GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers might have a Travis Hunter of their own, and his name is Bo Melton.
The backup receiver, who has played in 22 games the past two seasons in Green Bay, did something rarely -- if ever -- seen before during a Packers practice: Within the same drill, Melton not only played his regular position but also flipped over to the other side of the ball and took some snaps at cornerback.
It was partially out of necessity after cutting Jaire Alexander and being down a couple of injured corners (Kalen King and Micah Robinson), but coach Matt LaFleur seemed to genuinely believe Melton could play both ways.
In fact, it sounds like LaFleur has thought that for some time now -- as far as back as when Melton first arrived in Green Bay late in the 2022 season, when he was signed off the Seattle Seahawks practice squad.
"He was like, 'You ever play cornerback?'" Melton recalled after Wednesday's minicamp practice, his second as a two-way player. "That's when it first got in my mind. And then after that I forgot, and now it came back. And everybody was hinting at it.
"When you're out there playing special teams and on punt you're on the corner side and you're out there doing crazy stuff, strapping people, they like, 'Yeah, you could play some DB.' So the situation we're in now, it was like, 'Let's see if he can really do it.' I don't care, let's do it."
LaFleur broached the subject again last week after the Packers' final OTA practice. When minicamp opened on Tuesday, Melton made his debut as a cornerback while still wearing his white No. 80 jersey in practice, where offensive players wear white and defensive players wear green.
"I know there's a lot of attention with Hunter down there in Jacksonville with what he's doing," LaFleur said of the Jaguars' two-way rookie. "So we just kinda presented it to him, and he said he was up for the challenge."
Melton, however, wanted to make one thing clear: He's not Hunter, the second-overall pick, who played both receiver and cornerback at Colorado and is expected to do the same in the NFL. In fact, Melton has not played both ways in a game since his high school days in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. His last snaps of any kind at cornerback were during his early practices at Rutgers.
"Travis is a different athlete, as everybody knows," Melton said. "He's a Heisman Trophy winner, won a lot of awards. I'm not going to compare myself to somebody that's done that. But what I will say is I like to run for days.
"I'm very versatile. Some things I like doing at receiver can make me be open for wideout. Some things at corner that I've done that have shown this team, these coaches, that [I] probably could work at corner. It's just something they want to look at. I don't have a problem with it as long as everything's right."
Melton also wanted to make something else clear: He's not even the best cornerback in his own family.
That title belongs to his brother, Max, a second-round pick of the Arizona Cardinals last year.
In fact, his brother was as surprised as anyone to find out Bo was playing cornerback at Packers' minicamp this week, especially since Bo kept it a secret until Max saw the clips on social media.
Max's reaction, per Bo, was: "What the f---?"
"I had to tell him, 'Look, man, I can't tell you everything. But yeah, I'm going to try it out and see how it is,'" Bo added.
At first, even some of Melton's Packers teammates were caught off guard.
"It's different when you see a receiver come over there and he's wearing No. 80 and you see him in a one-line drill," Packers cornerback Carrington Valentine said. "But when you see him start doing it, we like 'Oh yeah, he got him some Melton blood right there, for sure.'"
Imagine how quarterback Jordan Love felt when he threw a pass to Melton, then a few plays later, Melton was defending a pass from Love.
"That was definitely confusing," Love said. "During the jog-through, I was mentioning that it looked like Bo was a receiver out there, but he was actually playing DB, so I was trying not to throw it to him."
It's not like Melton hasn't had his moments as a receiver during his two-plus seasons in Green Bay. In 2023, he made his first career start in Week 17 against the Vikings and caught six passes for 105 yards with a touchdown to become the first Packers player since 2013 with 100 yards receiving and a touchdown in his first start. He played in all 17 games last season but had a bigger role on special teams. On offense, he caught eight passes for 91 yards and carried the ball eight times for 54 yards when LaFleur utilized Melton's speed on end-around and jet-motion plays.
But with the addition of two rookie receivers -- first-round pick Matthew Golden and third-rounder Savion Williams -- there's no guarantee Melton would have a roster spot playing only receiver, even though they like what he does as a core special teams player.
"We've talked about this for a couple of years, just his skill set and how versatile he is," Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said. "You watch him on [special teams] and you're like, 'Wow, he can probably do some of that.' I think it's just something we're going to look at and see if it's a possibility.
"Bo is everything we want in a football player out there as far as his ability as a receiver, certainly on [special] teams. If he's able to add to his arsenal, that makes him really, really valuable to us."
