"He's not a big guy": Coach Mangini weighs in on Travis Kelce's strategy to tire Travis Hunter out 

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce offered some advice to Jacksonville Jaguars rookie Travis Hunter about the intensity of playing two positions in the NFL. The superstar TE suggested that teams will look to tire Hunter out when he plays at cornerback by throwing deep balls toward him.

On Monday, former NFL coach Eric Mangini weighed in on Kelce's comments about teams using a potential strategy against Hunter.

"He (Hunter) has shown that he's built different, but there's a significant difference between college football and the NFL," Mangini said on FS1's "First Things First."

"The season is significantly longer. The quality of the players that he's playing against are good every single week, which is different than college. There are some weeks where he was so much better than anybody else that was on the field that that was a different, different equation. The other way I think you can attack him is that he's not a big guy... one of the things that we would do consistently is, if you get a finesse defensive back, you try to make him tackle.

"Like, okay, you want to cover. We get that. Congratulations. But we're going to make you tackle and see whether you know what kind of stomach you have for that at 175lbs," he added.

Hunter has been adamant that he wants to play on both sides of the ball. His versatility as a wideout and a cornerback helped him win the Heisman Trophy in his final collegiate season at Colorado.

The Jaguars, who traded up to take Hunter with the No. 2 pick in the draft, initially used him as a wideout at the rookie minicamp before getting him up to speed about their defensive plays.

Nonetheless, Kelce isn't the first player who has warned Hunter about the workload of playing two positions in the NFL.

Chiefs TE Travis Kelce hints at retirement after 2025 season

Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce - Source: Getty

Although Travis Kelce confirmed that he was returning to the Chiefs for the 2025 season, the tight end hinted that next season could be his last in the NFL.

"When you get older, you start to figure things out differently," Kelce said in an episode of the "Bussin' With The Boys" podcast last week. "Your body doesn’t respond like it used to. You have to focus more on preparation and recovery. During the week, you need a plan to get back to 100%. Thinking about all that, I just didn’t want to leave anything on the table."

Travis Kelce has played his entire NFL career so far with the Chiefs, who drafted him in the third round of the 2013 draft. He has racked up 12,151 yards and 77 touchdowns on 1,004 receptions ever since.

Kelce has earned 10 Pro Bowl honors and won three Super Bowls with the Chiefs.