Top 50 Pittsburgh Steelers of the 2000’s: players 40-31

31. William Gay, CB/DB (2007)

William Gay wasn’t always a very good cornerback, and at times he was downright difficult to watch. As there are with many NFL players, Gay experienced a learning curve over the course of his first several seasons in the league at cornerback.

In his third season, William Gay posted 70 solo tackles (which typically isn’t a good sign coming from a cornerback). He was beat too often and constantly allowed easy catches underneath.

However, Gay eventually turned things around and developed into a very good defensive back for the Steelers. Though Gay was far from a lock-down NFL cornerback, he often made his presence felt in one way or another.

Gay was always a physical player and a good tackler. He struggled early in his career to create turnovers (just one interception in his first four seasons), but later was able to change that.

Though he left for Arizona for a season in the middle of his career, Gay posted 10 interceptions over his final 6 seasons in Pittsburgh.

William Gay’s career wasn’t anything extraordinary, but he was was always healthy and ended up playing in 160 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Gay, remarkably, never missed a game in 11 NFL seasons.