The secret is out: Quinnen Williams is a dominant defensive lineman for Jets
Quinnen Williams of the New York Jets runs a fumble recovery during the fourth quarter against the Miami Dolphins at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Quinnen Williams has clearly made it.
Need proof? He got slimed on Wednesday.
The Jets defensive tackle was doused by teammates with green sludge for being named "NVP" of Sunday’s game by Nickelodeon, the kids network he said he grew up watching. That was big for him. Big for his niece, too, who is an avid fan of the channel.
“She’ll be super happy,” he said.
Add the SpongeBob set as the latest demographic he’s won over. Q’s Q-score is streaking upward.
This was just the latest in a string of awards and honorifics that have been coming his way of late, some of them legitimate and others a little hokier. A little while back he claimed a scepter for winning the week’s “Angry Run” as curated by NFL Network, bowling through would-be Dolphins tacklers after a fumble recovery. On Wednesday he was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Packers.
It’s getting more and more difficult not to notice him.
That’s not always typical for a player at his position, where the big uglies often toil in the shadows only to have the dashing edge rushers swoop in and take the sacks they generated or the camera-hogging defensive backs dance after the interception or pass breakup they helped force. It’s grunt work in there and the spotlight very rarely pierces that deep into the inner guts of any given football play.
On these Jets, though, Williams is a centerpiece. A standout. He may, in fact, be the prototypical Robert Saleh player, the model of what the coach and his revamped culture are looking for from current and future members of the organization.
Saleh’s three-word bumper sticker slogan for what he wants is “energy, technique, violence.” Good luck finding anyone on the Jets – maybe anyone in the league right now – playing at as high of a level in all three of those categories.
Williams generated a career-high seven quarterback pressures with two sacks against the Packers. On the season, according to NFL NextGen Stats, he leads all defensive tackles in pressure rate (14.8%) and sack rate (3.7%).
That’s all defensive tackles. Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox, all of them.
Williams came into the league wanting to be in the conversation with those names. Now he’s ahead of them.
That status doesn’t come without peril. Saleh said he spoke with Williams during Wednesday’s walk-through and reminded him that he is now squarely on the radar of opposing teams.
“He’s got to do it over and over and over again, he’s got to keep stacking, he’s got to be able to do it when teams are about to pay attention to him,” Saleh said. “I fully expect him to get a lot of attention this weekend… He’s got to be relentless, and he just has to play every play like a championship play and when his opportunity comes he’s got to win those one-on-ones.”
He's always been a good player. Sunday’s performance against the Packers was the Williams eye opener.
Not for Saleh, who was with the 49ers when Williams came into the league from Alabama and many thought he was the best player on the board regardless of position. They wound up going with Nick Bosa with their second overall pick in San Francisco.
“But that was a big discussion and [Williams] was a big part of it,” Saleh said. “It wasn’t as open and shut in that building as people think it was. He’s a special talent.”
His fellow defensive linemen have noticed, too. Sheldon Rankins said he first noticed a change in Williams’ play very early in training camp. Williams was back from some nagging injuries that had kept him from reaching the next step in his progression through his first three seasons, his confidence was elevated, his comfort level with Saleh and the coaches was crescendoing, and he was tearing through teammates in drills and reps.
“It looked different,” Rankins said. “He’s been doing it each and every week.”
Sunday, though, felt like an epiphany. We all glimpsed that.
“You truly saw him dominate last week,” Rankins said.
That sparked this latest avalanche of accolades. And there will be more to come, too. Coaches and teammates are already talking him up for Pro Bowls and All-Pro teams. He may even get some Defensive Player of the Year love if he keeps cranking along.
Maybe there will even be more slime.
“It washed right off,” Williams giggled about removing the goop that was dumped on his head.
He rinsed it away just like all the other laurels he’s received. Williams remains humble despite prolific play, feels he has more to give, new levels to reach, and cringes at being called that one adjective folks now use to describe him on a routine basis: Dominant.
“I haven’t gotten to that word just yet,” he said.
Maybe not in his dictionary, but for just about everyone else he’s becoming the definition of it.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
