For his sixth NFL season, New York Jets linebacker Quincy Williams set a goal of earning selection for the Pro Bowl Games. To raise his play to a higher level, the former Wenonah High School standout made some sacrifices.

“I did a lot of stuff this year that – I’m going to be honest – I didn’t want to do type stuff,” Williams said, “especially the biggest thing like the food, staying on my diet and stuff. I actually left my refrigerator empty just so I can make sure I can stay on my diet. That was the hardest thing.”

With one game remaining in the Jets’ season, Williams has reached a career high with 131 tackles. His 91 solo tackles rank fifth in the NFL. He’s also second among NFL linebackers with 10 passes defended (broken up or intercepted).

But when the rosters for the Pro Bowl Games were announced on Wednesday night, Williams wasn’t among the selections.

“I wanted to grow from last year and years before,” Williams said on Friday. “I honestly feel like I got that, so the main thing I’ve been telling people is the destination is the Pro Bowl. That’s still the destination. But I enjoyed the journey this year. I didn’t get to that destination this year, but the goal’s still going to be the same for next year. Like I said, the journey was good. Going week after week performing well and things like that was huge.”

While Williams didn’t get Pro Bowl recognition, he was voted the Jets’ most valuable player for the 2023 season by his teammates.

“It means a lot,” Williams said. “The biggest thing about that is it’s your peers, the people that see you every single day, the people you hang out with on the field and off the field, so it was very huge that I’m being recognized for this award. It means they’re seeing the work that I’m putting in.”

Fans also saw the work that Wiliams put in on the field this season by making him their No. 1 choice for the Pro Bowl Games among AFC linebackers. The fan vote makes up one-third of the selection process, and when the other two parts – the choices of the players and the coaches – were factored in, the inside linebackers for the AFC’s Pro Bowl Games squad turned out to be the Baltimore Ravens pair of Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith.

“It was pretty cool because the players vote for that one,” New York coach Robert Saleh said of Williams’ MVP recognition. “For him to have gotten that type of respect in the locker room, I think it’s a testament to him. Nobody knows him like his teammates know him, and while he may have been snubbed for the Pro Bowl, he was definitely recognized here.”

In his three seasons with the Jets, Williams has rung up 347 tackles after registering 59 in his first two NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

A safety at Murray State, Williams joined Jacksonville as the 98th selection in the 2019 NFL Draft. In each of his first two seasons, Williams had surgery during training camp – for a torn meniscus in 2019 and a core-muscle injury in 2020.

Despite the setback, Williams started eight games for Jacksonville as a rookie. In 11 games and 493 defensive snaps, Williams had 48 tackles and two tackles for loss in 2019. But in 2020, Williams played only 89 defensive snaps in seven games and totaled 11 tackles, with one tackle for loss, for the season.

At the end of the preseason for the 2021 campaign, the Jaguars waived Williams. He joined the Jets as a waiver claim on Sept. 1, 2021.

“We had the opportunity to get him,” Saleh said, “and (general manager) Joe (Douglas) did a great job. Got the waiver-wire claim in, and then from there it was just a matter of developing him. But credit to him because he flipped from a mental standpoint in just understanding how precious this opportunity is. And he’s attacked it. He’s got all the athleticism in the world, and he’s taken his mental every year to a whole new level, and I’m fully expecting him to do it again next year.”

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The Jets started the season with high hopes after trading for four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers in April. But the quarterback sustained a season-ending injury in the season-opening game, and New York has started three other signal-callers as the Jets enter their season finale with a 6-10 record.

New York visits the New England Patriots at noon CST Sunday in one of the two games on the final weekend’s schedule that does not involve at least one team that has qualified for the playoffs or is still trying to.

The Jets had two players picked for the AFC’s Pro Bowl Games roster – cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, a former Alabama All-American who is Quincy Williams’ brother.

“It was a shock to me to see that he didn’t make the Pro Bowl after the amazing season that he had,” Quinnen Williams said about his brother’s omission. “He just told me, ‘Man, the best is yet to come.’”

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