Unprompted at his Wednesday press conference, New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams told reporters he had something he wanted to address: How ESPN analyst Troy Aikman “would lie on me like that.”

Williams was upset by something that Aikman said during the telecast of the Jets’ 27-6 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night.

A first-team All-Pro selection last season, when the former Alabama All-American recorded 12 sacks, Williams has one-half sack eight games into the 2023 campaign.

“Sacks or not, Quinnen Williams is having an impact on games,” Aikman said, “and the pressure he’s able to get and the double-teams he attracts and he opens things up for all these other players. Quinnen Williams, he keeps telling (coach) Robert Saleh and (defensive coordinator) Jeff Ulbrich they’ve got to come up with some ways to give him some single opportunities so he can get some sacks. He says he’s the highest-paid decoy in football.”

But Williams said on Wednesday that he’s never said any such thing.

“I seen something like Troy Aikman said that I said something about being a decoy,” Williams said. “I never said that. Like, I never talked to Troy Aikman. I never said that to Troy Aikman. Like, I don’t know where he got that from. Like, it never came out of my mouth that I was the highest-paid decoy or something like that he said on Monday night or something like that. So I never said that. Like, I never talked to him before the game. I never alluded to that. Like, it’s never been out of my mouth. … Like, I never had a conversation with him at all, so to hear him say that I said that is kind of, like, upsetting that he would lie on me like that or say that I said that, so that’s kind of weird to me. For sure, it was definitely misleading.”

Saleh was asked about the “highest-paid decoy” remark during his press conference. He responded with a defense of Williams’ performance this season.

“I do think sack production is a very overrated stat,” Saleh said. “I think it’s a cool stat that gets guys paid, but it is not the indicative number because I’ve seen guys who get sacks who just get lucky as (expletive) — excuse my language — lucky as heck. But when you look at Quinnen, teams are going out of their way to game plan Quinnen, to try to take him out the game. But he’s still absolutely wrecking run games.

“You can fact-check me because I’m not sure, but he ranks top five in pressures, he ranks top five in pressure rate, he ranks top five in PFF grades, he ranks in the 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, and we’re seeing a lot less double-chippers and a lot more attention to Quinnen, which means Jermaine Johnson, (former St. Paul’s Episcopal standout) Bryce Huff, they’re absolutely wreaking havoc on quarterbacks this year and opening it up, so 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? That’s going to open it up for our inside guys.

“So the overall sack production, like I said, is an overrated stat. Quinnen Williams is one of the top five defensive players in all of football, and he’s proving it down in and down out. Unfortunately, we live in a society where sack production is the measure of how good a player is, and that’s not even close. He’s wrecking games.”

On the Pro Football Focus NFL midseason all-pro team, released on Tuesday, Williams and the New York Giants’ Dexter Lawrence were the interior defensive linemen.

Williams said he’s not concern with his sack number.

“It’s a team sport,” Williams said. “I’m not really just worried about myself. Just worried about the defense and what can I do to help this team win. …

“I’m not really focused on it. Just focused on getting better every single day, getting better on doing the necessary things I can do to help this defense win.”

With a 4-4 record, the Jets play the Las Vegas Raiders at 7:20 p.m. CST Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. NBC will televise the game.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.