Quinnen Williams is 6ft 3, nearly 140kg and one of the NFL’s most feared defensive lineman.
Anyone who watched him wreak havoc on the Green Bay Packers and cause nightmares for Aaron Rodgers a couple of weeks ago understands exactly why Williams’ presence strikes fear into opponents.
But once he takes off the helmet and pads, it’s hard to envision the aggression and power which comes over him when he crosses the white line.
Williams is a gentle giant. He’s become known for his infectious personality and beaming smile in front of the cameras, as well as a viral clip of him sneezing, blessing himself and thanking himself when he was drafted in 2019.
Sitting down for an exclusive chat with the Mirror, his warmth comes through the screen. The 24-year-old discusses his desire to come back to London having seen little of the city when the Jets visited last year and carries a beaming smile through much of the conversation.
He’s as engaging and likeable off the field as he is intimidating and powerful on it. As he puts it, he’s like a real-life version of superhero Iron Man.
“My family always joke with me, they always ask ‘how can you be so aggressive on the field, but so cool and smiley off the field?’,” he says. “But it’s two things.
“I tell people all the time it’s like Iron Man. If you know Iron Man, you know Tony Stark is like the smooth, suit-wearing guy. But when he puts his Iron Man suit on he’s like a deadly machine. That’s what I always compare myself to.
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“Also, I’m blessed to to able to play a sport that I love as an occupation, as a job and get the chance to change other people’s lives off the field, to have a platform where I can reach and change other people’s lives that aren’t even in my neighbourhood or even my country. That’s a bigger thing that I’m really excited about.”
Williams was drafted by the New York Jets third overall in 2019 after an impressive college career at Alabama, where he won a National Championship. It meant trading the most successful college team for one of the NFL’s perennial underachievers - a tag they are now finally looking to shake off.
They ground out wins in five of their opening seven games including two fourth-quarter comebacks. And Williams believes that, under the guidance of second-year head coach Robert Saleh and his coaching staff, they have turned a corner.
“1000%,” Williams says when asked if there’s a new resilience to the Jets. “We’ve got a different coaching staff, and the difference they’ve made over the past year, just different players that the organisation has brought in.
“Amazing guys like Sauce Gardner, DJ Reed, Breece Hall, and just great individuals like Laken Tomlinson. The organisation and coaching staff got a chance to pick and choose who to bring in to help us flip this thing around and change the culture around here to win football games.
“I feel like we’re on that path. We’re definitely not where we want to be right now on the aspect of being the dominant team we want to be, but we’re definitely going in that direction and going on that path to becoming a dominant team and dominant defence.
“Any time you lose its not a fun thing, but just being here in general, with the guys who’ve been here from the beginning, you just put your head down and work every single day.
“Now to see all the work and all the hard days we had in the past starting to pay off, we’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. That’s building a great team, building a dominant defence and dominant offence where we can compete, win football games, go to the play-offs and maybe go to a Super Bowl some day.
“You can see we’re definitely on the right path with where we’re going as an organisation, where we’re going as a team and it’s been a great ride and a great journey for me so far.”
They suffered a big blow to their play-off ambitions with a defeat to their arch rivals, the New England Patriots, last weekend. It was a defeat Williams believes will teach them crucial lessons entering a huge game against another AFC East rival, the Buffalo Bills, this weekend before facing the Patriots for a second time on November 20 coming off a bye week.
“It was a big loss because it was a divisional loss,” he admits. “But also it’s an opportunity for us to learn from our mistakes, learn from the things we did wrong but also the things we did right.
“We’re going into this big divisional game, everyone knows Buffalo has got a great team, a great quarterback so facing them is definitely going to be a big challenge. But we’re up to that challenge and we’ve just got to learn how to execute more efficiently and execute throughout.”
Many of the Jets hopes are pinned to the performances of their defence. Whilst new additions such as rookie cornerback Ahmad ‘Sauce’ Gardner have been huge, Williams remains a focal point.
The fourth-year lineman is already well on course to smash his previous best stats having recorded six sacks and 31 tackles approaching the halfway stage of the campaign. He was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week in week six in a surprise win against the Packers and this week was named AFC Defensive Player of the Month for his impressive displays.
Typical of Williams’ selfless nature, he insists much of that success - including his remarkable individual performance featuring a blocked field goal at Lambeau Field - is down to a team effort.
“In that moment, you really don’t think about things like that, you just think about playing for your brothers, playing for the guy next to you and executing to the highest level.
“Of course, after the game I got a chance to sit down and see all these accolades, the blocked field goal and stuff like that.
“But it’s just one of those things, I look at it that without those guys next to me, without my brothers on the defensive line, without the linebackers behind, CJ Moseley, giving the calls, it wouldn’t happen.
“It’s not a self sport, it’s not a one-man wrecking show or one-man wrecking ball. When you executive and communicate at the highest level, someone is going to make a play.
“I always tell people that you have to have your teammates out there, it’s not just me out there balling, it’s the whole defensive side balling.”
Whilst he refers to his defensive comrades as brothers, that figure of speech has a literal meaning as he lines up alongside older brother, Quincy, in the Jets lineup.
The pair have been through plenty together both on and off the field having lost their mother, Marquischa, to breast cancer when they were teenagers.
“It’s super strong,” he says. “Like any other brother.”
That bond is now shared on an NFL field, just as they always dreamed it, but Williams wants to create the same sorts of relationships with the rest of their teammates.
“But we also have to have a chemistry and camaraderie with our other teammates as well,” he continues.
“The closer you guys are, the more you can feed off each other, the more you know what each other add and the faster it is. Me and my brother have an amazing relationship from growing up, but we’re trying to have that same relationship with CJ Moseley, with Vinny Curry, with the different guys on the team.
“When we become one band, one sound, that’s when we can become a dominant defence and a dominant group.”
Williams has big ambitions on the field but even bigger dreams off it. In New York, he appears to have found a perfect fit as the franchise takes strides forward on the field as well as off it.
The Jets pride themselves as being an organisation that provides support during humanitarian crises and, due to close family links to Ukraine, owner Suzanne Johnson has led ongoing efforts to support Ukraine.
Williams also sees his purpose as bigger than football as he outlines his ambitions for the future with his foundation.
“For the rest of the season, just continue to executive and communicate on the highest level, whatever the coach calls and communicate with my defensive lineman,” he says.
“Off the field I have tremendous, huge, huge goals just to change lives and build my foundation, throw football camps, build awareness for breast cancer and different stuff like that. I just want to help people and change lives.”
Quinnen Williams plays and was speaking on behalf of the New York Jets. To watch the New York Jets in action, viewers can see highlights and full game content on Sky Sports NFL
