Arik Armstead knows a great talent when he sees one.
The 12th-year veteran has been around for a long time and has been a part of some great teams with some great talent. Armstead spent the first nine seasons of his career with the San Francisco 49ers before signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2024, helping lead them to two Super Bowl appearances.
Along the way, Armstead played with the likes of Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Trent Williams and Fred Warner. But he’s currently playing alongside a generational talent in Travis Hunter, a two-way phenom who won the Heisman Trophy while in college with the Colorado Buffaloes. Hunter excelled as a wide receiver and a defensive back, winning both the Chuck Bednarik Award (nation’s top defensive player) and the Fred Biletnikoff Award (best wide receiver).
Hunter didn’t have a chance to display his talent during his rookie season, limited to just seven games due to a season-ending LCL injury. He posted just 28 catches for 298 receiving yards and one touchdown with 15 tackles on defense.
Arik Armstead on Travis Hunter: ‘One of the Most Athletically Gifted Guys’
Fast forward a year later and Hunter is healthy. While he is still playing both sides of the ball in training camp, he has been playing the majority of his snaps on defense. Armstead gave his honest thoughts on Hunter and said that he’s “one of the most athletically gifted guys” he’s ever played with.
“Travis is phenomenal, one of the most athletically gifted guys I’ve been around, and I’ve been around some amazingly talented guys,” said Armstead in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports. “Really can do anything, and I think beyond his talent, his mentality of being free and having fun, really just enjoying the game and everything that comes with it just makes him a really special player. He’s dynamic on offense and defense, and I’m happy that he’s healthy, putting in a lot of hard work, and I can’t wait to see what he does this year.”
As mentioned before, the Jaguars have been leaning on using Hunter on defense more than offense during the preseason. As Michael DiRocco of ESPN recently pointed out, Hunter has played 183 of his 249 snaps on defense through Sunday during training camp.
“Jaguars CB/WR Travis Hunter 11-on-11 snap tracker Day 17 snaps: 20 (all on defense) Total snaps: 249 (183 defense, 65 offense, 1 special teams) (not including Saints joint practice),” wrote DiRocco.
When asked who he would compare Hunter to, Armstead had difficulty coming up with a player comparison for the one-of-a-kind two-way athlete.
“I don’t know,” said Armstead. “You gotta think of two people because he plays both. I think defensively, his ball skills are just so high, and he plays defensive back like he’s a receiver. That just makes him very dangerous because when the ball’s in the air, he turns into receiver mode, and he’s going to get it. It’s not like he’s just trying to cover and knock the ball down. He’s trying to take the ball away and make big plays. Guys like that have elite ball skills. I think that is what sticks out. So I don’t know. It’s hard to compare him to a player because no one has done what he’s doing.”
Arik Armstead on Purpose of Armstead Academic Project, His Non-Profit Foundation
Armstead has certainly carved out one memorable career for himself as a consistent defensive presence since entering the NFL in 2015. However, he’s made just as big of a mark — if not bigger — off of the field. Armstead is a 2024 NFL Man of the Year winner, an award given to players who excel in their efforts within the community.
The veteran defensive lineman continues to make an impact through his non-profit, the Armstead Academic Project, something that he founded in 2019. The initiative of the project is to bring career camps to cities, raising job opportunities and awareness for youth. It’s an initiative that he participates in with his wife, Dr. Mindy Armstead.
“We work with young people from typically high school students that are one or two years removed from high school,” said Armstead. “We bring them to companies all around the country and teach them about careers and job opportunities that they can have. We found that it’s a really, really impactful program — not only for our students — but also the companies that we work with and the employees that have an opportunity to tell about their experiences, but also teach our young people and show them a path.
“They get a lot of enjoyment out of that as well, too,” Armstead continued. “We’ve been having great success with this program. I think there is a little bit of a misconception about social capital and opportunities in our country, and it doesn’t take a whole robust network and multitude of individuals that young people have access to to be the real change. Sometimes it can just take one person or one connection that can really change their life, change their mentality, and change how they feed themselves. We believe that exposure is very key.”
Armstead makes it clear that he wants to remain very active in the community even after his NFL career is over.
“When we started the organization, the first word I would say and first goal for our organization was sustainability,” said Armstead. “I’ve seen and had a lot of examples of athletes starting nonprofits and foundations, and you know having having such a big heart and wanting to help people, but I’ve seen some of that heart and some of what they had set out to do kind of diminish throughout the years as life changes and possibly they’re no longer playing. I want our organization to have a sustainable impact for many, many years, even long after I’m done playing football.
“In order to do that, having a sustainable organization that can grow in scale, and that is what our organization was started off as, what was in the forefront of our mind,” Armstead continued. “Long-term sustainability, I want to continue to serve more and more youth and their families, and we want to help as many young people as we can achieve and accomplish their goals.”
Jaguars Star Doesn’t Hold Back on His Honest Thoughts on Travis Hunter