NY Jets turned down offers for Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline

The NY Jets reportedly turned down trade offers for Quinnen Williams at the deadline.

NY Jets‘ defensive lineman Quinnen Williams was the subject of various trade rumors in the days and weeks heading into the trade deadline. But in hindsight, perhaps those rumors were a bit overstated.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Sunday that the Jets received various trade offers for Williams at the deadline, but that they turned down all of them.

This comes around a week after it was first reported by Manish Mehta of the NY Daily News that the Jets were shopping Williams at the deadline. Of course, that report was quickly refuted by multiple others indicating that it wasn’t the case.

Now around a week later, we seem to have a definitive answer. Not only were the Jets not shopping Williams, they reportedly refused to trade him away at all costs.

Schefter had the following to say about the situation.

“Multiple teams expressed interest in trading for the former Alabama star, but New York told each of them that Williams plays too important a position and has too much talent to deal away.”

That’s quite the bode of confidence from the organization. And given his play this season, it isn’t hard to see why the Jets feel this way about Williams.

The NY Jets have seen Quinnen Williams make significant strides in 2020.

After an underwhelming rookie season, Williams has broken out in 2020 as he currently leads the NFL in stops and is second in run stuffs. He’s been an elite run defender, and he hasn’t exactly lacked as a pass-rusher either.

His 71.5 pass-rush grade from Pro Football Focus ranks 21st among all interior defensive linemen in the NFL. He’s one of only a handful of players at his position to receive a PFF run-defense and pass-rush grade north of 70.0.

Simply put, he’s been one of the Jets’ best overall players this season. And it has many wondering just how good the 22-year-old could be with an improved supporting cast and more experience.

The Jets see Williams as a building block of the defense — one of the only true building blocks on the entire roster. It’s not a surprise to hear that they weren’t willing to trade him.

Quinnen Williams is only going to get better. The NFL knows this and it seems as though the Jets do too.