New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams had to wait to play at Alabama. He’s also waited to be recognized as the best at his position in the NFL.

In both cases, he had acclaimed defensive linemen ahead of him.

MORE NFL:

· WILL JALEN HURTS DELIVER ANOTHER VIP EXPERIENCE FOR EAGLES FANS IN THE 2023 SEASON?

· MAC JONES CONSIDERS PATRIOTS PREDECESSOR TOM BRADY TO BE A MENTOR

· DEMARCCO HELLAMS ‘GOING TO BE HARD TO KEEP OFF THE FIELD’

With the Crimson Tide, Williams saw defensive linemen Jonathan Allen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Daron Payne, Da’Shawn Hand and Joshua Frazier leave in the NFL Draft before he reached the starting lineup.

In the NFL, Williams broke through with first-team All-Pro recognition for his performance in the 2022 season. But when league players voted for “The Top 100 Players of 2023,” defensive tackles Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs and Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams ranked 10th and 11th, respectively. Williams came in 40th.

But being third best, even to perennial all-stars, won’t be enough for Williams in 2023.

“I’m definitely chasing that right now,” Williams said during an appearance on “The Pivot” podcast. “I remember going through my little contract situation, and I was just so OK with being the third guy, the third guy, the third guy all the time. I just thought to myself one day, like ‘Man, I ain’t going to be the third guy. I want to go be the No. 1 guy.’ You see what I’m saying? I want to be the Aaron Donald; I want to be the Chris Jones. I had to self-reflect on myself, like: What do I need to do to change to be that guy, that game-changer? … These guys are game-changers, and it was a self-reflect type of thing. I looked in the mirror, I looked at film, really dialed into: What can Quinnen change to be that game-changer? And that’s the only thing I’m really focused on this whole entire year.

“Yeah, I had a good year last year, but I’m chasing that greatness standard. When you hear my name, you’re going to say I’m one of the best, just like when you hear Aaron Donald’s name, he’s a gold-jacket guy. Everybody knows that. Can’t nobody say he’s not. And I want to get to that level.”

RELATED: JETS 300-POUND DEFENSIVE TACKLE QUINNEN WILLIAMS: ‘HE CALLED ME FAT, BRO’

A prep standout at Wenonah High School, Williams redshirted at Alabama in 2016 and played a reserve role for the Tide’s 2017 CFP national-championship team. In 2018, Williams won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top lineman, earned unanimous All-American recognition and finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy voting before departing for the Jets as the third pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Williams said he almost gave up on playing at Alabama, but he’s glad he didn’t.

“It was a hard experience, man,” Williams said. “This was before NIL and the transfer portal. It was many times that coaches left our staff and were going to get head-coaching jobs other places, and I almost went with them – and top schools, too.

“It was one of those things where I go back to God a lot because I had to pray. I pray about every single thing I do. I ask God to show me the way, show me the direction I want to go in. And a guy at Alabama right now named Josh Chapman who’s from where I’m from was just telling me, like, ‘You’re not ready yet. You learn from the guys in front of you, you work hard and, when you get ready, it’s going to be your time.’

“And I understood what he said when I got drafted, but in that midst, I’m like, ‘Bro, it’s kind of hard sitting back here waiting,’ and you see Payne and Jonathan Allen and all these guys go first round. It’s like, ‘Bro, they ain’t fixing to take no first-rounder and he ain’t got on the field yet.’ But I got my opportunity my third year … and I was ready. I made the best of it. I went out there, I balled out and God just blessed me with the stats, the skill, everything I needed to go top three picks, so it was just a blessing in my eyes and a blessing from God, I guess, to help me stay in that moment because I was definitely fixing to leave.”

Williams said he almost didn’t get to Alabama at all. He wanted to go to Auburn. But after losing his mother to breast cancer as a child, Williams wanted to stay close to his grandmother.

“I grew up a huge Auburn fan,” Williams said. “I wanted to go to Auburn since I was a little kid, so when I first got that Auburn offer, man, it was like an unbelievable moment for me, so I committed to Auburn. I wanted to go to Auburn, wanted to win the national championship at Auburn. The guys before me like Nick Fairley and Cam Newton and all those guys made it super popular.

“But Auburn was two hours away from my grandmother, and Alabama’s 30 minutes from my grandmother. We’re from Birmingham, Alabama, so me wanting to stay with her, me wanting her to come to the games, me wanting her to be a part of my journey to the NFL — because that’s who really helped me stayed focused, my mother figure, to help me get where I was at the moment — I decided to go to Alabama just to stay close to her. It was some pluses on the end. You get to play for coach (Nick) Saban. You get to learn from all the alumni who came through there. You get to learn from Jonathan Allen and all the vets that was on the team at the beginning.

“But my whole reason for going was just to stay close to my grandma and keep my grandma involved inside of my education, first of all, because my grandma is huge on education, and my mom was huge on education, and just stay involved in my life in general, not just coming every Saturday.”

The choice ended up having a profound effect on Williams’ life because of the influence of Saban, he said.

“Everything I do now is through coach Saban – the mindset,” Williams said. “It’s funny because I was telling Brick the other day, like, they was like, ‘Bring the juice. Bring the juice.’ And I’m like, ‘Yo, I never heard of that.’ That’s some NFL (expletive). I never heard ‘Bring the juice.’ At Bama, it’s like you either come to work or stay at home. And that’s my mindset.

“When I step on the field, I’m here at work. I’m here to work, I’m here to get everybody better around me and I’m here to get better, so that mindset and just play the next play, it’s just every single thing, every single aspect that he instilled in me still to this day – the mentality, the hard-working aspect, just everything. When it comes down to being a professional on the field and off the field, a lot of that, he taught me and instilled in me.”

Williams will start his fifth NFL season when the Jets kick off the 2023 campaign against the Buffalo Bills at 7:15 p.m. CDT Monday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. ABC and ESPN will televise the game.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

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