Giovanni Williams looks to join brothers Quinnen and Quincy on Jets
New York Jets Giovanni Williams speaks to the media during Rookie Camp at the Atlantic Health Training Center, Saturday, May 10, 2025, in Florham Park. Credit: Corey Sipkin
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The Jets already have brothers Quinnen and Quincy Williams on their team. A third Williams brother, a hybrid version of the two, is trying to make the team, too.
Giovanni Williams, a linebacker who played for Miles College, a small HBCU school in Alabama, was one of 12 players who tried out for the Jets during their two-day rookie minicamp.
Quincy, 27, was an All-Pro linebacker in 2023. Quinnen, 26, was an All-Pro defensive tackle in 2022 and has made three Pro Bowls. Giovanni plays the same position as Quincy, but he said he has the traits of both of his older brothers.
“I got Quincy’s speed, but I got Quinnen’s build,” Giovanni said Saturday afternoon. “I’m in the middle of both of them. So everybody compares me as the hybrid of both.”
Actually, Giovanni is built more like Quincy — now, that is.
Giovanni is 5-10 and weighs 222 pounds. In high school, he said he weighed 350. How did he get that big?
“Eating,” he said. “Honestly, just eating, and then I had messed up my shoulder. Eating. Eating. I love to eat.”
Despite his size, Giovanni said he played middle linebacker in high school and still was fast, but he wanted to lose weight to “look the part.”
According to Giovanni, he lost 165 pounds in “three, four months” and weighed about 185. He then had to build back up “just to get solid.” He got up to 220.
“When I was like 350, it was like, ‘All right, you know, you got to look the part,’ ” Giovanni said. “I didn’t look like I was a middle linebacker. So I kind of like got in my head a little bit. I won’t say depressed, but I just got in my head a little bit.
“I was like, ‘You got to work. You got to look the part.’ I just did everything I can do and got all my weight down and just build it back up solid.”
Quinnen was listed at 303 pounds when the Jets drafted him in 2019, and Giovanni said his brothers joked with him about being so quick despite his size.
“They picked on me about that,” Giovanni said. “[Quinnen] was like, ‘How you so fast, you bigger than me?’ And then Quincy was like, ‘How you my speed, but you so big?’ ”
Giovanni was thrilled when he got the call from his agent that the Jets invited him to their minicamp. He said it was “bittersweet” at first because he’s trying to create his own path and not “follow behind Quincy and Quinnen,” but he eventually couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I was like, ‘Wow, my brothers,’ ” Giovanni said. “Then I was like, ‘Yo, it’s go time, you got to lock in now.’ It’s like, historical moment, three brothers never been on the same team, so I had to have to focus more, lock in more.”
Giovanni got words of advice from Quinnen and Quincy before stepping on the field on Friday. Quinnen told him to be himself. Quincy told him to control his mind, control his body and control himself, “and you can control the game.”
Jets first-year coach Aaron Glenn knows what it’s like to play in the NFL with family. He and his younger brother Jason were Jets teammates for one season.
“I just think it’s outstanding that he has a Jet jersey on, and both of his brothers are actually here with us,” Glenn said. “It’s a beautiful story. He’s working his butt off.”
Giovanni hopes it results in an invite to training camp and a shot to make the roster and play with his two older brothers.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Giovanni said. “Just to know that I came to the minicamp and just what I did and I was coachable, I always had urgency. Just be on the team with my brothers. It would feel good. It would feel good. It would be historical.”
Jets buying in
Glenn said the Jets had 90% attendance for Phase 1 of the voluntary offseason workouts and 94% in Phase 2.
“I give those guys a lot of credit for understanding what we’re trying to create and just buying in to what we’re selling,” Glenn said. “When you get a new regime, that’s the one thing you want is to make sure to just get the trust of the players. And I do believe with every part of me that these guys know exactly what we’re trying to do.”
The Jets will have competitive drills in the next phase. Glenn said that’s when their “identity” will be created.
Two-minute drill
When asked what he’s seen from quarterback Justin Fields, Glenn said, “There’s a quiet confidence about that man that’s unshakable.” . . . Glenn described the Jets’ first-round pick, right tackle Armand Membou, as “an agile, gifted big man, with measurables that everybody wants when it comes to offensive linemen — and he’s only going to get better.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
