Chiefs’ Willie Gay Jr. credits strength coach with having him ready following suspension
In his first game back with the Chiefs following a four-game suspension, linebacker Willie Gay Jr. made his presence known.
Gay had a half-sack, a quarterback hit and eight tackles in the Chiefs’ 44-23 win over the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
That sack of 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was shared with fellow Chiefs linebacker L’Jarius Sneed in the second quarter and was part of the reason San Francisco’s drive bogged down.
Gay played in 56% of the defensive snaps and gave credit to his strength coach for getting him ready to play again.
“Man, I felt like my strength coach did a great job keeping me in shape over the past couple weeks,” Gay said, per a postgame quote sheet. “So when I got out there, I was getting the flow of things again. Four weeks was a long time not being able to play football. I’ll tell you, you can run and lift weights all day, but when you’re really out there and your mind gets to roll you’re like, ‘ah, okay, let’s go.’
“I didn’t get winded so I could have fun out there with the guys today. I made a couple plays and I was thankful to be out there. Came out of here injury free. So, hey, we had a successful day and a win.”
Fox 4 sports anchor Harold Kuntz spoke with Gay in the Chiefs locker room and asked how it felt to play with his teammates again.
“Seeing the guys man, rolling around, these guys making plays and I’m looking around, ‘OK, OK, we rolling again,’ and I got me a couple so it was a lot of fun,” Gay said.
Gay was also asked by reporters if the Chiefs’ defensive game plan changed once the San Francisco 49ers traded for running back Christian McCaffrey.
In his 49ers debut, McCaffrey rushed for 38 yards in eight carries and caught two passes for 24 yards against the Chiefs.
“Honestly, man, no,” Gay said. “We just kept the same game plan. He’s just another player. Of course he’s good. He can wreck a game, but we didn’t change anything up. We didn’t get too high or too low, you know? We didn’t try to overemphasize him being a factor to it. Like I said, we kept the game plan the same and tried our best to stop him.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 10:32 AM.
