Jets DT Quinnen Williams will be out 1-2 weeks with calf injury

Antwan Staley, New York Daily News on Aug 1, 2025

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — More than a week after the start of training camp, the Jets are dealing with an injury to a key player.

Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams will miss one to two weeks after suffering a calf injury.

Williams tweaked his left calf during positional drills on Thursday. He left the practice field and walked under his own power to be evaluated inside the Jets’ facility and did not return.

“We want to make sure that this player is going to be good,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said about Williams. “We know what he’s all about, we know what he can do, and we wanted to hold him out, and we’ll see how that goes.”

Williams, 27, is the second-longest tenured player on the Jets roster after long snapper Thomas Hennessy. He is also one of Gang Green’s best players having been named to the Pro Bowl three seasons in a row (2022-24).

Last season, Williams finished with six sacks, 37 tackles and eight tackles for loss. He signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension before the 2023 season.

“He’s actually had this injury before,” Glenn said. “So, he understands exactly how he has to operate and make sure he goes through the process of getting it healed, and again, he’ll be just fine.”

If Williams is out for any significant time, that would be devastating to the Jets’ defensive line. The depth outside of Williams is a major concern entering this season because Derrick Nnadi, Byron Cowart and Jay Tufele are the top defensive tackles without him.

The Jets are also already without Jermaine Johnson, who is still working his way back from an Achilles tear he suffered last season. He is currently on the physically unable to perform list. However, Johnson is expected to be cleared for the Jets’ Week 1 matchup against the Steelers.

Left guard John Simpson will also miss one to two weeks after suffering a back injury, according to Glenn. Rookie safety Malachi Moore, who was selected in the fourth round of April’s draft, also is dealing with a strained oblique and was kept out of practice.

After missing the last two days due to soreness in his right knee, running back Braelon Allen participated in Friday’s practice.

Folk excited about Jets return

After being the most accurate kicker in the NFL the last two seasons, many might have thought Nick Folk would have landed on an NFL roster before training camp.

But an abdominal injury, which kept him out of the final three games of last season, possibly played a role in Folk still being a free agent in late July. But the Jets invited Folk in for a tryout on Monday and they later signed the veteran kicker, who spent seven years with the organization.

When he received the call about the tryout, Folk says he was “excited” about the chance to keep playing for a team he is familiar with.

“I definitely wanted to play,” Folk said. “I trained all offseason like I was going to play. That’s my goal every year to be 100% Week 1, kind of build through training camp.

“So yeah, I was wanting to play and kept working towards it.”

Folk has been in the NFL so long that he was briefly teammates with Glenn on the Cowboys during the 2007 offseason. He also played with Pro Football Hall of Famer Jason Taylor, who is the father of his current teammate, Mason Taylor.

“I remember him running around in Cortland when he was little,” Folk said. “I just asked him today if he remembers living in New York, and he said, ‘A little bit.’ So it’s a crazy world.”

Folk will be counted on to help solidify the Jets’ kicking situation after they went through a musical chairs of kickers the last two seasons. Last year, the Jets used four kickers, including Greg Zuerlein, who was released during the offseason.

Folk, 40, made 50 of 52 field-goal attempts over the last two seasons for a league-best 96.2% with the Titans.

The Jets began training camp with two inexperienced kickers, rookie Caden Davis and former UFL standout Harrison Mevis. They waived Davis on Tuesday and shortly thereafter signed Folk.

“If you look at him just over the last two years specifically, obviously he’s had a long, long run,” Jets special teams coach Chris Banjo said of Folk. “But if you look at him the last two years and what he’s been able to do in the situations he’s been able to do it in, I think that speaks volumes.

“I don’t think it’s a secret in regards to what this building kind of went through from a kicking perspective last year. So, anytime you can get somebody like that, that’s still available, I think that can end up helping the team in taking a step in the right direction.”