Quinnen Williams arrived to his media availability on Monday wearing a special T-shirt.
It had a picture of him wearing a green suit like the “Iron Man” character from Marvel Comics with his No. 95 on it surrounded by a scene straight out of one of the comic books.
“My favorite character is Iron Man, so this company had made me, I guess, like a New York Iron Man shirt,” Williams said. “It’s got a picture of me in an Iron Man suit. It was super dope. … I’m wearing it a lot.”
The Jets can only hope that Williams will be their Iron Man on defense this year. It is hard to believe but Williams is entering his fourth year with the Jets. The 2019 first-round pick is one of the few remaining players from the pre-Joe Douglas days.
Williams is only 24 but he is already one of the more experienced players on the young roster.
“I definitely look up and be like, ‘Man, this is my fourth year.’ But I’m still young and learning,” Williams said. “I’ve learned a lot throughout this time. I can share the things that I’ve learned, especially off the field as a younger guy to the younger guys on the team. I’m still learning and I’m teaching at the same time. It’s one of those things that I really don’t look at age when it comes down to being a veteran or not a veteran. Being an experienced guy, I’m definitely experienced going into my fourth year.”
One thing Williams has not experienced much with the Jets is winning. The team is 13-36 in his three seasons. He said that motivates him and he feels like the Jets now have the pieces to become a winner.
“I feel like this year we’ve got everything we need to be the team that we want to be and the team New York wants us to be,” Williams said. “We just have to go be consistent, put it all on tape, put it all on the field.”
A healthy offseason and a second year in Robert Saleh’s defensive system should help Williams this year. Saleh said he expects big things from Williams.
“He can be a very dominant football player and I’m not talking dominant from a statistical standpoint,” Saleh said. “I just think he can be a very disruptive football player and he’s fully healthy, he’s in tremendous shape, he’s got the right mindset and he’s saying all the right things. Just really excited for him to just put that effort out every single day and see where it takes him, but he’s in a much better place than he was a year ago just in terms of his overall physical makeup because of the injury he suffered during OTAs last year, but really excited about the direction he’s going.”