WIDE RECEIVER/CORNERBACK TRAVIS HUNTER
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
AUGUST 17, 2026
(On being back to making plays in practice) “It just felt great. Being back to Trav, knocked
the rust off the first couple of weeks. Now I’m back. I’m just ready to go and continue to
play and get better.”
(On spending all 11-on-11 snaps on defense today) “It was definitely beneficial. I needed to
knock the rust off, like I said earlier. I’ve got to get better somehow, somewhere. So, I
definitely took my time to hone in on one today and that was defense. Get better, get my
feet up under me. Can’t let anybody catch the ball, so that’s my motto right now, just
continue to focus and get better.”
(On whether he likes Defensive Pass Game Coordinator Mathieu Araujo’s intensity) “Yes,
definitely. We like when coaches stay on us. It brings a fire out of us if we don’t already have
it going. So, he helps us pick up our energy in practice, so we like that.”
(On whether he changed his diet to help add muscle weight) “Did I revamp my diet? Yeah. I,
I stopped eating—I cut out sugar a lot. I drink a lot of water now. I don’t drink as much
Gatorade and Powerade like I used to, so definitely drink a lot of water. Just eating the right
food. My wife cooks every night, so that’s great.”
(On whether he was eating ‘junk food’ last year) “Yeah, I definitely was eating a lot of junk
food. That’s just how it was growing up, eating a lot of junk food but now, I changed my
diet.”
(On going against another team in joint practice) “It felt great. I haven’t been on the football
field in nine months, so going out there and being able to get those reps, it felt great. It’s a
lot of people out there saying, ‘Oh, he caught a ball on Travis.’ I mean, I haven’t been on the
football field in nine months, what did you expect? But I just take that and just continue to
go and work.”
(On whether he monitors comments online) “No, that’s just people, my family, they tell me,
because they get mad when they’re seeing it, but I don’t care. I just go out there and just
continue to get better, just continue to keep that fire. There’s always somebody there that’s
hating, so.”
(On his relationship with WR Brian Thomas Jr.) “It’s a super good brotherhood. I love that
dude, man. I call him every morning, make sure we’re here on time. We come up here
together every morning, make sure we’re getting everything we need to. We get treatment
together, just everything. It’s a real brotherhood.”
(On whether he’s beating WR Parker Washington into the building yet) “Am I beating Parker
in? No, I’m telling you, Parker is turning the alarm off and on.”
(On whether he wants to beat Washington into the building) “I don’t know. Park, he told me
last week when we were in Louisiana, he’s like, ‘I can’t sleep. I’ll be up at 3 a.m.’ I’d be like,
I’m still asleep right there. I can’t do that one. But I’ve got that fishing mindset, we’ve got to
beat the fish, so I try to get up as early as I can and make it here.”
(On making an impact on the practice field) “It’s great. Coaches got on us, we didn’t play as
hard as they thought we should have been playing. So, our motto today was just go be
aggressive. Do everything we’re coaching you to do. Be rough, don’t sugarcoat anything.
Don’t be buddy-buddy with the offense. Go out there and work. So that’s what we tried to
do today.”
(On how much blitzing he did in college) “Me? I blitzed probably two times my whole
college career.”
(On not shying away from physicality) “I mean, I gained 13 pounds. It put confidence in my
mind. So, whoever comes around that corner, when it’s time to set the edge, I’m going to
set it.”
(On the possibility of facing Browns QB Shedeur Sanders in Week 1) “No, we haven’t talked
about it. He’s still my brother. I’m going to go out there and just compete. I’ve still got a job
to do. He’s got a job to do and I’m trying to come out with a dub, so.”
HEAD COACH LIAM COEN
MEDIA AVAILABILITY
AUGUST 17, 2026
(On ending practice on a spike) “It was end of game, tied score, no timeouts, so the game
was essentially over. We would’ve run it, run it, set up a field goal. We’re in no pads. I’m not
going to do that in a two-minute situation. So, just basically saying, hey guys, we would’ve
run the ball here a few times, get it to the kick line, we were already past the kick line, and
kicked the ball. I wasn’t going to keep running the ball with no pads on.”
(On if he ended practice on a spike because he was upset) “No, no, no.”
(On taking off the pads today) “We wanted to go full, and we obviously have some depth
issues at a couple positions, specifically O-line and linebacker. And if we want to have a
successful week, going full all day didn’t sound, sound. So, wanted to come out and get the
conditioning, the work. Got a good, full-speed, full-pads period. Got two full-padded seven-
on for the conditioning part of it and the competes. And then took them off for the one
period in the two-minute. So, it was more so just because of where we’re at. We got spiders
tomorrow, and then we got full pads on Wednesday for the joint.”
(On if he thinks the team has had a good start to the week) “Yeah, I mean, it’s a little
frustrating that you kind of have to pivot a little bit. The goal was to go full pads all day and
get a good bang workday. So, it’s a little annoying that we couldn’t do that, but that’s the
job. We have to kind of pivot and be flexible and not try to go grind them out today and then
what do we get out of Wednesday? We’re trying to get some good work this week, so, I think
some good things were able to happen today, but obviously not the full practice we wanted
to have.”
(On LB Jahlani Tavai) “He’s a great dude. I thought he played physical in the game. He’s a
communicator. He’s a team guy. He’s a four-core special teams type guy. He’s had to come
in and take a lot of reps in a hurry. There’s no flinch to him. There’s no looking like a deer in
headlights, even though he just got here. He’s a pro. He’s a pros pro. He knows how to
handle himself. He’s been in some of these situations before. Hopeful that he’s going to be
able to continue to help us.”
(On if he will hold QB Nick Mullens out throughout the week) “Yeah, probably, I would think.
I mean, maybe Wednesday if he’s feeling better. But yeah, more precautionary. He got kind
of dinged in the game, so just trying to let it slow down, let it chill out, and give these other
guys some reps too. We got to get Carter [QB Carter Bradley] and Joey [QB Joey Aguilar]
some more reps, and when Nick’s able to go, we’ll get him back out there.”
(On if Mullen’s health changes his thought on QB Trevor Lawrence’s availability on Friday)
“I’m trending towards us potentially playing Friday night a little bit with the ones. Yeah, so
that’s the goal right now, is to look at potentially playing him a little Friday night. You just
look at the amount of padded days that we actually have left until the game week and it’s
very few and far between. So, you set a schedule, you set it, and you’re like, well, timing and
circumstances, things change and when you have to pivot a little bit. I think we need a little
bit more work in terms of coming off of the Saints joint and the Saints game, I think we just
need a little bit more padded work against each other, good on good. Can’t really do it
today. We had to pivot a little bit, so would like to maybe see these guys Friday night go out
there and get a couple drives potentially, and that’ll also help alleviate some of the depth,
as you mentioned, to get some of these guys some work, knowing that I’m not playing them
in Week 3.”
(On OL Emmanuel Pregnon’s performance on Saturday) “Did some nice things. Did some
really nice things. Moved people in one-on-one situations, de-cleated a guy on a pull.
Actually, on the interception, had an unbelievable block where he de-cleated a guy on a
cleanup. He flashed. That was for sure. He flashed. He flashed in the joint as well when he
got some opportunities with the ones, and he’s just continuing. It’s a process. It’s not
something that we’re obviously trying to push. It’s just, hey, when the time comes, he’ll be
ready. He’s trying to work through that and the continuity with the group. And you’re not
seeing as much as he’s going to see, obviously, when we get going. So, pumping the brakes
a little on it, but just for what he was able to do and the ops that he had, we were pleased
with him.”
(On if Carolina getting hits on Bills QB Josh Allen will cause him to add extra protections)
“Totally, yeah. I watched the whole game already; they got him a few times. Princely
[Panthers LB Princely Umanmielen] had some good rushes. [Panthers LB] Jaelan Phillips
had some good rushes. One was a quick snap. The tackle didn’t hear it, so he got a free run
on him. I told Dave [Panthers Head Coach Dave Canales], I thought they did a nice job of
adding to that defense and continuing to improve it and give those guys some rush. So,
something we have to be aware of. We’re going to see it on Wednesday. And our guys need
to perform. It’s their job.”
(On if OL Chuma Edoga could come back before the end of camp) “Yeah. I would definitely
think so.”
(On the progress for WR/CB Travis Hunter in camp) “Yeah, I thought that obviously, the joint
being his first real exposure since that practice out here getting hurt. That was his first real
competitive situation against another team. I thought he did some good things, and there
were a couple things that we need to clean up. And it’s more so just about that group in the
back end specifically. They all are very talented. But it’s like, all right, how do we get on the
same page about what’s best for everybody, right? Like, it might be best for Travis to be in
press here, but is that what’s best for the next guy or the guy inside? How are we playing
two-man stacks and bunches? Being on the same page on all of that stuff is important so
that you’re not thinking to slow down your play. When they come up in a two-man stack,
we’re not thinking about how we’re going to play that stack. We already know we have it
locked down; we have it dialed in. Then they can just go out and play fast, and I think that
any exposure for him right now is good. It’ll continue to improve.”
(On the job Defensive Pass Game Coordinator Mathieu Araujo has done) “They work. I
mean, I think that obviously some technique and things showed up in the joint, in the
preseason game that we need to clean up. Different than last year at this time, Preseason
One, Steelers, we had a lot of communication issues that we really needed to hammer
down. And it was like, ‘Whoa, guys, we cannot move forward until we clean this up.’ That
wasn’t necessarily the case. It was more some technique. All right, we don’t want to be
playing press in this situation. We do want to be a little bit more aggressive in this situation
because we’ve been asking them to get a little bit more aggressive and sticky. And so, some
of the DPIs and holding, it is going to come when you’re playing a little bit more matchy and
sticky at times. So, I appreciate the work that he puts into it, the communication, and the
standard. There’s a very high standard in that room and demand. I think he coaches it from
a bigger lens than just, ‘All right, corner, this is your job.’ He’s trying to teach them the
defense and the intricacies of it so that they can continue to go play fast.”
(On what he gathered being on the defensive headset in New Orleans) “They still hear me,
‘No, no.’Campy [Defensive Coordinator Anthony Campanile] and I had some good
conversations about what to play in some situations and some certain down and
distances. I was able to hear the communication between all those guys. They were calm,
cool. I mean, there was no real hiccups of substitutions. I mean, that stuff gets funky now
when you have a million guys on the sideline playing. And usually, it does become a little bit
of a crap show at times. The communication, the personnel getting down, because
[Defensive Assistant/Assistant Defensive Line Coach] Grant Morgan’s new doing some
personnel with those guys. That was Mario [Raiders Offensive Run Game Coordinator Mario
Jeberaeel] last year doing that. So, there was a number of different new, I guess you could
call it, operations on the game, and I thought it went very smooth.”
(On if the plan was for WR/CB Travis Hunter to only play defense in 11-on-11) “Yeah, a little
bit today. We just wanted to get him the seven-on-seven work and just really hone in on a
little bit more corner. Made a good fricking play on the outcut over there. Trying to get him
more just when he’s on defense, and then getting some of the mental reps on defense.
When he’s not in and he’s coming to offense every time, we’re losing out on even more
coaching in those moments. And so, we wanted to just be very intentional today about
getting him some of those visual reps so Mat can coach him even when he’s not in, he’s not
running over. So, we just wanted to get him a little bit more of that.”
(On the first kickoff in New Orleans) “Yeah, [S] Jalen Huskey ended up kind of getting pinned
and he was the kind of contained player on the backside. So, they washed it all down and
ended up cutting it off, and he got washed down. He ended up making a nice play later on a
kickoff, but that one got out on us and it’s an area we’re kind of messing around with a little
bit different formation and different ways of trying to kick the ball as well, like different
heights. And so that kind of showed up for us a little bit. We know that’s an area that we
have to improve upon from last year, and we’ve got a lot of young guys out there doing it.
And they’ve got to learn from those ops.”
(On if they worked on addressing the offensive penalties today in practice) “No.”
(On whether Hunter being listed as a “backup” at wide receiver on the depth chart is just
due to the need to “put something on paper”) “That’s right. We all know he’s our 3A, 3B
receiver right now, you know what I mean? And trying to get him the exposure to every
opportunity that we have out here. But right now, I mean, we need a lot of the
communication, a lot of the repetition needs to continue obviously on both sides of the
ball, but specifically on the defense where, like, all right, offensively, it’s a lot of play called,
go execute the play. And shoot, there’s a lot of detail and fundamental and techniques that
go into that. But post-snap, pre-snap, post-snap on defense, there’s just so much more that
can go into it, especially being in unison and being in connection. And so, we’re just trying
to be intentional over the next couple weeks just about making sure that we’re ready to go
for Cleveland and feel good about that.”
