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Welcome to the NFL highlight reel, Travis Hunter.

While the Jacksonville Jaguars rookie was relatively quiet in his first four games, he turned in multiple highlight plays on a national stage during Monday’s 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

First, he displayed impressive elusiveness in the open field. Then, he came down with an incredible contested catch on a drive that Trevor Lawrence capped off with a touchdown run.

Social media had plenty of reaction for the rookie, who finished with three catches for 64 yards as a receiver and two tackles and a pass defended as a cornerback:

Hunter is playing on both sides of the ball after winning the Heisman Trophy at Colorado doing just that, so it is reasonable to expect him to not put up video-game like numbers right away. He entered Monday’s contest with 13 catches for 118 yards and zero touchdowns on offense to go with 11 tackles and one pass defended on defense.

The slow start raised some eyebrows, but the Jaguars reportedly weren’t worried.Â

“They’re not that worried about Travis Hunter,” Mike Silver reported during an appearance on the Scoop City podcast with Dianna Russini and James Palmer of The Athletic (37:40:00 mark). “I think this will evolve, and in their mind he is unbelievable in the building, very coachable, great energy.”

Monday’s plays made it perfectly clear why Jacksonville wasn’t particularly worried about a relatively slow start. The talent is there, and it is just a matter of time before it shines through on the field.

The Jaguars gave up a 2026 first-round pick, among other draft assets, to move up to No. 2 and take Hunter in the 2025 draft, so they will surely want more consistency from the Colorado product over the course of his career.

For now, though, they are surely pleased with the highlight plays in a win.

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Three days after the New York Yankees got a historic playoff performance from their best rookie pitcher, they were on the receiving end one of an instantly iconic postseason debut by Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage.

The 22-year-old, who just made his MLB debut on Sept. 15, didn’t have nerves on the playoff stage with 11 strikeouts over 5.1 no-hit innings against the Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.

Since Yesavage is still on a closely-monitored pitch count having already thrown a career-high 112 innings in the regular season between the majors and minors, he was pulled from the game with one out in the fifth inning to a raucous ovation from the Rogers Centre crowd.

e Jays were leading 12-0 when Yesavage left the game. No one was happier to see him get pulled than the Yankees, who immediately responded by getting their first hit of the game with two outs in the sixth on Aaron Judge’s single.

Cody Bellinger got the Yankees on the board with a two-run homer off Justin Bruihl. It at least ensured the Bronx Bombers wouldn’t be shut out in a playoff game for the first time since Game 3 of the 2022 ALCS against the Houston Astros.

Pitchers making their first career postseason start have generally done very well this October. The Yankees advanced to the ALDS on the strength of Cam Schlittler’s eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts and no walks against the Boston Red Sox in Game 3 of the wild-card series.

Shohei Ohtani is obviously an established superstar, but he had never pitched in the playoffs until Game 1 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. The three-time MVP got hit early, though he rebounded after a shaky start to toss six innings and strike out nine while allowing just three earned runs in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-3 win.

Yesavage’s performance might be the most unexpectedly great outing for a first-time playoff starter. He was just drafted 15 months ago with the No. 20 pick in 2024 and started this season in A ball, playing at four different levels before getting called up to the big leagues.

The Blue Jays got their first playoff win since 2016 in Game 1 against the Yankees. If Yesavage keeps pitching like this going forward, they might represent the AL in the World Series for the first time since 1993.

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