Jets DL Quinnen Williams calls out Troy Aikman for 'weird' comments on MNF

New York Jets (4-4) defensive lineman Quinnen Williams called out Troy Aikman Wednesday for making “upsetting” and “weird” comments about him on the “Monday Night Football” broadcast of New York’s 27-6 Week 9 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers (4-4).

During the third quarter of the game, the Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback was breaking down the play of Williams before saying, “He says he’s the highest-paid decoy in football.” While addressing Aikman’s comments, Williams said he never spoke to him as Aikman had implied.

Oh wow…

At the end of @QuinnenWilliams’ media availability he went out of his way to address the comments @TroyAikman made on the Monday Night Football broadcast:

‘Can I say something real quick? I seen something that Troy Aikman said that I said something about being a… pic.twitter.com/RN6EtrPfqB

— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) November 9, 2023

“Can I say something real quick? I seen something that Troy Aikman said that I said something about being a decoy. Like I never said that. I never talked to Troy Aikman, I never said that to Troy Aikman, I don’t know where he got that from, that never came out of my mouth. I was the highest paid decoy or something like that he said,” Williams said, via Paul Andrew Esden Jr. of The Score 1260.

He added: ‘[It was] upsetting that he would lie on me like that and said that I said that. That’s kind of weird to me.”

Quinnen Williams making impact in other ways but sacks

Williams, 25, has yet to record a sack this season, one year removed from notching a career-high 12.5 in his fourth season with the Jets. His impact, however, has been seen in other ways, as Aikman attempted to highlight on the broadcast.

Jets head coach Robert Saleh made sure to make that exact point Wednesday when discussing Williams’ lack of sack production.

“Teams are going out of their way to game-plan Quinnen, to try to take him out of the game. But he’s still absolutely wrecking run games,” Saleh said. “Fact-check it because I’m not sure, but he ranks top-five in pressures, top-five in pressure rate, top-five in PFF [Pro Football Focus] grades, top-five in every statistical category you can conjure up. He’s just not getting the sack production.

“What we’ve seen is a much different approach to the way teams protect against us, a lot less double-chippers and a lot more attention to Quinnen. Which means Jermaine Johnson, Bryce Huff, they’re absolutely wreaking havoc on quarterbacks this year and opening it up. Teams got to pick their poison. You want to pay attention to Quinnen, our other guys are going to be productive. You want to pay attention to the edge rushers, it’s going to open up for our inside guys.”