter. A lesser cornerback folds his tent, stares at the turf, and prays the quarterback looks to the other side of the field.
Hunter went the opposite direction. “My teammates came to me and just told me, after I gave up that deep ball, ‘Travis just go out there and be yourself, next-play mindset,’” Hunter told the AP. “They kept me uplifted.”
When Stroud dropped back with under four minutes left looking to bury Jacksonville for good, Hunter baited the throw and erased a Texans score in the end zone. That takeaway set up Cam Little’s game-tying field goal. Hunter finished with three tackles, a pass breakup, an end-zone interception, and a fourth-quarter touchdown reception… and still had to watch Houston celebrate as time expired.
“I’ve been doing this stuff since I was a baby,” Hunter told Jaguars.com afterward. “We just have to come out with a win.”
Even Lawrence had to admit the rest of the roster let a legacy performance slip through their fingers. “We made a few too many mistakes that cost us in the end,” Lawrence told Jaguars.com. “It was a one-score game, like most of them are. It ended up hurting us this game. We’ve gotten away with a little bit in the past.”
My verdict on Jacksonville’s coaching staff is simple. The one-score margin for error that saved this team in a 19-17 escape against Philadelphia a week ago vanished the moment Stroud threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns on 71 percent passing. If Coen boards the flight back from London and puts Hunter back on an offensive snap diet for Week 7, he will be Voluntarily Handcuffing his own franchise quarterback while the AFC South title hangs in the balance.
