{"id":84063,"date":"2020-04-02T15:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/?p=84063"},"modified":"2021-06-02T22:01:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T02:01:38","slug":"willie-gay-jr-2020-nfl-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2020\/04\/02\/willie-gay-jr-2020-nfl-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Willie Gay Jr. 2020 NFL Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Willie Gay Jr. Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Position: <\/strong>Linebacker<br \/>\n<strong>Height: <\/strong>6\u2019-1\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Weight: <\/strong>243 pounds<br \/>\n<strong>School: <\/strong>Mississippi State<\/p>\n<p><strong>NFL Combine Performance Data<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>40-Yard Dash: <\/strong>4.46 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>Bench Press: <\/strong>21 reps<br \/>\n<strong>Vertical Jump<\/strong>: 39.5\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Broad Jump: <\/strong>136.0\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>3 Cone Drill: <\/strong>7.08 seconds<br \/>\n<strong>20-Yard Shuttle<\/strong>: 4.3 seconds<\/p>\n<h2>Willie Gay Jr. 2020 NFL Draft Profile<\/h2>\n<p>After three years at Mississippi State, linebacker Willie Gay Jr opted to skip his final year of eligibility and declare for the 2020 NFL Draft. Thanks to a combination of injuries and suspensions, Gay hardly saw the field in 2019. He ended up playing for only 177 snaps, recording 23 tackles, four assists, and three missed tackles while on the field.<\/p>\n<p>Gay initially joined the college football ranks as a four-star recruit. After receiving interest from several major programs, Guy opted to stick around in his home state of Missouri. Gay played in 214 snaps as a true freshman, recording 21 tackles, six assists, and one missed tackle. The linebacker saw his role expand in 2018, recording 31 tackles, five assists, and five missed tackles on 455 total snaps.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Fantastic speed and athleticism;<\/li>\n<li>Excels in coverage against both tight ends and running backs;<\/li>\n<li>Instinctual coverage player that trusts his reads and makes plays on the ball;<\/li>\n<li>Exceptional testing at the NFL combine;<\/li>\n<li>Improved play against the run in 2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Has yet to handle a full season of starter reps;<\/li>\n<li>Even with his improvement in 2019, doesn\u2019t project as a great run defender at the next level;<\/li>\n<li>Slight character concerns with multiple suspensions;<\/li>\n<li>Drop off into deeper zones can be sloppy;<\/li>\n<li>Tackling fundamentals could be improved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NFL Comparison<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LeexDa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darron Lee<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Teams With Need at Position: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/cardinals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bengals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/jaguars\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/raiders\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/dolphins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miami Dolphins<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/giants\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Giants<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/jets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Jets<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/redskins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Redskins<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Projection<\/strong>: Rounds 3-4<\/p>\n<h3>Bottom Line on Willie Gay Jr.<\/h3>\n<p>Willie Gay Jr is the type of linebacker made for today\u2019s NFL. While the Mississippi State product isn\u2019t great against the run, he\u2019s a great fit as a coverage linebacker. Blessed with some of the best speed in the class, Gay can move all over the field and hold his own against tight ends and running backs. Additionally, he has the instincts to know where the ball is going and is capable of reading a quarterback and making a play on the ball. In today\u2019s pass-happy NFL, this skill set carries more value than a traditional run-stopping linebacker.<\/p>\n<p>Gay has a high ceiling, but he carries more than his fair share of question marks. For one, he never to be a full-time starter at Mississippi State, and that doesn\u2019t bode well for his NFL future. Additionally, he missed a sizable chunk of 2019 with an undisclosed suspension. Most reports believe to stem from cheating on a Chemistry test, which obviously isn\u2019t a big deal. However, NFL teams are going to need to do their research and make sure that this, or either of his other two suspensions, aren\u2019t more nefarious than the public knows. If teams are comfortable with the risk Gay poses, then he could be a smart pickup in the middle of the draft.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"Tv8d8cjFT6hrDg7DESmjJg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1209826043\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Tv8d8cjFT6hrDg7DESmjJg',sig:'vF8Fddi__zp_iX0NBBCKZ2BV2X2ilxe-2KZMyXPlV_g=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1209826043',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After three seasons with Mississippi State, linebacker Willie Gay looks to take his game to the next level in the 2020 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":84064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1647],"tags":[5273,279,330,1520,61,135,848,89,92,218,40,93,6422],"class_list":["post-84063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-draft","tag-2020-nfl-draft","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-darron-lee","tag-football","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-nfl","tag-washington-redskins","tag-willie-gay"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}