New York Jets starting linebacker Quincy Williams might not be long for the green and white.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini said on his “Flight Deck” podcast that Williams is a “tradeable commodity and there are teams like the Atlanta Falcons – hello Jeff Ulbrich – who are looking for speed and maybe would be interested in a guy like Quincy Williams. I’m just saying watch that situation.”
The previous regime of Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh “more or less told Williams that don’t worry we will give you a new contract before the 2025 season starts, an extension basically,” Cimini revealed.
Saleh and Douglas were both fired in the middle of the 2024 season and aren’t able to fulfill that promise.
“I don’t know how the new regime feels about Williams but it is quite possible they don’t extend him. Even though he has clearly outperformed his contract. I mean two years ago he was a first-team All-Pro. He is only making $6 million a year, he deserves a raise [but] I don’t know if [Darren] Mougey will give it to him,” Cimini said.
Williams is entering the final year of his $18 million contract in 2025. The former Murray State product is scheduled to be a free agent in 2026.
Dark Horse Has Emerged for the Jets in the First Round
If the Jets trade Williams they will have a hole in the starting lineup at linebacker. Williams could play out this year for New York then walk as a free agent next offseason.
There are no clear and obvious replacement options on the roster to fill his spot.
The green and white could be proactive about filling that hole by using the No. 7 overall pick in the first round of April’s draft.
“Another guy to keep an eye on and I know some people will disagree with this but Jalon Walker the linebacker from Georgia is a guy to watch for the Jets in the top 10. He is an off ball linebacker but he can rush, he can put his hand in the dirt, and rush on third down. The Jets have a couple of good edge rushers in Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald but you can never have too many edge rushers. Walker is an excellent football player, he is high character, good leadership. Those are the kinds of intangibles that Aaron Glenn is looking for. So don’t be shocked,” Cimini warned.
Walker Has Earned Rave Reviews From Experts
The Georgia product measured in at 6-foot-1 and tips the scales at 243 pounds.
Across his three seasons in college, Walker racked up 12.5 sacks, 19 tackles for loss, and registered 89 total tackles.
“Some see Walker as a ‘tweener’ while others view him as a ‘hybrid.’ Either way, Walker can go. His career snap count is split between edge and linebacker, and his leadership is famous in the Georgia building. He’s tough but small as an early down edge rusher, but his athletic talent and suddenness to attack both edges makes him a menace for tackles. The most valuable usage for Walker is likely to come as an early down linebacker who can rush off the edge or match up across the line as a blitzer on passing downs,” NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein said.
Walker, 21, has been ranked all over the place during the pre-draft process. However one longtime evaluator has put the talented defender in rarified air.
“I might be the only guy out there that had a higher grade on Jalon Walker than Abdul Carter. I will stand by that grade,” former NFL general manager Mike Mayock said on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
“My jaw dropped watching him run [on tape]: his twitch, speed, quickness, change of direction, but what really intrigued me is on sub-packages they played him everywhere from the A-gap over the center all the way out wide as a pass rusher. I have in my notes all over the place for Jalon Walker, every tape I watched, I have Micah Parsons. He reminds me so much of Micah Parsons when he came out of Penn State,” Mayock told Rich Eisen.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post $18 Million Jets Starter Emerges as Trade Bait After Unfulfilled Promise appeared first on Heavy Sports.