When the New York Jets traded away All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams to the Dallas Cowboys, the organization understood how “winning” would be measured.

Gang Green received a 2026 second-round pick, a 2027 first-round pick, and Mazi Smith for the former third overall pick out of Alabama. At just 27 years old, Williams still had plenty of years left to perform at his normal elite level.

He showed exactly that in his debut with the Cowboys.

In a 33-16 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night, Williams recorded 1.5 sacks for Dallas. He helped the Cowboys’ once-maligned defense stuff the run and get after the quarterback at a high rate.

Just because Williams played well in his debut with Dallas doesn’t mean the Jets can’t end up with the better part of the deal. They just have to learn from their original sin.

Williams dominates for Dallas

For the better part of his career, Williams was considered the most talented player on the Jets roster (save for a couple of seasons when some may have given the nod to Sauce Gardner). The fact that New York couldn’t win more than seven games with him on the roster made it clear they were never going to be able to build a winner by the time his prime was up.

With the Cowboys, though, Williams isn’t just the best player on the defense.

He’s playing with plenty of highly talented interior defensive linemen as well. Whether it was Kenny Clark or Osa Odighizuwa, Williams was lined up with quality players around him that allowed him to excel in both the run and the pass.

His pass rush win rate of over 21 percent was among the best posted this season. In eight games with the Jets this year, Williams had just one sack. In a single game with the Cowboys, though, he’s blown past that mark.

Instead of wondering why Williams has suddenly become a better interior pass rusher all of a sudden, though, New York should learn the one lesson it failed to realize when he was on the team in the first place.

Lesson Jets must learn

From Williams’ first start in 2019 to his last in 2025, the Jets always did a poor job of surrounding the defensive tackle with help inside. From Quinton Jefferson to Al Woods to Steve McLendon, the Jets never had a long-term solution to who they wanted playing alongside their former top pick.

That was always a massive mistake, and an interesting contrast to what the Jets had when Big Q entered the league (i.e., Leonard Williams, Foley Fatukasi).

The worst thing for any rebuilding team to do is to draft a strong player and do little to surround him with talent. From 2020 to 2022, Williams recorded 23 sacks. From 2023 to 2025, though, he has just 14 sacks.

The lack of pressure isn’t because he doesn’t have the ability to rush the passer. It instead boiled down the unwanted attention opposing offensive coordinators could provide the Bama product—double-teaming at every turn.

If the Jets are serious about rebuilding their roster, they must learn from the mistake of Williams’ departure. It isn’t enough to have a great player, and it’s not even close to enough to acquire one, only to then flip the page to a different position altogether.

An organization that has an All-Pro caliber star must do everything in its power to build talent around them in key areas—even if it means stacking sky-high interior defenders.

Nobody’s claiming that trading Leonard Williams during Quinnen Williams’ rookie year was the wrong move. It’s simply about failing to support the latter’s inner-front seven universe from that point forward.

No matter how talented one may be, it becomes far too tiresome to go at it alone.