After having one of his best seasons in 2022, Quincy Williams has put that behind him and has new goals for the upcoming year: finding consistency and building to head coach Robert Saleh’s termed “501” graduate level of football.
In his second season, the outside linebacker started each of the 15 games he played and racked up three sacks, 106 tackles and six quarterback hits.
But “last year is last year,” Williams said at training camp Wednesday.
“Now it’s taking it to that 501-type thing instead of just harping on, I made the play last season. So, 501 is my thing this year.”
It’s not a difficult mindset to have, he noted when surrounded by a 10-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers — who continuously counters Williams and the defense in practice.
“This is the best camp I’ve been a part of this year, and that’s just because in our minds we have the number one defense and number one offense going against each other every single day.” he said. “Every single practice is like a game, and [Rodgers is] putting us in game-type situations.”
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Last season Williams’ number of tackles in each game fluctuated, with extreme outliers of 14 and 3, but he believes treating each practice as a game will help him be more consistent in his third season, after re-signing in the offseason on a three-year contract worth $18 million with $9 million in guaranteed money.
“Just having that mindset coming to practice every day, let me take it on game day, it’s easy to me because I’ve been doing it at practice, I’ve been doing it at camp the whole time,” he said.
An added benefit this year is having his brother alongside him once again after Quinnen Williams signed a four-year, $96 million extension on the first day of training camp.
The defensive lineman also had his best season in 2022, becoming a Pro Bowler after posting 12 sacks, two forced fumbles, and 55 total tackles.
“Our dream was playing on the same team with each other when we were younger, and [Quinnen] just told me, ‘The dream continues.’ And I thought about it and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s go-time now,’ ” Quincy said.
“OTAs was kind of lonely, coming into the locker room and not seeing him and stuff. I told him that every single day and then come training camp, you’ll know we brothers, we get in the locker room talking and stuff. Lockers right next to each other. So, it’s a great feeling.”
