Getty New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams in warm-ups on November 3, 2019.
In case you missed it, defensive tackle Quinnen Williams was pissed off after the New York Jets Week 3 loss in Denver.
After the game, the defensive star caught up with Jeane Coakley of SNY and decided to try and motivate his teammates by calling them out. “I don’t really want to talk about the sacks,” Williams told Coakley at the start of the interview, “we can talk about the negative.”
The former first-round pick went on to go on a frustrated rant in which Coakley didn’t have to do much but stand and listen.
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Williams Goes on a Tirade
Williams echoed many fans as he criticized the repetitive errors that the Jets have been making. The full rant can be seen above, or read below.
“Mental errors are killing us every single week man, and I’m a huge [believer] in watch the film and learn from your mistakes, and I think that’s the big thing that as a team we got to do. We all got to — coaches, players — everybody got to learn from our mistakes and make sure that we harp on our mistakes and never make [them] again. I’m a big person to watch film and if I make a mistake, I’m going to make sure one thousand percent that I never make that mistake again. I’m going to study so that I won’t make that mistake again and I think as a team, myself, [and] in general we got to take that same approach. We can’t hold our heads down because it’s a long season. We [are] 0-3 right now but we can be 3-3 very soon, so the main thing we got to focus on is learning from our mistakes like we can’t have eight people on the field and then three people on the field making mental errors, because you’re going to turn into an average defense. You see some plays that we make, [when] we got a fumble [or] we got sacks and stuff like that, and all 11 of us [are] doing what we’re supposed to do. When we do that we’re one of the number one defenses in the country, but if we got nine guys doing this and two guys doing that we’re an average defense. So I think that’s the main thing, learn from our mistakes and make sure those mistakes never pop up again.”
He added later on that if “we are beating ourselves, we’re never going to win.” Williams focused on the defense in his tirade because he “doesn’t know anything about offense,” but we all know that his side of the football has been the strength of this team.
It’s Mike LaFleur, Zach Wilson, the offensive line and all the skill position players that need to learn from their mistakes. They have been the anchor dragging this team underwater over the course of the first three weeks.
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Retired Jets Voice Opinions on Rant
Directly after the interview, the SNY Post Game Live crew gave their immediate reaction to the comments by Williams. This panel includes three ex-Jets players; Bart Scott, Willie Colon and Leger Douzable.
The consensus was that they loved the intensity from the young superstar, but only if he brings that passion back to the locker room. “I love the energy and I like the level of accountability but he has to take that energy, that moment, and say come Monday, rally up the dogs and talk to them,” voiced Colon.
Douzable agreed, stating “you can say that to Jeane Coakley but you got to talk to your teammates.”
Scott jumped in after that: “Somebody’s got to stand up… at the end of the day when we’re here, we out there, it’s you and me… the coaches can’t help us once we’re [on the field].”
On the Gang’s All Here Podcast with Jake Brown and Brian Costello, however, Colon took his analysis one step further and added some more intensity of his own.
“I’m happy that Quinnen Williams is in the media cussing and looks pissed off and agitated, finally right? Like finally somebody is like bro, enough is enough. A lot of those guys do come from winning programs and for four or five years, they had pride and they had a standard that shouldn’t leave just because you’re in an organization that hasn’t been playing well for a long time. As an individual, if you come from the Alabama’s, the LSU’s, the Florida’s, and the standard is winning year after year, take that same data, that same type of code, that same type of mantra into the NFL with you. I’m happy — I’m extremely happy that Williams is annoyed with questions and I’m extremely happy that he’s pissed off that the Jets are currently 0-3. I just need him to get everyone in that locker room just as pissed off as him. If that means starting fights in practice, if that means becoming a p**** where he gets into a fight with an offensive lineman and all of a sudden everybody’s chippy at practice, good! Goddamnit, good. Losing sucks in the NFL it takes so much just to get to Sunday.”
Williams and Colon are both right about one thing, the energy and the passion must improve. If you’re defeated, fine, but at least go down fighting. At least make the opposition remember your name.
Gang Green will look to prove that they still have life at MetLife Stadium in Week 4 when a banged-up Tennessee Titans squad comes to town expecting an easy victory. I know at least one player that will battle like hell to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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