Very little excites sports fans more than seeing something never seen before.
Shohei Ohtani wasn’t the first MLB player to hit and pitch at a high level, but with Babe Ruth long gone, the work Ohtani did on the mound and at the plate was a first for just about all living baseball fans.
What Travis Hunter is doing is fairly unprecedented. A full-time wide receiver and full-time cornerback at Colorado, Hunter played so well on his way to a Heisman Trophy that he insisted on being a two-way player at the NFL level. He isn’t the first two-way player by any means, but no one in recent memory has done it as regularly as him.
Here’s a look at the best two-way players in NFL history, from Deion Sanders to Chuck Bednarik.
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What is a two-way player in the NFL?
It’s not uncommon for NFL players to play multiple roles, such as a running back functioning as a wide receiver or a defensive back dabbling as a linebacker, but the term “two-way player” is typically reserved for a player who plays both offense and defense.
Most two-way players in NFL history, or at least the Super Bowl era, didn’t play both sides of the ball as regularly as Hunter. Most were primarily used on one side of the ball and occasionally used on the other — still a remarkable feat, but also a reminder that what Hunter can do is extraordinarily rare.
It can be argued that the last full-time two-way NFL player before Hunter last played in 1962, so the label has been stretched a bit in the modern NFL. Hunter, however, is rewriting what it means to be a true two-way player.
Greatest NFL two-way players of all time
Chuck Bednarik
Bednarik was the NFL’s last full-time two-way player before Hunter, and he didn’t even play in the Super Bowl era. That’s how rare the feat actually is.
The Hall of Famer played both linebacker and center over the first eight seasons of his career with the Eagles, earning one All-Pro selection as a center in addition to several more as a linebacker. Bednarik retired after 1962 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.
Bednarik believed he was playing football the way it was meant to be played, sharing resentment later in his life for a generation of players that did not play both sides of the ball.
“No way in hell any [current players] can go both ways,” Bednarik told Sports Illustrated in 1993. “They don’t want to. They’re afraid they’ll get hurt. And the money’s too big, that’s another thing.”
Bednarik was particularly critical of Deion Sanders when Sanders was attempting to play wide receiver in addition to cornerback (and baseball). “He couldn’t tackle my wife Emma,” Bednarik told Philadelphia Magazine. “He was supposed to be the next two-way football player. My a—!”
Deion Sanders
Sanders is better known as a two-sport star, but he also tried his hand at becoming a two-way player in the NFL. A Hall of Famer for his work at cornerback, Sanders earned six First-Team All-Pro selections and a Defensive Player of the Year Award while also catching 60 passes for 784 yards and three touchdowns in his career.
Sanders only spent one season taking regular snaps on the offensive side of the ball, totaling 475 yards and a touchdown on 36 catches (67 targets) with the Cowboys in 1996. The following season, Sanders stuck to cornerback and didn’t even record a catch on the offense.
While it didn’t last long, Sanders’ time as both a cornerback and wide receiver certainly helped him set the expectations for Hunter at Jackson State and Colorado.
Mike Vrabel
Vrabel was primarily a linebacker during his 14 seasons in the NFL, but he saw frequent red-zone usage as a pass-catcher with the Patriots.
Though he only recorded 14 receiving yards in his career, Vrabel had 10 touchdown receptions in the regular season and two more in the playoffs, both of which came in Super Bowl wins. With the size of a tight end, Vrabel’s efficiency as a pass-catcher was excellent: he scored a touchdown on more than 70 percent of his regular-season targets.
Troy Brown
Brown spent his entire 15-year career with the Patriots, emerging as a useful receiver before Tom Brady’s arrival and recording his only 1,000-yard season in Brady’s first season as New England’s starter.
While Brown’s 6,366 yards and 31 touchdowns defined his career, injuries forced him into a cornerback role in 2004. He recorded three interceptions and 17 tackles while also hauling in 17 receptions for 184 yards in a scaled-down offensive role.
Brown returned to his primary role as a receiver for the final two full seasons of his career, but his work for a Patriots team that would end up winning another Super Bowl made him a true team player in 2004.
Sammy Baugh
Baugh was one of the most successful quarterbacks of the pre-Super Bowl era, spending 16 seasons with the Redskins and leading the NFL in completion percentage eight times, but he also spent a portion of his career as a defensive back in an era in which two-way players were much more common. Baugh recorded 31 interceptions over his first six seasons, including an NFL-leading 11 interceptions in 1943.
Baugh might be considered a three-way player, as he also punted for the majority of his career. Baugh punted 338 times, leading the NFL in yards per punt five times.
Patrick Ricard
Ricard is a five-time Pro-Bowler at fullback for the Ravens, but he got his start as a defensive lineman and played both positions over the first three seasons of his career.
Ricard played 225 defensive snaps from 2017-19, including a career-high 140 in 2019, and he played 587 offensive snaps over the same span. Since 2020, Ricard has focused entirely on the offensive side of the ball. Ricard has seven career touchdowns as well as a sack, making him one of the modern NFL’s most unique players.
George Blanda
Blanda, a Hall of Fame quarterback, also made a name for himself as a kicker in an NFL career that spanned parts of four different decades. He attempted 641 field goals, making 335 in an era that saw far lower field goal percentages than those of the modern game.
Blanda made eight field goals of at least 50 yards after field goal distances started being recorded in 1960, and he spent his final nine seasons as a primary kicker with only one start at quarterback. As a quarterback, Blanda threw 236 touchdown passes and went 53-50-1 with 26,920 yards.
Challenges of being a two-way player in the modern NFL
The skill required to play two totally different positions at the NFL level exceeds what most players are capable of doing, but there are plenty of challenges for even the players who can realistically pull it off.
In a game as physically taxing as football, avoiding injuries and staying on the field is as much of a skill as anything else. Playing on both sides of the ball naturally makes a player more susceptible to injury, given it requires playing more snaps, taking more hits, and having shorter breaks during a game. Even if players can be an asset on both sides of the ball, that type of risk might not be worthwhile for himself or for a team.
Very few players actually make it from college football to the NFL, so focusing on two entirely different positions rather than one while developing might not be seen as efficient. If cornerback is your strongest position, refining your skills at cornerback — instead of devoting time to two different positions — is likely your best path to the NFL, knowing how difficult it is just to reach the league.
Hunter took a risk by committing to both the cornerback and wide receiver positions, but he proved it can pay off with the right work ethic and skill.
Will we see more two-way players in the future?
The NFL is a copycat league. When one strategy succeeds, the rest of the league tends to follow. That doesn’t mean a slew of two-way players are likely to enter the NFL after Travis Hunter, but Hunter’s college success and the buzz surrounding him could open the door for other talented players to try their hand at both sides of the ball.
If Hunter is successful and durable as a two-way player at the NFL level, other teams might be incentivized to give future draft prospects a chance to play two ways. Likewise, a successful career from Hunter could inspire other players to stick with two different positions. There is not much evidence yet of many players trying to follow Hunter’s lead, but a Heisman Trophy season undoubtedly stuck in the minds of plenty of aspiring young fans hoping to one day play at the same level.
Ohtani proved that two-way players can be an anomaly, albeit in a different sport. Ohtani became the biggest sensation in baseball by hitting and pitching at a high level, but more two-way players haven’t followed. A few minor-league players have experimented with pitching and hitting, but the results have proven that doing both at the professional level is extremely difficult. If history has proven anything, that’s true at the NFL level, as well.
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