Inside Jaguars’ blockbuster trade for Travis Hunter in 2025 NFL Draft: ‘Let’s make history’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As rebrands go, this was a golden opportunity, a chance to show the football world that the Jacksonville Jaguars can no longer be dismissed as dull doormats. And when the moment arrived, Jags owner Shad Khan’s instructions were clear.

“Let’s make history,” Khan said to his newly hired general manager, 34-year-old James Gladstone, provoking giddy cheers inside the team’s draft room Thursday night. It was 8:13 p.m. ET, and a blockbuster trade that Gladstone had worked out 17 days earlier could now be officially executed.

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The Tennessee Titans had selected quarterback Cam Ward with the first pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, removing the last possible contingency. The Cleveland Browns were on the clock. Within the next 60 seconds, the Jaguars would be.

In a deal designed to underscore the unveiling of a new era, the Jags parted with a package that included the No. 5 pick, a 2025 second-round selection and a 2026 first-rounder to move up three spots to No. 2 — with designs on landing a singular player they viewed as the ultimate game-changer.

Thirty minutes later, still basking in the glow of acquiring Heisman Trophy-winning wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, Khan, whose team has made only two postseason appearances since he purchased the franchise in 2011, explained his euphoria.

“One thing the Jags have always done well is building draft capital,” Khan said. “We’ve been great at stockpiling picks. And when it gets right down it, what do you have to show for it?

“We need difference-makers. That’s what we got.”

Since overhauling his organization after the 2024 season with the hirings of Hall of Famer Tony Boselli as executive vice president of football operations, Liam Coen as coach and Gladstone as general manager, Khan has been encouraged by the trio’s aggressive — and daring — approach.

“If there’s an opportunity to be bold,” Gladstone is fond of saying, “we won’t flinch.”

On Thursday, wearing a beige hoody under a light-green linen blazer, Gladstone walked the walk, completing a three-week process that he and his Cleveland Browns counterpart, Andrew Berry, managed to keep out of the public realm until the hours leading up to the draft.

Gladstone, a protégé of Rams general manager Les Snead, seems to have transported the “F— Them Picks” mantra to Jacksonville.

No one in the Jags’ draft room had any complaints Thursday night.

“He’s truly a unique player,” Boselli said of Hunter. “In our mind, we got two second overall picks this year.”

Hunter emblematizes the qualities Gladstone, Coen and Boselli are seeking as they conjure a reset of this oft-struggling franchise. The Jags are coming off a miserable 4-13 season that led to the dismissal of coach Doug Pederson and, eventually, general manager Trent Baalke.

Gladstone aligned the digital draft board to reflect the desire for the type of player that he, Coen and Boselli covet. To the right of each player’s name, featured prominently, is a color-coded number (from 1 to 9) denoting “Jaguars DNA,” a metric based on the collective assessment of scouts and coaches. Competitiveness, toughness and love of football are some of the attributes that factor into that equation.

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Players are split into vertical columns by position and ranked from top to bottom by category — with the most desirable draftees stationed at the top. The category at the top of the board: “Math Changers,” reserved for players Gladstone, Coen and Boselli believe could have a massive impact on the team’s fortunes. (The category below that: “Math Changers, Buyer Beware.”)

As the process played out, only two players ended up in the top column: Hunter and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty.

Almost certainly, the Jags could have stayed at No. 5 and taken Jeanty, but he plays a non-premium position (in terms of draft value). They had interest in trading down to pick up extra draft capital, while still getting a player they deemed valuable later in the round, but they were hardly alone. Most teams in the four to 15 range had similar sensibilities, and the overtures the Jags received from teams later in the round weren’t overly enticing. The Jags’ braintrust felt as though other teams were trying to exploit the situation — the knowledge so many teams were intent on trading down — and, perhaps, to test a first-time GM to see if they could extract favorable terms.

If so, those efforts were fruitless.

“I’ll say this,” said Boselli. “Underestimate James at your own peril. He’s a killer. He’s fearless.”

Three weeks ago, Gladstone transposed the equation and asked Boselli and Coen, during a meeting in the draft room: “What if we trade up?

Hunter, he reasoned, is a generational player who could presumably fortify two important positions. In other words, he could change the math. Better yet, he’s an exceptionally hard worker who takes pride in honing his craft, the exact type of tone-setter for the new regime.

“We’d watched his tape and repeatedly said, ‘Wow — can you believe this guy?’” Boselli recalled.

Travis Hunter’s two-way skills were special enough for the Jaguars to make the bold move on the first night of the NFL Draft. (Ed Zurga / Getty Images)

Said Gladstone: “It had been brewing in my mind. Finally, I voiced it. It was like, ‘We’re so close to it. We can almost touch it. Why not try to see if we can reach out and grab it?’”

After Boselli and Coen responded favorably, Gladstone called Berry, who was amenable to the discussion. It made sense, given the Browns’ overall situation: Still hamstrung by the Deshaun Watson contract, and likely in need of a franchise quarterback in the very near future, securing an extra first-round pick for next year would put Cleveland in a better position to accomplish that goal — while also giving the Browns immediate help in the form of the extra second-round selection this year.

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On April 7, Gladstone and Berry worked out the terms of a trade, with two contingencies. First, it would only be completed once the Browns were on the clock, and only if the Titans — or another team, via trade — selected Ward with the first pick. Otherwise, the Browns would scrap the trade and take Ward themselves. And secondly, each team’s owner had to approve the deal.

When Gladstone relayed all of this to Boselli, he responded, “I think it’s time to go talk to Shad.”

Boselli, Gladstone and Coen then went to Boselli’s office and placed a call to Khan, who listened to the trio’s reasoning: Hunter was special, and this was an opportunity to make a bold move that spoke to the team’s new direction. It sounded good to Khan, who asked a few questions. Finally, he told them, “If you guys think it’s best, let’s do it.”

The Jags and Browns kept their pact quiet; chatter about a possible trade didn’t surface publicly until Thursday afternoon, about five hours before the start of the draft.

By Thursday morning, the buzz in the Jags’ training facility was palpable. Gladstone and Boselli converged in the draft room — Gladstone pacing and fondling a football (which has become his custom), Boselli reclining in a chair facing the draft board — and spoke excitedly of the night ahead.

“This is a chance for us to underscore the fact that this is a new day in Jacksonville,” Boselli said. “We’re not going to be timid. We might not always be right. But we’re going to stand for something, and we’re not going to be afraid to go out and get what we want.”

From the start, the Jags viewed Hunter as a two-way prospect. The plan is to use him as a wide receiver as he eases into his pro career — “Guess which side of the ball our head coach comes from,” Gladstone said, laughing — while creating a package of plays featuring him as a cornerback. Eventually, if all goes well, his defensive load could be increased.

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Hunter has said he is intent on becoming the NFL’s first true full-time two-way player in many, many decades. In Jacksonville, it’s quite possible he’ll get that chance.

“It’s an organizational effort, and we have a plan,” Coen said. “We’re excited about all the things he can do, and he’s the kind of guy we want to have in our building.”

As the start of the draft approached, the Jags’ new power trio — along with Khan, son Tony and daughter Shanna — bounced excitedly around the otherwise sparsely populated draft room, waiting for the excitement to begin.

Once Gladstone executed the trade, Hunter, too, was caught off guard. Other than an interview at the NFL Scouting Combine, the Jags had no communication with the player throughout the draft process, and he learned of the trade in real time.

“You know what?” Gladstone said to Hunter, “Go ahead and take this one in. We’re trading up from No. 5 to No. 2, and we’re doing it because you’re the one we’ve been hunting.”

“Yes, sir!” Hunter said excitedly, and confidently. “That’s the best decision.”

Later, Boselli — the first draft pick in Jaguars history — told Hunter, “Thirty years ago, I was the second pick. … We were coming after you from the beginning.”

In the end, the Jags got their man, and made a resounding statement in the process.

(Top photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

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