Quinnen Williams missed one day of training camp as his agent and the Jets hammered out some details of his contract. For the first-round pick from Alabama, that was long enough.
“It was a huge relief just to be back with my brothers, be back with my team, be back in New York, New Jersey,” Williams said Friday morning, just a few hours after he signed his contract. “It’s just an amazing feeling to get everything done and get everything situated so I can focus on football and ball out with my team. It’s just a blessing, an amazing feeling, to be out here and be able to sweat and grind with your brothers again.”
The 21-year-old defensive lineman was a spectator for his first practice. He ran the team conditioning test in the morning, but coach Adam Gase did not want to overdo things on Williams’ first day. The plan is for Williams to practice for the first time Saturday.
Gase said how smart Williams is about football stands out when you are around him.
“With him, his intelligence and how he picked everything up in the spring, he’s a quick study,” Gase said. “His football intelligence is off the charts, and they’re able to move him around. The way that Gregg’s system is, they do a good job of teaching it and guys do a good job of learning it.”
Quinnen Williams watches Jets practice.Bill KostrounThe Jets expect an immediate impact from Williams, whom they chose No. 3 overall in the draft. They hope the Williams team of Quinnen and Leonard up the middle (along with defensive coordinator Gregg on the sideline) can create enough pressure up the middle to hide other deficiencies on the defense.
Gase said Quinnen Williams will line up “all over the place.” He played mainly nose tackle at Alabama, but the Jets want him to move around.
“Quinnen can do whatever Gregg asks him to do because he’s smart and he picks things up so fast,” Gase said.
Williams said he spent most of this week in Atlanta working out as he waited for his agent to finalize his contract. The dispute was over how much of Williams’ signing bonus would be deferred. The Jets wanted more than 30 percent deferred into 2020. They ended up compromising at 25 percent deferred with Williams getting 75 percent at signing.
Williams said it was difficult to remain patient.
“It definitely was tough seeing your guys at practice and having fun with each other, competing against each other,” Williams said. “It’s always a hard thing to see. I trusted my agent. She did a great job. I trusted upstairs in the Jets facility to get everything handled and put my interests in front. Everything went well, everything went great. I’m just glad to be a Jet and to be here to work and compete.”
The big defensive lineman has a childlike quality to him, accentuated by the braces on his teeth. He laughs a lot when he speaks and punctuates many sentences with “man.” His teammates got on him Friday, calling him “Big Money” after he signed his four-year, $32.5 million deal.
Williams said there is nothing he wants to buy immediately with his new riches. He was asked whether he worked with any elite performance coaches in the offseason and had a funny reply.
“I can YouTube everything,” Williams said. “I don’t have to pay a super performance dude. I can just YouTube it. You’re on the field by yourself. You can’t take the performance coach with you.”
He also started running a lot, inspired by a wide receiver.
“I ran track a lot because I saw DeSean Jackson running track all the time,” Williams said. “I got me some track cleats and started running track. It got me in great shape.”
Williams said he weighs 295 pounds, down from his playing weight of 304 last year.
Gase expects big things for the big man.
“He’s in the backfield a lot. He’s a good player,” Gase said. “[His intelligence] just helps him. That helps get another extra step outside of his athletic ability. You look at the guys that have a lot of success like Aaron Donald – he’s smart and he’s a freak athletically. If you put those two things together, it makes it tough to stop.”



