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At the combine, Lane measured in at 5-foot-10, 191 pounds and then had a performance to remember in the athletic testing drills. He caught everyone’s attention with his 4.34 40-yard dash time and his 1.5 second 10-yard split, but he also had impressive numbers in other drills too. He jump 40-inches in the vertical jump and 11-feet in the broad jump, while his 6.75 second three-cone drill time was the fourth fastest of any player at the combine.
Now those testing numbers are only guidelines that need to be crosschecked with the film to see if it transfers to the football field. With Lane, it does. It backs up what you see on tape, which is an explosive athlete with great short area quickness and terrific long speed. At his size, he profiles as someone more likely to work from the slot than outside, but that speed works anywhere and everywhere.
That speed is great for vertical routes down the field and the ball tracking makes him a real deep threat, but the speed plays elsewhere too.
On this play, Lane lines up stacked behind another receiver to the left of the formation. The defense has one safety rotated over the top of Lane while the other is in the middle of the field. Prior to the snap, Lane is sent in motion across the formation to the right side of the field. Instead of having a single defender try to run with Lane, the defense rotates the safeties. The one over Lane initially sinks back to the deep middle while the one in the deep middle rotates down to cover Lane, trying to maintain their leverage advantage.
However, as Lane completes his motion, the ball is snapped and Lane uses the momentum of his motion to work out into a wheel route. That motion gives him a good head of steam to burst down the field and the safety, despite rotating and supposedly having a leverage advantage, can’t keep up. Lane speeds by the safety down the sideline on his wheel route, but the quarterback feels some pressure and opts against the throw.
It’s not just speed that Lane has either, he has great short area quickness, meaning he can make sharp cuts and change direction at speed.
That ability to make sharp cuts and win with quickness should become a huge asset for Lane at the next level, especially working out of the slot. Quick slot receivers can be a huge threat over the middle of the field on things like choice routes where their quickness can see them beat a less athletic defender and run open over the middle of the field.
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