NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stands with Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter after he is selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars as the number two pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
During the pre-draft process, the new Jacksonville Jaguars regime led by 34-year-old general manager James Gladstone became enamored with wide receiver and cornerback Travis Hunter as a football player and person, believing he would fit right into the culture they are trying to build in Duval. The only problem? The Jaguars had the No. 5 pick in the draft, and Hunter was predicted to go before then.
Episode 2 of the Jaguars' YouTube docuseries, "The Hunt," captured how the Jaguars managed to pull off one of the boldest moves in the 2025 NFL draft by trading up with the Cleveland Browns to pick Hunter at No. 2.
The docuseries showed various stages of how the Jaguars went through the pre-draft process, including how they defined "Jaguars DNA," or the characteristics they wanted in players they added to the team. Hunter fit exactly what they were looking for, and from there, the idea to trade up for him came into place.
"James came up with the idea [to trade up to draft Hunter]," Jaguars executive vice president of football operations Tony Boselli said. "All three of us loved Travis Hunter and wanted to see him in a Jaguar jersey. To be honest I wasn't thinking, 'could we trade up?' It kind of crosses your mind. James, Liam, and I were sitting in the draft room and James says, 'what do you think about making a phone call to Cleveland and New York and see if we can move up and try to get Travis?'"
"Pretty much immediately I was like, 'why not?' If we have the chance to go get a generational talent, a guy who's trying to redefine the game of football as far as playing on both sides of the ball, I think it's a great idea," Boselli said.
Gladstone detailed that they were able to establish lines of communication with every general manager at the NFL owners meetings, and after that, he and Browns general manager Andrew Berry were able to start building the framework of the trade. The framework was in place about two weeks before it was set in motion during the draft.
A key to the trade taking place was that the possibility of the Jaguars trading up for Hunter did not get leaked until the day of the draft. In the lead up to the draft, many mock drafts and analysts predicted the Jaguars would pick Mason Graham while some even suggested they would take an offensive weapon like Ashton Jeanty or Tetairoa McMillan, amusing the Jaguars.
"I thought it was fun listening to all the rumors and speculation and stuff on X that would go viral that we were picking this," Boselli said. "... To me I was like, 'Okay, this is working perfectly.' They're going to do the work for us to send out smokescreens. We knew what we were doing and we knew very few people did."
The one condition of the trade was that the Tennessee Titans had to pick Cam Ward with the No. 1 pick. If the Titans passed on Ward, the Cleveland Browns would've taken him at No. 2 and the Jaguars would likely not have been able to trade up for Hunter. Multiple people in the room felt nervous waiting for the Titans to pick Ward, but once they officially did, the room cheered in celebration with Jaguars owner Shad Khan even saying, "I feel so bold."
Shortly after, the Jaguars called Hunter to tell him they were drafting him. Though it's uncommon for a team to trade the kind of assets the Jaguars did for any position except quarterback, the Jaguars are aligned and confident in their choice.
"He signifies everything that we're looking for in a Jaguar," Jaguars coach Liam Coen said.
"A lot of people will say, 'Well boy, you gave up a lot,'" Boselli said. "My response is, 'Did we?' We got the best player. And we believe he is a generational player and we believe he's going to play both sides of the ball and we believe he will help change this franchise. To me it was a small price to pay."