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I must be missing something.
Pro Football Focus, and others, keep telling us that Quinnen Williams is an elite run defender.
I covered his entire career with the Jets, from 2019 to the middle of the 2025 season when he was traded to Dallas, and just didn’t see it.
Look, man, I watch the entirety of every game through binoculars from the press box (with a heavy focus on line play), and then look back at the video of each game on Monday or Tuesday.
And what I saw consistently was, due to his lack of ideal size, he would too often get velcroed to blocks on big runs up the middle.
Due to PFF’s strange analytics on his run defense, when the Jets traded him to Dallas, there was a perception that he would be a panacea for their struggling run defense.
Returning to his old stomping grounds for Dallas’ season finale against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, the Cowboys gave up 161 yards rushing, including 103 to Tyrone Tracy in a 34-17 loss. In the game, Williams had two tackles. The game before that against Washington, with a 3rd string QB playing, the Commanders took Dallas to the wire before losing 30-23. A big reason that Washington hung around was their rushing offense that gained 138 yards.
He does make occasional plays against the run when he guesses the right gap off the snap and beats the guard or center with quickness, but if he doesn’t, and is engaged by an interior lineman, he often has trouble shedding blocks. Not saying he doesn’t make nice plays against the run along the way. Of course he does. But I have covered some dominant run defenders over the years, like Kris Jenkins and Mo Wilkerson, who you flat out could not run at. It was never close to that with Williams.
My scouting report on Williams, from the eye test, is an outstanding interior pass rusher and average against the run.
I’m a huge fan of the Bootleg Football Podcast. They do a great job of breaking down the NFL through extensive film study.
In their training camp preview of the Jets, Brett Kollmann, who is a rising star in the business, praised Williams’ run defense.
“Run defense pre and post Quinnen two different things,” Kollmann said about the Jets’ season last year.
He added: “When Quinnen was there, they could actually stop the run pretty well.”
He also said, “They’re not going to replace him, even bringing in T’Vondre Sweat (pictured above) – they’re not going to replace what Quinnen Williams can do.”
I would agree that Sweat is not going to replace Williams as an interior pass rusher. That is accurate, but as a run defender, the 6-4, 366-pounder should be much better, as should David Onyemata.
Believe me, I’m a huge fan of Kollmann. Actually had him on my radio show on SiriusXM a few months ago. Think he’s fantastic.
But I will have to agree to disagree with him and PFF on Williams as a run defender.
Not sure how the analytics grades defensive tackles against the run. Hey, we all know what a missed tackle looks like, and that is easy to grade, but how do they grade a defensive tackle when he doesn’t miss a tackle, but gets velocroed to a single blocker on a big run up the middle? Is that a thing with the analytics community, because, from what I saw, that was commonplace with Williams during his time with the Jets.
I feel like I’ve been covering bad run defense up the middle from the team for several years now.
To me, on paper, the combination of Sweat and Onyemata could turn out to be the best run-stuffing DT combination the Jets have had in several years.
Maybe I’m missing something, but this narrative that Williams is a great run defender continues to fly right over my head.
Once again, he’s a hell of an interior pass rusher, but, in my worldview, he is pedestrian against the run. Nothing personal, just “going by what I see fellas,” as Bill Parcells liked to say.
July 21, 2026
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