During Quinnen Williams’ three seasons at Alabama, the Crimson Tide posted a 41-3 record, played in the CFP national-championship game annually and won one national title and two SEC crowns.
But after five seasons with the New York Jets, that seems like ancient history to the defensive tackle. Since Williams joined the Jets as the third pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, New York has compiled a 27-56 record and extended its NFL-worst playoff drought to 13 seasons.
“I’ve been in the NFL a long time now, so that Alabama little thought process has been sailed away,” Williams said. “I’m just focused on winning football games now, man. We haven’t had the success that we want to have. But you can look at the team now, man, you can look at the things the organization has done, you can look at what the coaches has done, you can look at the way we practiced today and the things we’re doing in OTAs now with the camaraderie, getting each other better, teaching each other, iron sharpens iron, every single day we’re going in the right direction of where we want to be and that’s the playoffs and the Super Bowl.
“Focus on the process and not the results is our main thing, so right now we’re just focused on getting better every single day and just doing what we need to do personally to be the best player we can be so we can be a great unit.”
The Jets’ expected breakthrough season ended with a 7-10 record in 2023. New York obtained four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers in an offseason trade last year, but the quarterback sustained a season-ending injury in the opening game.
With Rodgers back for 2024, the optimistic outlook as returned, too.
“Right now, we’re just focused on attacking every single day, being the best we can be every single day,” Williams said, “and, hopefully, we win enough football games to be on the top, not just the AFC, but in the Super Bowl and in the NFL in general. But right now, we got to focus on winning today and winning treatment and winning workouts and weightlifting, and winning on the field when it come down to technique and scheme and different things like that so when we do line up on Sunday and stuff like that it could be easy.”
Williams won the Outland Trophy at Alabama in 2018 as the nation’s best interior lineman. In the NFL, he has received Pro Bowl recognition for the past two seasons and earned first-team All-Pro selection in 2022.
But Williams said he saw room for improvement and worked this offseason for a better performance in 2024.
“I had a lot of things I wanted to work on,” Williams said. “First and foremost, just be consistent. Just adding more tools to my pass-rush bag. I do a lot of good things in pass rush, but I feel like I got a lot of things to work on when it come to more moves and different counters and things like that, so adding a bigger pass-rush bag was my biggest main focus and just being consistent every day lifting weights and working out in training and things like that.”
The Jets have 13 defensive linemen and edge rushers on their roster, but only Solomon Thomas has been in the NFL longer than Williams among that group.
“It’s pretty cool,” Williams said about being a veteran leader. “It just humbles you and it keeps you on the right track because you know guys are looking up to you, you know guys are going to ask you the questions, so making sure I’m on my A-game, making sure I know my scheme the best way so if a young guy do ask me a question, I can be able to give him the right answers and make sure I’m doing the right things each and every down, each and every day, each and every play to be a great example because if I’m doing the wrong things, the people behind me are going to do the wrong things. If I’m doing the right things, the people behind me are going to do the right things.
“Putting my best foot forward and being the best me is amazing to do.”
New York has two more practices this week before concluding its offseason program with mandatory minicamp June 11-13.
