Willie Gay Jr. has Some Catching Up to do During Training Camp
Kansas City Chiefs rookie linebacker Willie Gay Jr. admits he’ll have motivational factors on his mind throughout training camp.
Gay didn’t have many opportunities to play football during his junior season at Mississippi State. He didn’t have the chance to experience the NFL Draft or his first professional offseason in person, either.
The 23-year old recognizes the COVID-19 consequences are no different between himself and the Chiefs’ five other drafted rookies. He told reporters the group is ready to embrace a catch-up mentality in camp.
“It’s changes that nobody is used to, but it’s going to make us stronger in a lot of ways,” Gay said. “We’re going to learn, we’re going to have to pick up on the playbook faster, we’re going to have to jump in right away with no training wheels and just try to get at it as fast as we can to try and hop on board. It’s going to make us better in the long run.”
After passing two coronavirus tests as part of the NFL and Chiefs’ acclimation process to training camp, Gay began his first official in-person league activity since the combine.
He’s sharing the new experience with undrafted free agents Bryan Wright of Cincinnati and Omari Cobb of Marshall in the linebacker’s room.
With support from veteran linebackers Anthony Hitchens, Ben Nieman and Dorian O’Daniel, Gay feels the trio is ready to build of virtual-training and compete for a shot of taking the field this season.
“We’re just all picking up everything fast,” Gay said. “The defense isn’t hard, it’s just something we got to used to. It’s just like college again. We just got to get comfortable with it.”
NFL rookies will have an extra amount of time to grow into their teams’ system during training camp this year with the cancelation of preseason games. But because of this, Gay and the Chiefs’ other rookies will have to wait until at least September 10 to experience their first four quarters of NFL competition.
“I know it’s going to be different,” Gay said. “But I played in the SEC so I feel like I have a little heads up on it and be ready for it a little bit. But of course, it’s the NFL now so it’s way different. I think [linebackers coach Matt House] is just doing a good job getting us rookies prepared, man.”
“I feel like it’s going to be a good camp and going into the season we’ll all be ready.”
