Saints Lose Willie Gay Jr. In Free Agency

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that former New Orleans Saints linebacker Willie Gay Jr. is signing with the Miami Dolphins.   

The transaction occurred on Wednesday afternoon. Fowler reports that Miami is signing Gay to a one-year deal. Specific finances of the contract are not currently available. 

Gay, 27, played only last year with New Orleans. He was originally a second-round choice in the 2020 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs out of Mississippi State. 

In his first four seasons with the Chiefs, Gay had 5.5 sacks with 21 tackles for loss, one interception, and 22 passes broken up. He appeared in 57 regular season games with 47 starts.

New Orleans signed Willie Gay to a one-year contract last offseason. He appeared in 15 games with 8 starts. Gay had two sacks, broke up three passes, and forced two fumbles while recording 28 total tackles.  

Gay played just 277 defensive snaps for the Saints, just 27% of the total for the team. That was his lowest since his rookie year with Kansas City.  He was never really a factor for a New Orleans defense that was hoping he'd provide a big impact alongside linebackers Demario Davis and Pete Werner. 

Willie Gay is the fifth defender that the Saints have lost on the defensive side this offseason. The others have been CB Paulson Adebo, S Will Harris, DE Payton Turner, and CB Shemar Jean-Charles. 

So far in free agency, the Saints have added S Justin Reid, CB Isaac Yiadom, and DE Jonah Williams on the defensive side. Still, losing Willie Gay Jr. increases the team's need at linebacker.