Fifth-year options were a big topic in New York football this year, specifically on the Giants’ side with Saquon Barkley entering his and Daniel Jones seeing his not picked up.
On the Gang Green side of MetLife, defensive lineman Quinnen Williams is headed towards that path soon; his option has been picked up, so he heads into year four with the Jets knowing he’ll be in the fold for at least another two seasons – but a good year in 2022 could lead to much, much more.
All in due time, says the young leader of the Jets’ defensive line.
"That’s not really a big thing on my mind right now. I definitely feel like it’s going to pan itself out, it’s going to work itself out when it comes down to having to negotiate for a new contract," Williams explained in his pre-camp media session Tuesday. "All I can control is day one of training camp, each and every day of training camp. Working as hard as I can and putting my best foot forward every single day.”
Williams got off to a slow start last year due to a foot injury that compromised his preseason, but he still finished with six sacks and 53 tackles in 15 games and was, by season’s end, back to being the force in the middle he had been in 2020.
This year, for him, there’s no telling how successful he can be as he comes into camp healthy.
“Being healthy is amazing man. I got a chance to experience having a healthy offseason versus having an unhealthy offseason, and it does a lot for you,” he said. “You get your body fat where you want to in the offseason, you get in shape like you want to prepare for the season. Just different stuff when it comes down to training. Not being able to train puts you in a setback because once you do get back, it’s a lot of catching up to do. Now it’s just full throttle in, work on your craft, work on what you want to get better at and that’s why I feel like I’ve attacked this offseason and just trying to get better nutrition wise, condition wise and be the player I want to be this year.”
And he knows how good the Jets’ D can be.
“This defense can be spectacular; the sky’s the limit,” Williams said. “We all just gotta continue to work hard each and every day. Today is training camp day one, so we got a long way to go but just attack each and every day. Just doing the things that we know we can do and being each other’s 100 percent. We always tell the D-line like, ‘If each and every one of us is at 100 percent, can’t nobody stop us.’”
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