Jets' Quinnen Williams always striving for greatness

Quinnen Williams’ coaches are finding different ways to describe the impact he’s having this season. Some of the words they’ve used are dominant, destroying and game-wrecker.

Williams hears this and doesn’t necessarily agree. The Jets' fourth-year defensive tackle feels he can do so much more.

“I continue to skip over the good plays and not really dwell and focus on the good plays but really dwell and focus on the bad plays because I feel like I haven’t gotten to where I want to be,” Williams said. “I feel like I got more in me and more I want to accomplish and more I can do to help us win football games.

“That’s the biggest thing I look at especially watching film on myself and asking questions of my coaches like, ‘What can I get better at?’ and looking like, ‘I can get better right here. I can do this better I can do that better,’ or ‘Oh, man, I wish I could have that play back.”

Always striving for excellence is a trait Williams learned from playing for Nick Saban at Alabama. Williams said Saban instills in his players to keep wanting more. 

“He’s just a guy who never gets complacent, never gets satisfied with where you’re at because everybody’s got to go forward,” Williams said. “He always speaks on, ‘When you stay the same you stay stagnant, other guys tend to pass you and move forward and get better.’ You got to just find the small things to get better at.”

When the Jets drafted Williams third overall in 2019, they envisioned him developing into one of the league’s top interior defensive linemen. Williams is starting to prove that he is.

Coming into this season, his three-year career totals were 15.5 sacks, 32 quarterback hits and 136 tackles. Over the last three weeks, he has registered 2 ½ sacks, six quarterback hits and 14 tackles.

The only defensive tackles with more sacks than Williams this season are Atlanta’s Grady Jarrett (3.5) and Philadelphia’s Fletcher Cox’s (3.0)

“He’s playing at a really high level,” Robert Saleh said. “You try to one-on-one block, he’s absolutely destroying offensive linemen in front of him. It’s been fun to watch him play and really excited to see him continue to stay fresh, take care of his body, and continue to get better as the year goes.”

Part of Williams’ success stems from being healthy and in the best shape of his life.

The 6-3, 303-pound Williams proved that last Sunday when he ran nearly 40 yards across the field to push Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett out of bounds before he could get a first down.

“I wasn’t just going to stop in the middle of the play because he ran,” Williams said. “Just playing football. Just trying to give it my all.”

Williams had a full offseason to work on his body, technique, and study the playbook and dominant tackles like Aaron Donald and Cox. Last year, Williams broke his foot in the spring and missed OTAs and a bulk of training camp.

The Jets were switching from a 3-4 front to 4-3 under Saleh. Williams had to learn on the fly without getting those important reps. He finished with six sacks in 15 games.

Defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said for Williams to be as productive as he was last year is “a testament to the man that he is.” Ulbrich said Williams has grasped the system and learned how teams are attacking the Jets up front — and now he’s starting to “take his game to another level.”

“He has real game-wrecker to him,” Ulbrich said. “He’s a problem in the run game. He’s been extremely disruptive there. Even when he’s not making the plays, he’s beating double teams and he’s creating penetration. He’s doing an excellent job from that standpoint and from a rush perspective. I really believe you have to account for him and that’s a rare thing for an internal guy like that.”

Williams has gone through some drama as well.

Last week, Ulbrich was asked why Williams doesn’t play more snaps. The Jets use a rotation on the D-line to keep players fresh. Ulbrich said he sees Williams “gasping for air” on the sideline because of how hard he strains each play, so he needs to give him a rest. Some took it as a shot at Williams’ conditioning. Ulbrich said it wasn’t meant that way and cleared the air with Williams.

The week before that, Williams and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton had a sideline shouting match over a play call. Video of the two in each other’s faces went viral. Whitecotton said they hugged five seconds later, and the cameras didn’t catch or show that.

“I would never want anyone to think that Quinnen was that type of kid,” Whitecotton said. “He is the most humble, coachable, top 5 pick I’ve ever been around in my life. [Nick] Bosa’s like that too but in terms of D-tackles, top 5, the most humble, hard-working, coachable.

“It would crush me if anybody ever watched that video and thought, ‘Oh, man, he’s just like all the rest of these guys.’ No, this guy is the real deal. He’s just such a great kid and it was heat of the moment.”

Whitecotton is like Williams — he wants more. Whitecotton believes Williams can become even more dominant, destructive and more of a game-wrecker.

“He’s playing with the violence and the effort we expect and seeing results,” Whitecotton said. “I think he would tell you and I would tell you too there’s still more tweaks that we can make and things that he can grow from. His performance has been very good. I just think there’s more. I’m excited about that. He’s excited about that.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.