Navy standout and NFL Draft prospect Rayuan Lane III is grateful for his unique path

It was one of the most important job interviews of his young life, and Rayuan Lane III treated it as such. Yet, he couldn’t help but also think about what he was missing back home.

A four-year starting safety at Navy, Lane’s circumstances differed from the other 120-plus players who were in Mobile, Ala., in late January for the Senior Bowl. His path to the pre-draft prospect showcase was unique, as well.

Navy safeties coach and defensive pass game coordinator Eric Lewis reached out to Lane to find out how Senior Bowl practices were going. Lane’s response was emblematic of an athlete juggling far more than his NFL aspirations.

“He said, ‘Coach, I’m missing three days of class. This better work out,’” Lewis recalled.

As prospects prepared at specialty training facilities around the country for pro days and pre-draft showcases, Lane spent more than six hours daily in a classroom in Annapolis, Md., working toward a degree in quantitative economics. As NFL hopefuls rise early for workouts and road trips to visit discerning organizations, Lane’s mornings start with formation. He runs, lifts, practices and watches film during his “downtime” between classes.

“It’s extraordinarily unique and extraordinarily difficult what he’s doing,” Lewis said. “He came back from the Senior Bowl, and he had to go right to class. He had to go to physics, he had to go to calculus. There’s no days off, including Saturdays. He had to do his physical readiness test, run a mile and a half for a time a week before the combine. I told every NFL team that his upside is tremendous because for the first time in his life, he’ll get to solely focus on football.”

There are 257 players who will be drafted by NFL teams next week, and a few hundred others who will sign deals as college free agents. They’ll all have their own stories to tell.

Lane quit football as a sophomore in high school. He returned to the sport after a one-year hiatus, but he was a no-star recruit out of the Gilman School in Baltimore. However, he earned a starting job during his plebe (freshman) season at Navy. Following his sophomore campaign, he entered the transfer portal, where college football blue bloods were offering him a significant amount of NIL money to join them.

The lure back to Annapolis, though, was too strong. He was a staunch believer in the institution and its mission. He was entrenched in an exclusive brotherhood with teammates and classmates. And now, Lane is poised to become the first player from Navy to get drafted to the NFL in five years. At some point next week — the three-day draft begins April 24 — Lane could also become the first Navy defensive back to ever get selected.

That would only be the start of a memorable and fulfilling couple of weeks. On May 23, Lane will graduate with the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2025.

“It’s awesome being able to show younger guys or potential recruits or whoever it might be that this could also be their path,” Lane said last week in a phone interview with The Athletic. “Obviously, a bunch of work goes into it, but just knowing that here, you have a support system, you have all these different kinds of things that flow into that, not only from a football perspective, but just growing up, being a man, being a leader, being all of those things. Those are all things you can get from a service academy.

“And you might get some sprinkles on top, being able to go to the next level and play.”

At 5-foot-11, 201 pounds, Lane is a versatile safety and skilled gunner on special teams. He racked up 244 tackles, seven interceptions, 21 pass breakups and eight forced fumbles, and scored two defensive touchdowns while playing in every game of his college career.

He’s expected to be selected on Day 3 of the draft. Dane Brugler, The Athletic’s lead draft analyst, projects him as a sixth-round pick and believes Lane’s special teams ability “can really separate him on draft boards and in training camp.”

In 2022, legislation was passed that mandated service academy athletes to perform two years of active duty before embarking on a professional sports career, returning to the policy in place before 2019. However, Section 557 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025 amended the statutes defining the agreement signed by new midshipmen and cadets attending a military service academy and their resulting service obligations.

Secretaries of the Military Departments are now authorized to transfer as many as three cadets or midshipmen from each service academy if they secure professional sports employment. This transfer enables them to fulfill their service obligation while participating in professional sports and also contributing to the military’s recruiting and retention initiatives.

Lane has requested to serve in the Marine Corps. Asked if he’s confident he’ll be able to play in the NFL in time for the upcoming season, he said, “100 percent. No doubt.”

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Lane doesn’t play the “What if?” game. He never has. His parents, William and Felecia Lane, wouldn’t allow it. The charge for Rayuan, his older sister Armonie, who is studying medicine at Howard University and is in the Navy Reserve, and his younger brother Dejuan, a safety at Penn State, was to embrace and appreciate the opportunities at hand. There was no dwelling on failure, either, a message Rayuan seemingly grasped at a young age.

He learned to walk when he was like 7 months old. He was already riding a small bike without training wheels when he was 2. He fell plenty, but he always got back up and kept moving.

“We don’t do no ‘What ifs,’” William Lane said. “We’re going to tackle what’s in front of us right now and take advantage of it. We’ve got goals to accomplish.”

Thus, Lane doesn’t dwell on the potential year of football development that he lost when he decided as a high school sophomore to focus on basketball and a busy AAU schedule after he played quarterback on the football team as a freshman.

“I knew the next time that I had an opportunity to put on those pads, that’s what I was going to do,” Lane said.

He also doesn’t dwell on the fact that the pandemic pretty much wiped out his final high school football season, ending it after just two games. That robbed Lane, a two-way player at Gilman who had seven touchdowns in those two games, of any late chances to attend high school showcases, make college visits or get on the radar of the top football programs. He garnered interest from Navy and Army, along with a handful of FCS schools.

Would he be in a different situation if he had gone to a football powerhouse? The question doesn’t even intrigue Lane, because he’s exactly where he wants to be.

“Never really think about it,” he said. “I think about how grateful I am for the path that I’ve had.”

Lane had a second chance to take a different route, too. After completing two years of training, midshipmen are presented with a “2 for 7” contract. By signing it, they are committing to seven years of military service (two more at the academy and five in the Navy or Marine Corps).

Lane enjoyed his first two years in Annapolis. He had already established himself as one of the best players for a Navy team mired in a difficult stretch. There was uncertainty about what was next after Navy fired longtime head coach Ken Niumatalolo in December 2022. There was also a curiosity from Lane about what else was out there after he never went through a traditional recruiting process coming out of high school.

“He wanted to see how people were really looking at him,” William Lane said. “But I never really thought he was going to leave.”

Lane entered the transfer portal and took a few visits. Notre Dame, UCLA and Ole Miss were among the schools interested. One school offered him about $1 million in NIL money. It wasn’t enough to get him to leave Annapolis.

RAYUAN LANE III CALLED GAME! PICK 6! @NavyFB pic.twitter.com/RYxAYl2gma

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) September 21, 2024

The Midshipmen’s 10-3 season in 2024, which included a victory over Army to secure the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and a win over Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl, made his decision even more rewarding.

“I just felt really welcomed and backed where I was at,” he said. “The intangibles that you learn coming from the academy, the leadership, the maturity, all of those things. I believed that I’d still be able to achieve everything I wanted if I stayed here. I was able to go to the combine. I was able to go to the Senior Bowl. I’ve been blessed enough to go on a few top-30 visits.

“Those are things that I would have probably been able to do at another school, but being here, I learned about what a commitment is and sticking to it and knowing that I have great things ahead of me.”

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Lane plays the game like he’s determined to settle a score every time he touches the field. Watch him take on a running back in the hole. Watch him attack the football. He forced 11 turnovers over the past two seasons. Watch him as the gunner fight through a hold and sprint downfield to deliver a punishing hit on the returner. Lewis believes Lane was the best gunner in the country the past two years, and that’s a skill set highly valued by the NFL.

He can be so intense that a veteran referee in the American Athletic Conference asked the Navy coaching staff what was Lane’s deal.

“He thought he was a wild man,” Lewis said. “We told him, ‘The version that you see on Saturday is not what he is the other hours of the week.’”

Lane does have a lighter side. During a Midshipmen practice late last season, he stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of a play and started staring into the sky. Lewis was perturbed.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’” Lewis recalled. “And he says, ‘Coach, there’s a bald eagle. I’ve never seen one before.’”

Moments of levity, however, are rare for a player who relayed the calls to his defensive teammates last year and is also a squad leader in the Brigade 8th Company. These days, he’s up early for formation. He’s in the classroom before 8 a.m. until about 11:45 a.m. He then has a two-hour break and spends it eating lunch, getting a lift in, working on recovery and watching film. Another block of classes starts at 1:50 p.m. and goes until 4 p.m. After that, he hits the field and does speed and agility work. From 8 to 10 p.m., he attends a study period, where Lane can meet with his professors.

“Then, you just kind of repeat that process,” he said.

Lane’s family moved to Baltimore from Ohio when he was about 6 years old. He was 9 when he watched the Baltimore Ravens win their second championship with a 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Lane and his family attended the celebratory parade in downtown Baltimore and witnessed Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and other Ravens riding through city streets on buses and military humvees.

Last Saturday, he worked out for the Ravens as part of their local pro day. It was a full-circle type of moment for Lane, who was reminded of just how close he is to fulfilling his dream of playing in the NFL and graduating from the Naval Academy.

“I really can’t put it into words,” said his father, William. “It’s been a roller coaster. I’ve seen him come through tough times. He’s been loyal and stuck to the process and gained confidence in himself. He truly is what he says he is. Character comes first.”

(Top photo: Mark Goldman / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)