William & Mary doesn't typically make headlines on NFL roster cut days. This week, it might.
Linebacker Nate Lynn — signed by the New York Jets as a late training camp addition and, by most accounts, a long shot to stick — has turned himself into a genuine 53-man roster conversation after recording 3 sacks across the Jets' final two preseason games. For a player who arrived completely off the radar, the production has been impossible to ignore.
Lynn's burst is the kind of late-camp story that NFL rosters are occasionally built around: an underpublicized signing who forces a team's hand with game-speed performance when the lights get brighter. Whether the Jets retain him when final cuts come down, or whether he lands on a practice squad elsewhere, the William & Mary product has firmly established that he belongs in an NFL conversation heading into the 2026 season.
The Tribe's NFL Footprint
Lynn isn't the only Tribe alumnus making a living on an NFL sideline this fall. William & Mary has a quietly steady presence across the league, even if most of its alumni are working in roles that don't generate highlight reels.
Long snapper Luke Rhodes remains on the Indianapolis Colts' roster — a position that demands invisible precision and punishes any lapse in technique. Rhodes has made a career of doing exactly that. Similarly, offensive tackle Colby Sorsdal continues to develop in Detroit's offensive line room with the Lions, one of the NFL's most imposing units, while Charles Grant holds a roster spot with the Las Vegas Raiders at tackle.
On the defensive side, DeAndre Houston-Carson is with the Houston Texans at safety, and Bill Murray occupies a defensive tackle spot for the Los Angeles Rams — a depth piece on a front that's expected to be one of the more active in the NFC.
Lynn as the Story
Still, this week belongs to Lynn. Three sacks in two games — in the preseason, against players fighting just as hard for their own roster spots — is the kind of number that forces front offices to reconsider depth charts they thought were settled. Jets fans, according to Yahoo Sports, have taken notice and largely expect him to make the cut.
Whether that expectation lands on the right side of roster math on cut day remains to be seen. The NFL is full of players who had strong preseasons and found themselves on the outside looking in when the numbers had to work. But Lynn's case is built on production, not projection — and that's a different kind of argument to make.
For William & Mary, a program that rarely gets to celebrate NFL news, it's a moment worth watching. The Tribe has six alumni currently active across the league. One of them just made the league notice.
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