William Gay Is Packing on the Pounds

When William Gay was drafted, the worries were that he was too light and too short to ever be more than a nickel back.

He may still be short, but no one can accuse Gay of being too light to start any more. The third-year corner who is penciled in to replace Bryant McFadden at cornerback told the Washington Observer-Reporter that he is 15 pounds heavier than he was last year, up from 183 to 198. At 5-foot-10, 198 pounds, Gay now weighs three pounds more than 6-foot-2 corner Ike Taylor is officially listed at.

"I don't want to put on the wrong kind of weight," Gay said. "And if it slowed me down at all, I'd drop back down. There are too many fast receivers in this league. But it doesn't seem to be slowing me down."

The Steelers have big hopes for Gay, who was called the Steelers' most fundamentally sound cornerback by the coaching staff. He ranked as the top cornerback in the league in adjusted yards allowed by Football Outsiders last year, as he played well enough to take playing time away from McFadden in the base defense in addition to playing as a fill-in starter and in the dime package. This year he'll have to prove that he can provide the same success when getting a lot more attention.