New York Jets need a big game from Quinnen Williams in his return

The New York Jets will be desperately in need of a big game from their rookie first-round pick Quinnen Williams in his long-awaited return from injury.

The New York Jets season has been marred by injuries and misfortune to this point, but Week 5 will at least see the return of one of their key players as Quinnen Williams is set to play for the first time since Week 1.

The third overall pick in this past draft, Williams has been dealing with an ankle injury that forced him to miss the second half of the team’s season opener loss to the Buffalo Bills.

That injury has kept him out of each of the Jets’ last two games but it appears as though he’s finally set to return. Williams is officially listed on the injury report as “questionable” although head coach Adam Gase has stated that he should be good to go for Sunday.

And his return comes at a very important time for a Jets team trying to avoid falling to 0-4 after a disastrous start. If the Jets are going to have success in Sunday’s game, they’re going to have to win the battle up front.

That goes for both sides of the ball.

On offense, the offensive line will have to play much better than they have in recent weeks against a stout Philadelphia Eagles front-seven. And perhaps equally as important will be the play of the Jets’ defensive front.

Gang Green must do a better job setting the tone up front and making quarterback Carson Wentz feel uneasy in the pocket. Wentz finished the Eagles’ Thursday Night win over the Green Bay Packers with three touchdowns and no interceptions, due in part to the fact that he wasn’t sacked once.

And on the ground, the Jets front-seven will need to do their best to limit what has been a pretty potent running game so far for the Eagles. Philadelphia rushed for 176 total yards last week on the heels of impressive performances from both Jordan Howard and Miles Sanders.

The Jets can ill-afford to allow the Eagles to run so effectively and they will be relying on their top defenders to limit the duo Howard and Sanders as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the team will still be without star linebacker C.J. Mosley meaning that even more responsibility will fall on the defensive line to plug up holes in the running game.

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However, he should be lined up against left guard Isaac Seumalo on most snaps — likely the weakest member of an otherwise excellent Eagles offensive line.

And given the slow starts from both Leonard Williams and Henry Anderson, the Jets will need Quinnen Williams to step up now more than ever.

The Alabama product had a relatively quiet preseason and didn’t make much of an impact in Week 1 prior to his injury, but the immense talent he showed in college is apparent. And it sure would be nice to get a glimpse of that talent come Sunday.

After all, there’s a reason as to why he was considered a consensus top-three player in this past draft.

The Jets need Quinnen Williams to make an impact in Week 5 and the stage is set for the rookie to have a true coming-out-party in his triumphant return.