Kansas City Chiefs: Willie Gay Jr. poised for breakout in 2021

The Kansas City Chiefs have a dynamic athlete at the linebacker position in Willie Gay Jr. He’s poised for a year two breakout in 2021.

The Kansas City Chiefs have a loaded roster heading into the 2021 season. One of the best teams in the entire league on both sides of the ball from top to bottom, it’s difficult to imagine them getting even better in 2021.

As crazy as it seems, it could very well be the case with the development of players like second-year linebacker Willie Gay Jr., a second-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft who played 16 regular season games in 2020 but none in the postseason.

In the 16 games Gay played, he took part in just 267 snaps (25 percent) and racked up 39 total tackles, three tackles for loss, three pass breakups, a forced fumble, and a sack.

If those numbers held firm over the course of maybe 75 percent of the Chiefs’ defensive snaps last season, they could be extrapolated to 120 tackles, nine tackles for loss, nine pass breakups, three forced fumbles, and three sacks.

Clearly, Gay is capable of making a substantial impact on the field for Kansas City and there’s a chance he could be the Chiefs’ top breakout player in 2021.

An elite athlete with outstanding speed and explosiveness, Gay left Mississippi State after just three seasons and a total of 28 games. Despite a small sample size and some potential off-field concerns, the Kansas City Chiefs took a shot on the athletic linebacker in the 2020 NFL Draft and that could pay some huge dividends for them.

Kansas City is fresh off of a disappointing loss in the Super Bowl in which speedy linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were absolute menaces for four quarters.

Not that Willie Gay Jr. is going to be able to match that kind of impact this season, but you never know.

The Chiefs also added another smaller but very athletic and physical linebacker in the 2021 NFL Draft in Missouri’s Nick Bolton. Bolton had been considered a potential fringe first-round player throughout the 2021 NFL Draft process, so for Kansas City to land him in round two was pretty remarkable value.

The NFL today covets linebackers that can stay on the field for all three downs and play with their backs to the line of scrimmage, able to run in coverage as well as play their run fits.

Gay fits the profile of what teams are looking for and he showed off a bit in his rookie season even in limited snaps the type of athlete he is in space, what he can do as far as making plays behind the line of scrimmage (three TFLs) as well as with his back to the line of scrimmage (3 PDs).