Willie Gay Jr. Sees Growth in Limited Rookie-Year Snaps
After making his first career start against the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Willie Gay Jr. is beginning to show where he belongs in defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's scheme.
Gay’s presence has steadily increased since Week 1, where he didn't make a single defensive appearance. From Week 2 on, his focus has been stopping the run with varying involvement — peaking against the Patriots so far.
“You can’t take it all up at once, and if you can you’re superhuman or something,” Gay told reporters Thursday. “But, I know I can’t. Every week is something new where I’m learning the plays or I’m learning my assignment more and learning why I have to do this and learning what they do on the offensive side of the ball that can help me play faster. Just being mentally smarter with the game, just try to build each and every week with that.”
Ahead of the NFL Draft, Gay raised eyebrows from his experience in pass coverage on the outside at Mississippi State. His time in the NFL, so far, has predominantly come in running situations. Against the Patriots, Gay recorded a career-high 25 snaps, as Gay said the Patriots were a good matchup for his current role.
“My role right now is to just play against big personnel groups and wherever Coach wants me other than that,” Gay said. “Each and every week it might change a little bit, so we’ll just see what happens going into the next week and weeks after that.”
Once linebackers coaches Matt House and Britt Reid felt confident in Gay's early development, he debuted defensively against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“For any rookie challenge, the chin to the hairline, mental reps are the most important thing,” Spagnuolo said. “That just comes with getting out there and playing. We missed that with no preseason games and a normal training camp. He gets better every week, that’s the important thing.”
Gay began with six defensive snaps before adding three more in Week 3 before his 25 against New England.
Whatever his defensive count ends up being against the Raiders and running back Josh Jacobs, Gay said he’ll continue to take a learning approach.
“Even if I get one snap, there’s always something I can fix to make myself better to only help the team,” Gay said. “It could be something as simple as my stance, so small things like that.”
