There hasn’t been a lot that’s gone right for the Jets over the last few years, but linebacker Quincy Williams’s rise has been one of them.
Williams joined the team as a waiver claim just before the 2021 season and has spent the last four years as a starter on the team’s defense. He was a first-team All-Pro in 2023 and remains a centerpiece of the roster heading into Aaron Glenn’s first season as the team’s head coach.
Glenn said Williams is “a good player,” but his first conversation with the linebacker involved telling him that “there are also some things he’s got to get better at” in 2025. Williams said Glenn challenged him to do just that and that he is embracing the opportunity to take his game to a higher level.
“Every year [my mindset is to get better](https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/jets--aaron-glenn-challenging-quincy-williams-ota-06-03-2025),” Williams said, via the team’s website. “Sometimes I don’t have a blueprint. Sometimes it takes me a while to find out what that next level looks like. \[Glenn’s call\] was one of those things where all the thought processes went out the window and it was more like, all right, you have your challenge, now let’s create a blueprint to get to those challenges as a team and then those challenges as an individual. Because if I get my team goals, then I get my individual goals.”
After being a relative bright spot for most of Robert Saleh’s time as head coach, the Jets defense fell off last season. That will have to be reversed while the team finds an offensive identity if the next few years are going to go any better than the last 15 have gone.