Getty New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams at the 2023 NFL Pro Bowl Games.
At the end of the 2022 regular season, New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams warned the franchise publicly that if they did not extend him before Organized Team Activities (OTAs), he would not be in attendance.
It was a bold stance at the time, and the All-Pro DT just went one step further in holding up his end of the bargain on May 15. uSTADIUM was the first to notice the dramatic shift in social media tactics by Williams, who changed his entire Twitter bio back to his Alabama football days, with the caption: “Defensive tackle for ………………”
Interesting bio change from @QuinnenWilliams.
Jets analysts around the Twitter community rushed to give their take on this news.
Jets Twitter Reacts to Quinnen Williams Alabama Bio Change
The Jets beat picked this story up shortly after uSTADIUM, commenting in a variety of ways. Antwan Staley of the New York Daily News simply said: “Hmm…” He added later that “this is not ideal” despite Gang Green having team control over Williams.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini noted that “Quinnen Williams’ twitter bio no longer says ‘Jets’ — presumably, a commentary on the state of his contract negotiations.” On May 7, Cimini reported that the Jets and Williams “aren’t close to an agreement.”
The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt calmed fans by voicing: “[For what it’s worth]; Not worth panicking yet. It’s only May 15. A deal will get done at some point.” Although NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport did the opposite by quote tweeting: “👀.”
SNY’s Connor Hughes has a similar response, which was, “Oh.”
Finally, NBC Sports draft analyst and SNY TV Jets analyst Connor Rogers informed: “With contract extensions completed for Dexter Lawrence, Daron Payne and Jeffery Simmons this offseason, the Quinnen Williams extension should not be difficult. There isn’t leverage for either side to stray too far from that group of deals.”
As you can imagine, fans’ emotions ranged from the sky is falling to everything is fine after this mic drop from Williams. As Rosenblatt stated, the general consensus is that a long-term deal will still eventually get done between the Jets and their star defensive tackle.
After all, general manager Joe Douglas locked up Quincy Williams — Quinnen’s less successful older brother — and this coaching staff values trench warfare above all else. This extension feels like a matter of time but until the contract is dated and signed, Williams may do his best to hold the Jets’ feet to the fire in front of the fanbase.
Quinnen Williams’ Negotiation Tactics With Jets in 2023
Williams has turned into a bit of a negotiator over the 2023 offseason. First, he gave the aforementioned Black Monday warning.
Here’s a refresher of what that sounded like: “Everybody knows I’m a team guy, man, everybody knows that I believe in team [mentality] and I want to push team-first and different things like that, but I do want to get a [new] contract done before the offseason program, and I do feel like I deserve to get a contract done before the offseason program.”
Williams later confirmed, “yeah, I would skip it,” regarding the voluntary portion of the offseason program.
The Pro Bowler also liked a tweet with contract details from Heavy on Jets reporter Paul Esden Jr. on April 18. It read: “@BleacherReport predicted what the #Jets will pay Quinnen Williams this offseason; 5-year deal, $130 million, $77.5M guaranteed, $26M per year (would be 2nd highest in NFL among IDL).”
Well well well it sure seems like #Jets DL Quinnen Williams “likes” this @BleacherReport contract projection.
He liked the tweet talking about the pertinent contract details… 🧐
Finally, Williams tweeted the word optimistic in quotes after Douglas told reporters that the Jets are “still optimistic” that they can get a long-term deal done with the game wrecker on April 25. The retweet included a GIF of Williams drinking some tea awkwardly.
The messaging has been pretty clear from Williams. Now it’s on the Jets to prioritize their star defender and hammer out a new contract.