Quinnen Williams swapped his dread of a rebuild for restored faith in the Jets after spending time around Aaron Glenn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throw a superhero\u2019s cape into the trade, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Feb. 9 news that the Glenn-coached Jets were cutting Aaron Rodgers hit hard for Williams, who tweeted \u201canother rebuild year for me, I guess,\u201d with a thumbs-down emoji.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams talks to the media on May 21, 2025. Bill Kostroun \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
But three months later \u2014 after the second OTA practice in the third phase of voluntary offseason workouts \u2014 Williams has a different outlook.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an immature thing for me to do at the moment \u2014 out of emotions, out of frustration,\u201d Williams said Wednesday afternoon. \u201cI hadn\u2019t talked to Aaron previous to that. Just looking at it as trying to grow as a leader. Talking to him and the staff gave me a super, super excited, super, super confidence that we are going in the right direction to win football games and do the things that I want to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What exactly does Williams \u2014 the second longest-tenured Jet \u2014 want to accomplish under the third head coach and fourth defensive coordinator (Steve Wilks) of his seven-year career? Start with getting the team into the playoffs for the first time since 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChange the whole narrative of the New York Jets losing streaks or the playoff [droughts] and different things like that,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI was drafted here a long time ago, and I was paid to help change things around. And I wear that as a badge of honor and cape to make sure that before I leave this game the New York Jets are going to be on top, the New York Jets are going to be the team to watch. I kind of live that every day, and I want everybody around me to be that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams is coming off a third straight Pro Bowl season, but he has totaled just 11.5 sacks over the past two years \u2014 down from the career-high 12 in 2022 that helped him land a four-year, $96 million extension.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His run defense grade fell to No. 46 among defensive tackles, according to Pro Football Focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jets coach Aaron Glenn looks on during Jets OTAs in Florham Park, NJ. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201c[I made] a lot of mistakes, especially when it comes down to the run game, block-shedding, extension in my arms, finishing my pass rushes, pad level,\u201d Williams said of last season. \u201cDifferent things like that I kind of struggled with, I want to be able to get better at and fine-tune some things this year so I can be a better player in those aspects.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Jets need a dominant Williams to fulfill Glenn\u2019s message that the new regime is \u201chere to win now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defensive linemen Haason Reddick, Javon Kinlaw, Solomon Thomas and Takk McKinley left and were replaced by Byron Cowart, Derrick Nnadi and Jay Tufele. Jermaine Johnson is coming off last season\u2019s torn Achilles tendon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still trying to see where I can be my best at and be myself at,\u201d Williams said. \u201cEnjoying learning my new defensive line coach, new head coach and new defensive coordinator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quinnen Williams celebrates after he tackles Jacoby Brissett during the Jets\u2019 home win over the Patriots last season.
Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cJust seeing what they see for me and my future. They\u2019re just telling me what I\u2019m bad at and what I\u2019m good at, and trying to get on the right page.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of Williams\u2019 renewed optimism stems from the free agent signing of Justin Fields as Rodgers\u2019 replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fields had an inaccurate passing day Wednesday, but flashed the athleticism that allowed him to run for 1,143 yards in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI chased him a couple times a day and I was like, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s fast,\u2019\u2009\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo I think that definitely brings excitement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams talks to the media on May 21, 2025. Bill Kostroun \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there\u2019s his attitude on wanting to win and wanting to show the world that he can do what we all know he can do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Glenn, a former Jets star, previously addressed Williams\u2019 critical tweet by saying he understands when players are upset that teammates are let go, but he wants to keep emotional reactions in-house.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear Williams heard Glenn\u2019s message through their leadership talks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just know right now, in the moment, it\u2019s going in the right direction to win games by the standard that coach has set for us,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s a long way to the first game right now, but I feel the path that we are going is going to be successful if we just listen to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quinnen Williams swapped his dread of a rebuild for restored faith in the Jets after spending time around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2051],"tags":[1585,7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,6736,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-68972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-aaron-glenn","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-quinnen-williams","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114548866339458572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}