New Cowboys DT Quinnen Williams ‘super excited’ to make Dallas debut vs. Raiders with role model Kenny Clark

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys (3-5-1) made one of the 2025 NFL trade deadline’s blockbuster moves by trading for New York Jets All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams on Nov. 4. 

Williams is now itching to get back on the football field for his Cowboys debut on “Monday Night Football” at the Las Vegas Raiders (2-7). Just over three weeks, 22 days to be exact, will have passed between the last time Williams suited up for the Jets in New York’s 39-38 road win at the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 26 and Monday, Nov. 17 in Las Vegas. 

“I’m super excited. … I haven’t played a game in a long minute. I’m super excited not only to play a football game but to play for this organization, man, to play for this team, to play for the guys in our defensive line room, and to play for the guys in this organization,” Williams said Friday.  … They took a chance on me and traded for me. … They feel like I can come in to contribute and help this organization go in the right direction. That’s all I plan to do.”

The 27-year-old is healthy. He just ran into having consecutive bye weeks between New York’s Week 9 bye and Dallas’ Week 10, which created a unique situation for the six-foot-three, 303-pound defensive tackle. Williams spent the Cowboys’ bye week getting an individualized plan mapped out with the Dallas training staff to ensure his body felt like he only missed one game on a bye and not two. 

“This is the first time I went healthy and haven’t played a game, but it’s like two weeks and some games… two-and-a-half weeks of something. With this coaching staff and strength and conditioning staff, we did a great job last week because my plan was just to prepare like I was going to play in a game,” Williams said. “Do pre-practice like I was going to play in a game because I had a bye week previously. Conditioning-wise, everything-wise, I just hit it like I was still in-season and still played in a game. I didn’t play a game on Sunday, but I did a mock game amongst myself.”

What does a solo mock game look like? Williams simulating going hard for his typical allotment of 30 or 40 plays.

“Kind of 30 or 40 reps or sprints or med[icine] ball stuff. Some type of cardio thing where I can still have the same wind and things like that,” Williams said. “So coming back to practice this week was easy, and it’s a blessing to be healthy.”

Williams is joining the Cowboys at a difficult time with 24-year-old edge rusher Marshawn Kneeland’s death from an apparent, self-inflicted gunshot wound occurring on Nov. 6, just two days after the defensive tackle came to Dallas. However, the tragedy has brought everyone in the organization closer together, providing an opportunity for Williams to grow as a man and with his new teammates and coaches. The situation forced him to place a higher value on the personal relationships with teammates outside of football instead of being solely focused on all ball all the time. 

“The togetherness through this hardship, through this tragedy has brought everybody together,” Williams said. “It was unbelievable man. I’ve always had to take a step back in my career, especially through this tragedy. I always think to myself winning is everything to me, and I can sometimes get so deep inside myself, deep inside my game, deep inside winning that I forget to build relationships with my teammates and build relationships with my coaching staff. Going through this tragedy with the guys in the organization and with the guys in the locker room has also kind of made me grow as a human being and as a person. You’re going to win Super Bowls, you’re going to win playoff games with the guys that you love next to you, and you can’t love anybody next to you if you don’t know them. It definitely taught me a lesson.”

Williams fitting in with Dallas defense on the field 

Fitting in with the Cowboys on the football field has been seamless for Williams thanks to his connection with Dallas defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton, his position coach with the Jets from 2021 to 2024 before Whitecotton joined new coach Brian Schottenheimer’s staff in Dallas in 2025. After only one season of working under Whitecotton in 2021, Williams erupted for a career-high 12.0 sacks in 2022, earning him first team All-Pro honors and kickstarting three consecutive Pro Bowl seasons. 

“It was definitely easy to catch up, man, when it comes down to football. I really trusted my football IQ and the things that I can do, especially coming down to remembering the playbook and remembering what they want me to do,” Williams said. “It probably took me one or two days to get the whole playbook down and to come out here and just fit right in, man. … Whatever coaching staff, whatever the scheme, whatever the team needs me to do to win football games, I’m willing to do what I’m going to do because at the end of the day I just want to win.”

That all-in attitude will be imperative for Williams because he will now be sharing the middle of Dallas’ defensive line with two other well-compensated defensive tackles in three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark and Osa Odighizuwa, the latter of whom re-signed with Dallas on a four-year, $80 million contract this offseason. Whitecotton and Schottenheimer have said there will clearly be rotations where all three still receive a starter’s level of game reps, but there will also be a higher usage of five-down fronts. That’s when a defense utilizes five defensive linemen along the line of scrimmage instead of the usual four. That adjustment yielded results for Dallas’ pass rush collectively as they matched the team’s single-game high in sacks with five against Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett in Week 9, something the Cowboys also did in Week 5 against Williams’ former Jets quarterback Justin Fields. 

“Yeah, it’s a fair question. It’s a good question. I think you saw us last game get into some of the five-down stuff. There are creative ways we can use it with those guys. We don’t just have to play five-down to get those guys in the game without giving things away,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said on Thursday. “We can move pieces around and put certain guys in different spots. I think that’s part of what you’ll see us do some this game, maybe even more moving forward but when you have that much talent inside, it is a problem for the defense. You talk about stopping the run, you’ve got penetration, you’ve got the ability to move those guys, package those guys in the pass rush. It’s the closest thing to the quarterback. And then, you know, we are going to play some four-down. And when we do, the good news about having guys like that is they’re going to be fresh. They’re going to be over there catching their breath, and then when they come in, they’re going to be hunting.”

That arrangement is perfectly acceptable for Williams in part because he will now be lining up next to Clark, someone Williams has admired for a long time from afar. Williams said he’s watched every snap of Clark’s first nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers from 2016 to 2024 to learn from his game. Now, he’s ready to be Clark’s teammate on Monday night in Las Vegas against the Raiders.  

“It’s unbelievable, man, to be able to come in and not only play with but learn from guys like Kenny Clark and Osa. I’ve been watching Kenny Clark fan for a long time, man, and the things he can do from a two-tech, from a three-tech. I think I watched every single clip of his at Green Bay,” Williams said. “Try to learn from, try to take something from [him]. Osa has been unbelievable in his career and been doing great things as well. So to be able to learn from each other, like I said, has brought us together… on the field and off the field. It’s gonna be unbelievable to go play on Monday night with them.”