As the NFL's year-round calendar has moved on from Super Bowl LX and attention turns from what was to what will be, we have a brief stretch before the combine in Indianapolis, the start of free agency, and this year's NFL draft to take a closer look at what has become of the Jacksonville Jaguars' selections from the 2025 draft.

The Jags drafted nine players last year, starting with the two-way superstar Travis Hunter -- and that's where we'll kick off our retrospective.

In maneuvering to get the second overall pick – a player general manager James Gladstone described as a "generational" talent, capable of turning around a franchise that had for years been slipping into the doldrums of the AFC South – the Jaguars leveraged nothing less than their future.

To land the No. 2 pick from the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville traded a significant package, including its 2025 first-round selection (No. 5), a 2025 second-round pick (No. 36), a fourth-round pick (No. 126), and the team's only 2026 first-round pick.

"He’s a rare person. He’s a rare player. But he’s also a reminder that the boundaries of the game of football were built to be challenged," Gladstone said after the draft, stressing that by investing so much in selecting Hunter, the team was making a statement.

"[A] statement for how we plan to move [and] who we are," he said. "We want him to be nothing more than him because, when he is, he elevates the space around him."

The Jaguars signed Hunter to a four-year, $46.65 million fully guaranteed rookie contract. The deal featured a record-setting $30.57 million signing bonus paid entirely upfront.

The most decorated player in Colorado Buffaloes history, Hunter moved to the pros as the first Heisman Trophy winner in Jaguars' draft history. At 185 pounds, the 6-foot speedster was also the lightest prospect Jacksonville had ever drafted, but he carried with him a load of collegiate honors from 2024, including the Bednarik Award, Walter Camp Award, Biletnikoff Award, Hornung Award, and the Associated Press National Player of the Year award in addition to the Heisman.

The West Palm Beach, Florida, native played four years of college football, his first at Jackson State before becoming part of an elite cadre of players coach Deion Sanders took with him to Colorado. Playing both receiver and defensive back in Boulder, Hunter totaled 2,625 snaps in his last two seasons with the Buffaloes, leading the FBS in snaps played in both 2023 and 2024. In his senior season at Colorado, finished with nearly 1,400 scrimmage snaps on offense and defense – 382 more than any other player in the country.

Seven games into the Jags' 2025 resurrection, Hunter suffered a season-ending lateral collateral ligament injury during practice on Oct. 30. He had surgery on that right knee and spent the rest of 2025 in recovery and rehab.

There's no specific time-line for Hunter's return, as coach Liam Coen indicated during Super Bowl Week in an interview on Radio Row.

"Travis looks great right now," Coen told CBSSports' Pete Prisco on Feb. 6. "I actually was in the weight room working out last week. Saw him bouncing around, bouncing through. Looks great walking around."

What are the expectations for Hunter as far as spring workouts and gearing up for 2026?

"We're going to continue to be able to evaluate," Coen said. "And we'll continue to be fluid with (how Hunter is deployed)."

As a freshman at Jackson State, Hunter suffered an undisclosed injury in the season opener, and while Sanders refrained from reporting the injury and evaded reporters' questions about it, Hunter sat out five games for the Tigers. He was seen with both ankles iced and wrapped following Jax State's first game, but more information about that injury was never disclosed.

Before Sanders snatched Hunter from the clutches of FBS Florida State, with whom the five-star recruit had signed early on, Hunter already had put likely twice as much mileage on his body as a dual-threat prep superstar than most high-school prodigies in the history of the sport.

In the seven games he played for the Jaguars this past season, Hunter totaled 28 catches (45 targets) for 298 yards and one touchdown on offense. On defense, he finished with 15 tackles and three pass deflections. In total, Hunter played 324 snaps on offense and 162 on defense (with three on special teams).

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In addition to pulling off one of the most audacious and most expensive draft deals in franchise and possibly league history, the Jaguars also netted running back Bhayshul Tuten in the fourth round at No. 104.

Navy safety Rayuan Lane III was also part of the mega-trade as a sixth-round pick at No. 200.

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