Robert Saleh thinks this new Quinnen Williams controversy is ‘bush league’

Quinnen Williams has had an eventful week. 

After the Jets defensive tackle got into it with his defensive line coach, Aaron Whitecotton, on the sideline during the loss Sunday to the Bengals, Williams found himself the subject of a social media storm after a comment from defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich picked up steam on Thursday. 

On Friday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh called the noise surrounding Williams “bush league,” and said Ulbrich’s quote was taken out of context. 

Ulbrich, asked about Williams rotating out on the defensive line and whether there was a thought to keeping him in at times, given how well he’s playing, said: “That is the instinct for sure, there’s like these critical moments in game and ‘Why is Quinnen not out there?’ and you look to the side and he’s gasping for air, so just gotta be judicious with it. Got to absolutely use him as much as we can and as much as we can in critical moments, for sure, but I still think there has to be a level of rotation, he plays at such a high clip and he goes so hard that sometimes more is less, or more isn’t necessarily as good, because now, you’re not seeing the speed, the explosiveness, all the special stuff from an athletic standpoint that he brings.” 

The first part of the quote was taken in some corners of Twitter to mean that Williams is out of shape. Those who thought so may have included Williams himself, who retweeted a video from August of Saleh saying he was in the “best shape of his life” — a refrain Saleh echoed on Friday. 

Williams declined to speak with reporters following practice Friday, further adding fuel to the idea there is friction between him and the organization. 

“Quinnen’s in the best shape of his life. I’m not going to get into detail of what happened [Thursday],” Saleh said Friday. “Obviously in my opinion, a quote was taken and used against Jeff. We all know where Jeff’s heart is. He had spent 15 minutes prior to that question showering Q with praise. 

“We have our rotations. We do things the way we do them. Quinnen’s in phenomenal shape. It’s kind of bush league to take a one-liner, but it is what it is. But we all know where Jeff’s heart is.” 

Williams, who had a sack and three quarterback hits against the Bengals last Sunday, is off to a red-hot start to the season, but the conversation surrounding him this week has been almost entirely apart from that. 

Saleh declined to say whether the Jets needed to address the situation with Williams. 

“Whatever it was, if he did or didn’t [see the comment], it doesn’t matter,” Saleh said. “Whatever we had to address will be in house. Quinnen also knows where Jeff’s heart is, so I doubt he took any offense from it.” 

Ulbrich did praise Williams throughout his press conference on Thursday, though much of the conversation centered on his altercation with Whitecotton. 

“A player like Quinnen who’s not only, he’s an incredible player, he’s got a great football IQ, and he’s a very intelligent person, player and he understands this game,” Ulbrich said. “So he’s a guy in the trenches, he’s in the fire, he’s in the mix and we definitely listen and we definitely took into consideration what we said [to Whitecotton] and we adapted it as we went throughout the game, and partly because of the feedback he gave us.”