At Alabama, Quinnen Williams went from a redshirt in 2016 to a reserve in 2017 to the Outland Trophy winner and a unanimous All-American in 2018.

With the New York Jets, Williams’ climb hasn’t been as pronounced, but in his fourth NFL season, Williams received his first Pro Bowl invitation, made The Associated Press All-Pro and Pro Football Writers of America All-NFL teams and finished seventh in the voting for the AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award.

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In 2022, Williams recorded 12 sacks and 28 quarterback hits. In his first three seasons combined, the former Wenonah High School standout had 15.5 sacks and 32 quarterback hits.

Williams said a key element in his development had been the ability “to learn from your wins and losses.”

“That’s the biggest thing I’ve learned,” Williams told Darkside of Beastwriter, “especially coming into the NFL, is how to learn from what you were good at and how to learn from what you need to critique and get better at by yourself and in yourself. I don’t have to wait on nobody to tell me what I did wrong and different things like that. Just teaching myself and learning from myself.”

Williams’ self-help doesn’t mean he can’t take coaching. He also credited his development to Robert Saleh, the Jets’ head coach for the past two seasons after coming over from his post as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive coordinator.

“I love his personality, man,” Williams said, “how he wants to bring the best out of each and every individual. No matter how old you’ve been in the league, how good you are, you can always find and improve something. He’s been in the game a very long time and been around a lot of great players and different things like that. He helped me out tremendously to get my game to the next level.”

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Williams also reached back to his Alabama days to credit Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban for preparing him to succeed in the NFL.

“I think he’s one of the best coaches of all-time,” Williams said. “I learned how to play football basically from him, how to be a pro in the NFL, how to do all I can do right now. I think he made me the player that I am to this day and made me the person I am.”

Williams is scheduled to play the 2023 season for $9.594 million after the Jets picked up their option for a fifth season on his rookie contract during the offseason last year.

But Williams is hoping to replace that arrangement with a long-term contract extension with New York, and he said the day after the Jets’ final regular-season game that he didn’t plan to report for the team’s offseason program without it.

Other than a three-day mandatory minicamp, attendance at each NFL team’s offseason program is voluntary.

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