Ray-Ray McCloud III: The NFL Career of a Return Specialist Who Refused to Quit
Raymond McCloud III, born October 15, 1996, in Tampa, Florida, has played in 100 NFL games across six franchises without ever being the guy. No Pro Bowl nod. No starter’s contract. And yet he led the entire league in punt return yards in 2021, reached Super Bowl LVIII, and in 2024 nearly doubled his career receiving total in a single season. His full name barely appears on the back of jerseys fans buy. His role on every team he’s joined has been roughly the same: return kicks, catch some short passes, stay out of the way of the expensive receivers. He’s done it so well for so long that it’s easy to forget how many times he almost didn’t make a roster at all.
Tampa Kid, Running Back, Four-Star Recruit
McCloud grew up in Tampa and attended Sickles High School, where he played running back, not wide receiver. Over his high school career he accumulated 5,765 rushing yards and 58 touchdowns. His senior season alone: 1,933 yards, 17 scores. As a junior he had taken his team to the Florida 7A state semifinals, rushing for 2,316 yards and 26 touchdowns on 300 carries.
He was ranked the No. 93 overall prospect in the 2014 recruiting class and second at his position nationally. Alabama, Auburn, and Florida all wanted him. He picked Clemson, announcing his commitment on a televised special in July 2014. His younger brother Jordan McCloud went on to play college football at South Florida.
Three Years at Clemson and a National Title
Clemson converted him to wide receiver. As a freshman in 2015 he played in 12 games, catching 29 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown, also logging seven kickoff returns for 223 yards at a 31.9-yard average. It was his first game as a college player where the return specialist identity started forming: eight catches against Wofford, the most by any Clemson player in a debut game in program history.
His sophomore year, 2016, was the best of his college career. He played in 14 of 15 games, caught 49 passes for 472 yards and two touchdowns, and was named co-special teams Player of the Year for the program. Clemson won the College Football Playoff National Championship that January, beating Alabama 35-31. He was named a second-team All-American as a punt returner. In his junior season he caught just 29 passes for 292 yards before declaring for the 2018 draft.
The 2018 Draft and Two Years of Roster Instability
The Buffalo Bills took him in the sixth round, pick 187, signing him to a four-year deal worth $2.619 million with $159,824 guaranteed. Those numbers tell the story: a late-round flier, minimum guarantees, a roster spot he’d have to earn every week.
He played one season in Buffalo, then the Bills waived him before 2019. Carolina claimed him off waivers, then released him six weeks into that season. Buffalo signed him to the practice squad in October 2019, brought him back on a reserve contract in January 2020, and then cut him again that July. By the time Pittsburgh called in August 2020, McCloud had been waived, signed, and released enough times that most players in that situation quietly disappear from the league. He didn’t.
Pittsburgh Was Where It Finally Made Sense
He arrived at Steelers training camp late in the summer of 2020, survived cuts, and made the 53-man roster. In all 16 games that year he took 29 punts for 298 yards and 28 kickoffs for 646 yards. Pro Football Focus named him second-team All-Pro as a kick returner. The Steelers hadn’t had a player handling both kick and punt returns since Jacoby Jones in 2015. Before Jones, it was Antonio Brown, who stopped returning kicks after 2011 when he became too valuable as a receiver. McCloud stepped into a role the organization genuinely needed filled.
Then 2021. He led the NFL in punt returns with 38 and in punt return yards. He averaged 9.7 yards per punt return and 22.2 yards per kickoff return, finishing top 15 in both categories. Offensively he set career highs with 39 receptions for 277 yards. Pittsburgh re-signed him for a one-year, $1 million deal the following March, which tells you everything about how the front office valued him.
He fumbled. Twice in back-to-back weeks on punt returns, including one in the fourth quarter of a Monday night game against Chicago that gave the Bears a touchdown and nearly cost Pittsburgh the game. Coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged it plainly: you can’t turn the ball over in the kicking game. The Steelers stuck with him anyway. That’s actually interesting when you think about it, because most teams would panic and move on after two fumbled punts in two weeks. Pittsburgh’s faith turned out to be justified. He didn’t fumble another punt the rest of the season.
San Francisco and the Super Bowl
After his 2021 season McCloud signed a two-year, $4 million contract with the 49ers, averaging $2 million per year. A significant raise from his Pittsburgh deal, though still firmly in the depth-receiver tier. Kyle Shanahan’s offense was known for using versatile receivers in creative ways, and McCloud fit the profile.
In 2022 he played all 17 games, returning 26 kicks for 599 yards (23.0-yard average) and 33 punts for 356 yards (10.8-yard average). He also caught 14 passes for 243 yards, a 17.4-yard average, with one receiving touchdown and one rushing touchdown on four carries for 78 yards. That’s 19.5 yards per rush attempt. The 49ers were using him as more than a returner.
A broken wrist cost him most of the 2023 preseason. He came back for 12 regular-season games, catching 12 passes for 135 yards. San Francisco went to Super Bowl LVIII and lost to Kansas City 25-22 in overtime. McCloud had one catch for 19 yards in the game.
Atlanta 2024: A Career He Almost Didn’t Have
When the Falcons signed McCloud on March 14, 2024, the contract was $5 million over two years, $2.125 million guaranteed. The team wanted a special-teams contributor. What they got was something else entirely.
McCloud entered 2024 with 786 career receiving yards across six NFL seasons. He finished the year with 686 yards in that single season. His previous career high had been 277 yards. He played in all 17 games, started 13, caught 62 passes on 87 targets (71.3 percent catch rate) for 686 yards and one touchdown. He also had 10 rushes for 79 yards and returned 14 kicks for 361 yards.
In Week 13 against the Chargers he had a 60-yard reception. Week 14 against Minnesota he put up a single-game career high of 98 yards. He out-produced Tyler Lockett (600 yards), Tyler Boyd (390 yards), Mack Hollins (378 yards), and Brandin Cooks (259 yards), all players operating in similar third-receiver roles around the league that year.
He also fumbled four times. Analyst work at The Falcoholic called him “the most chaotic player” on a Falcons offense that otherwise protected the ball well. That’s fair. The fumbles were real and cost the team in specific situations. But the production was real too, and on a $2.5 million-per-year contract, the Falcons got significant value even accounting for the turnovers. He was also fined $10,528 by the NFL on September 20, 2024, for fighting during the game against Philadelphia.
2025: Released in October, Gone by December
McCloud started 2025 with the Falcons under new pressure. New head coach Raheem Morris described him as a key piece going into the season. Michael Penix Jr. was the new starting quarterback, and McCloud had spoken publicly about the Falcons’ Super Bowl potential with Penix leading the offense.
He was a healthy scratch for Week 6 against Buffalo and Week 7 against San Francisco. Morris sent him home for an “excused absence” ahead of the San Francisco game, calling it a private matter. The Falcons released him on October 21, 2025. Morris said only: “This is between Ray-Ray, the organization and us.”
The New York Giants signed him to the practice squad on October 24. He was elevated to the active roster for Week 9 against San Francisco, played 52 offensive snaps (second-most among Giants receivers), caught one pass for five yards. The Giants cut him from the practice squad in December 2025. As of the end of the 2025 season he is no longer on an NFL roster.
What He Actually Does Well, and What He Doesn’t
McCloud ran a 4.53 40-yard dash at the 2018 combine. That number undersells how he actually moves in space, because his value isn’t straight-line speed. It’s vision. As a returner, he sees the field develop in front of him better than almost anyone who’s played the position in the last decade. He reads blocking lanes before they form. His 4,216 career return yards didn’t accumulate by accident.
On offense his best work happens on short-to-intermediate routes over the middle. In the 2024 season under Cousins and Penix, he was consistently open because defenses focused on Drake London and Darnell Mooney on the outside. He benefited from the scheme. That doesn’t diminish what he did, but it explains why the production was so much higher in Atlanta than anywhere else.
Ball security has been the issue throughout his career. Multiple fumbles in Pittsburgh in 2021. Four in Atlanta in 2024. For a player whose roster spot depends on being reliable on special teams, fumbling is the one thing that can end a career quickly. It hasn’t ended his, but it’s limited the trust coaches place in him in critical moments.
Career Statistics
Across 100 career games over eight NFL seasons through 2025, McCloud has totaled 159 receptions for 1,523 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He has 25 carries for 271 rushing yards (10.8 average) and one rushing touchdown. His career return total is 4,216 yards. The return number is the most accurate summary of his value to NFL teams: no sixth-round receiver in his draft class has contributed more as a specialist over the same period.
Season-by-season receiving totals: 2018 (Bills) 8 catches, 69 yards; 2019 (Panthers) 3 catches, 15 yards; 2020 (Steelers) 20 catches, 77 yards; 2021 (Steelers) 39 catches, 277 yards, 1 TD; 2022 (49ers) 14 catches, 243 yards, 1 receiving TD, 1 rushing TD; 2023 (49ers) 12 catches, 135 yards; 2024 (Falcons) 62 catches, 686 yards, 1 TD; 2025 (Falcons/Giants) 7 catches, 69 yards. His 2022 to 2024 stretch produced 88 catches for 1,064 yards across three seasons, which is when the offensive role genuinely expanded.
Seven Years, Six Teams, $17.6 Million Earned
According to Spotrac, McCloud has earned $17,661,139 across seven contract years and six organizations. His rookie deal paid $654,956 per year. Pittsburgh paid him $1 million for the 2021 season, his best as a returner. San Francisco paid $2 million per year. Atlanta paid $2.5 million annually.
That progression reflects exactly how the league prices a return specialist who can also play receiver without being a featured option. You don’t get wideout money. You get enough to stay comfortable, and you keep your job by being the best at the specific thing most players either can’t or won’t do consistently. Fielding punts at full speed with a defense closing fast is not a skill everyone has. McCloud has had it his entire career, and it kept him in the NFL for the better part of a decade.
Whether he plays again depends on circumstances. He’s 29. His return skills are still functional. His 2024 receiving season showed he can be a legitimate slot option if the scheme fits. Someone will look at those numbers and make a call.
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