Rookie Quincy Williams' Role in Jaguars Defense Changing as Season Continues

The rookie linebacker was moved out of the starting lineup vs. the New Orleans Saints in Week 6.

Asking a 23-year old rookie who played a safety/linebacker hybrid position at Murray State a year ago to step into a starting role on an NFL defense right away was never going to be an easy transition for Quincy Williams and the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

And after the Jaguars replaced the 2019 third-round pick in Sunday's starting lineup against the New Orleans Saints with veteran linebacker Najee Goode, it is clear the Jaguars are taking a different approach with their young and developing linebacker.

After starting the first five games of the season, playing 99% of the defensive snaps or more in three games, Jaguars benched Williams for the final quarter against the Carolina Panthers in Week 5's 34-27 loss. He had a rough outing against the Panthers inside zone running plays, and Christian McCaffrey gave him fits in space on more than one occasion. 

Against the Saints, Williams didn't play a single defensive snap. Goode impressed in his place and the run defense as a whole was much better than it had been the previous week.

"We’re still working with Quincy [Williams]," Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said on Monday. 

"We’re still going to keep bringing him along and we’ll just take it week-by-week and a lot of it depends on what’s in the game plan and what we’re trying to get accomplished of who plays.”

But maybe this should have been expected for Williams all along. It is unclear why it took almost five games for the Jaguars to realize Williams was not ready for a starting role, but it at least appears they have now come to the conclusion. 

“With Quincy [Williams], right now we’re trying to get a base foundation for him," defensive coordinator Todd Wash said last week. 

"He didn’t play linebacker in college, he missed all of OTA’s, missed all of training camp, so he’s really playing linebacker for six weeks and we’re really trying to speed up the process and give him a base foundation." 

All accounts inside the Jaguars building are that Williams has one of the best work ethics on the entire team. His struggles and subsequent benching are not things that are an indictment on him, but instead reflect the massive transition he has always had to face.

For Wash, he thinks his young linebacker will still be an important piece of the Jaguars defense in the long-term. But for now, Wash's job will be to help him get accustomed to life as an NFL linebacker and prepare him for things offenses will throw at him that he never saw once in college.

"And I think that once again my job is to really calm things down game plan-wise, so when he gets in there, he plays well," Wash said. "Because he is going to be a very, very good football player, I truly believe that."

"There’s a lot of new stuff going at him and we have to be able to just increase that foundation so he has something to fall back on when things may be a little bit different than what he’s seen on tape.”