Travis Hunter won’t be on the field for the Jaguars’ preseason finale on Saturday.

The wide receiver and cornerback is currently managing an upper body injury that he suffered during a scrimmage last week. Despite this setback, the Jacksonville team remains hopeful that the rookie will be available for the season opener.

“The decision was really about whether we want him to participate now or risk him not being able to play against Carolina in Week 1,” head coach Liam Coen explained on Thursday, according to ESPN. “We’re trying to be strategic about the upcoming weeks because our main target is the game against Carolina.”

“Could he have probably gone? I think so. If this was Carolina, would he have probably played? Yeah, so we’re moving in the right direction.”

Selected as the No. 2 pick by the Jags in April’s draft, Hunter was absent from Jacksonville’s second preseason game last weekend due to the same injury. Nevertheless, he made his first appearance in their initial game against the Steelers on August 9.

“I was a little nervous at first,” Hunter said after that contest. “But after the first play, I was good.”

The Colorado product played both sides of the ball — 10 snaps on offense at receiver and eight snaps on defense at cornerback.

He received some modest praise from Coen after catching two passes for nine yards on offense. 

“He made a couple good catches on some option routes and missed the one tackle defensively that I noticed,” Coen said. “I’ll have to watch the tape on how he operated defensively a little bit more, but I thought offensively, he made the right decisions on those option routes. Made a good catch, almost broke out of that one where Trevor [Lawrence] put it behind him on that third down we talked about, but I’ll have to go watch the tape a little bit more to know more.”

On defense, Hunter had a missed tackle and appeared to be a bit confused about the call before the snap.

“We can flush it right away and just get back to business,” Hunter said. “I know what I’ve got to do next time.”