Finding a punt returner during the 2025 NFL draft may not seem like a priority for the New York Giants, but the team has been doing plenty of due diligence on one “fearless” prospect.
The player in question is Virginia Tech wide receiver Jaylin Lane. He’s “a (mostly) fearless punt returner who has met with #Giants a few times before #NFLDraft,” according to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post.
Lane makes an interesting potential pick for the Giants. Mostly thanks to his relentless appetite for trying to manufacture big plays in football’s third phase.
What’s intriguing here is the Giants already have at least one competent return man on the roster. Veteran wideouts Ihmir Smith-Marsette and Zach Pascal can be effective running back kicks, but multiple meetings with Lane suggest the Giants have identified a draft prospect too good to pass up.
Jaylin Lane Would Take Over Giants’ Return Game
As Hokies special teams coordinator Stu Holt explained to Dunleavy, Lane isn’t interested in making a fair catch: “We started off talking about, ‘You might want to fair catch this one,’ but he is so smooth catching the ball and he has so much courage that’s really hard to come by and really hard to teach. He fields every ball thinking he can score. Even in a pooch situation — when the punting team is trying to get it down by the goal line — he is going to make a great decision and take care of the ball.”
Lane’s eagerness to pluck the ball out of the air amid a crowd then run through heavy traffic was exemplified by this 58-yard touchdown against Marshall, highlighted by ACC Football.
Big plays like this one became common for a player who averaged 10.6 yards and forced 53 missed tackles across 68 career punt returns in college, according to Jordan Plocher of Pro Football Focus.
Taking Lane would give the Giants a willing playmaker on special teams, but the 22-year-old’s greater value could come from turbocharging a key position on offense.
Giants Can Boost Draft Value With Jaylin Lane’s Other Skills
As good as he is in the return game, Lane offers greater upside as a slot receiver. He’s a burner from the inside, able to get vertical or amass yards after the catch to turn short passes into longer gains.
Several of his best plays from the slot were highlighted by The 33rd Team’s James Foster.
Lane’s talent for turning on the jets from the slot would make him an upgrade over Giants incumbent Wan’Dale Robinson. The latter enjoyed a breakout of sorts in 2024 by catching 93 passes, but Robinson tallied just 699 yards, averaging a mere 3.6 yards before catch and 3.9 after catch, per Pro Football Reference.
Robinson has been steady, but the Giants need more big plays from the slot to complement the outside talents of Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton. Lane, all 5-foot-8 and 174 pounds of him, is the kind of diminutive speedster pro defenses will struggle to press and track.
He averaged 12 yards or more per reception in each of his final three seasons at the collegiate level, per Sports Reference, so Lane has enough experience and production as a receiver to make a quick transition at the next level.
Taking Lane, who projects as a fourth-rounder, according to NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein, would represent excellent value for the Giants, but potentially bad news for Robinson and Smith-Marsette.
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