As Jets fans continue to come down from the high of Aaron Rodgers being the starting quarterback, how are other things going in Jets Land? On the eve of the NFL Draft, it sounded like things were progressing with defensive tackle Quinnen Williams on a new contract.
But then, we got wind that an agreement wasn’t exactly close. That was about a week ago, though. Surely things have gotten better since. Right? Right?!
Apparently not, and Williams is voicing his displeasure on Twitter:
𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲: #Jets star DT Quinnen Williams bio now reads:
"Defensive Tackle for ………"
With his last tweet is a RT of the contract the #Giants gave Dexter Lawrence – $90 million with $60 million guaranteed.
Williams is clearly sending the Jets a message as they're working… pic.twitter.com/cHVY4npXxW
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 15, 2023
The updated Twitter bio plus his last Retweet show he’s clearly trying to send a message to his employer. While it’s a completely different situation, this sounds similar to the Giants-Saquon Barkley saga.
Mostly because there’s not a whole lot of leverage for Williams’ camp to use.
Sure, the deals for Dexter Lawrence and Jeffery Simmons have essentially set the market for elite defensive tackles. But as managing editor James Kratch mentioned in our Slack chat, he’s still under contract for the next three seasons, even without a new deal.
New York definitely doesn’t want to enter training camp with an unhappy key cog to its defense (or worse, him holding out). But then again, it’s only May. They can slow-play this in a sense to try and get a deal that’s closest to what they want (or, exactly what they want).
Retweeting deals for fellow defensive tackles and changing your Twitter bio most likely won’t yield the contract terms your camp is looking for. But maybe — just maybe — it’ll spur both sides to sit down and just get this done and other with.
You can reach Matt Musico at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
