It’s easy to look at the New York Jets’ pass rush right now and feel the ache of what’s missing. One week they’re wrecking an offense, like they did in Week 5 with eight sacks against the Cleveland Browns. The next, they’re stone silent, as they were this past weekend against the New England Patriots when they never got Drake Maye to the turf.
That kind of swing makes the Quinnen Williams trade feel bigger than ever. The Jets have two explosive edge rushers in David Bailey and Will McDonald IV, but the middle of the defense has not offered nearly enough help.
T’Vondre Sweat, Harrison Phillips, and rookie Darrell Jackson Jr. are all sturdy against the run, but they aren’t interior pressure players. And that’s where Williams would still matter.
New York could absolutely use a Pro Bowl-caliber defensive tackle right now. Williams, after all, would be the exact kind of body who could tilt a pass rush in the Jets’ favor. But that doesn’t mean moving him to the Dallas Cowboys last November was the wrong call.
Both things can live at once: the Jets miss him badly, and Darren Mougey still made the right deal.
The reason is simple. The return was too strong to ignore. New York picked up Dallas’ 2026 second-round draft pick, which eventually became Indiana cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, and the team is also in line to receive the better of Dallas’ or the Green Bay Packers’ first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
That’s real value, even if it doesn’t match what Williams gave the Jets during his seven years in New York.
And there’s another layer here, too. Williams has not looked like the same player in 2026. According to Pro Football Focus, the Cowboys defensive tackle has graded out as the league’s 46th-best defensive lineman, which is a tough number for the second-highest-paid interior lineman in the NFL.
So yes, the Jets would be better off with Williams on their roster today. Their pass rush would feel a lot different with him inside. But when you weigh that against the draft capital and the financial flexibility New York gained in the trade, the answer stays the same: it was still the move to make.
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