Patriots HC Mike Vrabel reveals why he was 'jawing' with Colorado star Travis Hunter

It's NFL Combine week but a few stars will not be in action in Indianapolis. That list includes Heisman winner Travis Hunter, a man who is expected to be off the board through the top five picks in April's NFL draft.

As things stand, the Tennessee Titans are atop the draft order, though they are open to trading that pick. They are followed by the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, New England Patriots, and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Of those five teams, the Patriots have been widely tipped as the perfect landing spot for Hunter since they need to put some weapons around their quarterback of the future. Head coach Mike Vrabel has already had a conversation with Hunter on the first day of the combine and gave some insight into how that conversation went during an interview with NFL Network.

“I’m sure Travis doesn’t even know. We were kinda jawing back and forth as he left last night and I said you’re not the only one who played two ways. There were some other guys that did this too. He kinda looked at me and we laughed.”

Naturally, there has been a lot of talk regarding Hunter's ability to play on both sides of the ball which is likely why Patriots HC Mike Vrabel has been trying to lay the groundwork with his ideas and two-way utilization, one-to-one with the player.

While Travis Hunter made history at Colorado by seemingly playing every snap on offense and defense, he wasn't the first College Football player to go down that road.

Over the past 30 years, icons like Champ Bailey (Georgia), Jabril Peppers (Michigan), and Shaq Thompson (Washington) all paved the way before Hunter took the world by storm en route to a Heisman-winning campaign, beating Boise State's Ashton Jeanty to the punch.

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Exploring the likeliest landing spots for Travis Hunter in the 2025 NFL Draft

Fit-wise, it's difficult to see a more perfect one than the New England Patriots. In his latest mock draft, Sportskeeda insider Tony Pauline also sees Vrabel picking Travis Hunter to add some Grade-A talent to the roster.

That said, there have been some rumors about the New York Giants chasing Matthew Stafford, who has been permitted to seek a trade away. If the move happens to go through, it's difficult to see the Giants passing on Hunter.

If he does fall to the Patriots, Travis Hunter's mindset, shaped, of course, with some help from Deion Sanders, would align perfectly with the type of culture Vrabel hopes to cultivate in the locker room in his first year as head coach in Foxboro.