Jaguars star Travis Hunter undergoes season-ending knee surgery to repair LCL, sidelined 6 months

Travis Hunter's rookie season is over.

The Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver and cornerback underwent knee surgery Tuesday to repair his LCL, the team announced. He will miss the rest of the season, and will be sidelined for about six months recovering. Hunter is expected to be available for the start of the season next fall.

Hunter went down with a non-contact injury in practice last month, and has been sidelined since. The Jaguars put him on injured reserve, and he's missed their past two games as a result. While initial testing indicated his ACL was still intact after the practice incident, the injury still required surgery and will now prematurely end his first season in the league.

Hunter won the Heisman Trophy last season at Colorado, and was selected by the Jaguars with the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft earlier this spring. He had 298 receiving yards and a touchdown in seven games. He was coming off his best offensive game before the injury. The 22-year-old had 101 receiving yards on eight catches, both career-highs, and scored his first career touchdown in Jacksonville's loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 19.

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The two-way player played 162 of his 486 total snaps at cornerback. He had 15 tackles and three pass deflections on the season.

The Jaguars will enter Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers 5-4. They've lost three of their past four games, including a brutal collapse against the Houston Texans last weekend in which they gave up 26 points in the fourth quarter.

While quarterback Trevor Lawrence still has wide receivers Brian Thomas Jr. and Parker Washington available, Hunter's injury is undoubtedly a blow to the offense as the team tries to rally and make what would be its first playoff appearance since the 2022 season.