Quinnen Williams has huge mismatch vs. old Jets friend in Dallas

New York Jets star Quinnen Williams has another golden opportunity to feast

Because of the dominance he displayed against the Buffalo Bills in 2022, we knew the Bills were a juicy matchup for New York Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams – and he took full advantage. Williams opened the season with five total pressures as a pass rusher and two tackles for loss against the run, making him the only defensive tackle in football to hit both marks in Week 1.

Going into Week 2, Williams has yet another juicy matchup in front of him.

Williams primarily lines up at right defensive tackle for the Jets. He lined up on the right side of the defensive line on 88% of his snaps in 2022, and in Week 1, that rate stayed high at 81%. This means Williams usually battles against the left guard.

The Dallas Cowboys’ starting left guard on Sunday? That will be Chuma Edoga, Williams’ draft classmate from back in 2019.

Eighty-nine picks after the Jets chose Williams third overall, the Jets used a third-round pick (92nd overall) on Edoga. The Southern California product was the Jets’ third selection of that draft, following up Florida edge rusher Jachai Polite (R3, #68 overall).

A college teammate of Sam Darnold’s, New York hoped Edoga could eventually develop into a long-term starter at tackle, but that never transpired.

Edoga played only 27 games (12 starts) with the Jets from 2019-21 and struggled when he hit the field. Across 485 pass-blocking snaps, Edoga allowed 42 pressures (8.7% pressure rate) and nine sacks (1.9% sack rate). He also committed 13 penalties over just 756 offensive snaps. Edoga played both sides of the line, logging 438 snaps at right tackle and 316 at left tackle (plus two snaps as a sixth offensive lineman).

The Jets waived Edoga as part of their final roster cutdowns in August 2022. He caught on with the Atlanta Falcons and underwent a position change, starting at left guard in his lone appearance of the season.

Edoga signed with the Cowboys in March 2023 and remained at guard. After entering the season as a backup, Edoga was quickly thrust into the starting lineup due to a hamstring strain suffered by starting left guard Tyler Smith. Edoga started at left guard against the Giants in Week 1 and will remain there against the Jets as Smith continues to work his way back.

While the position change seems to be working out reasonably well for Edoga, he remains a highly exploitable player as a starting guard.

Across his two starts at guard, Edoga has been credited with allowing three pressures on only 52 pass-blocking snaps. That’s a pressure rate of 5.77%, which is well above the 2022 league average for guards (4.65%). For perspective, a pressure rate of 5.77% would have ranked 56th out of 64 qualified guards in 2022.

Edoga’s high pressure rate has occurred despite him being protected by very OL-friendly gameplans. Across his two starts, only 13 of his 52 pass-blocking snaps were considered “true pass sets” by PFF. That’s only 25.0% – well below the 2022 league average of 43.2%.

In other words, three-quarters of Edoga’s pass-blocking reps were assisted by play action, a quick pass, a screen, or another method of making the offensive linemen’s jobs easier. So, the fact that he has allowed a high pressure rate despite the low rate of true pass sets is a sign that Edoga is extremely vulnerable in pass protection.

Edoga has not appeared effective in the run game, either. Against the Giants, Dallas had seven carries into either the left A-gap or the left B-gap (i.e. any run in between the left tackle and the center), and those carries netted just 20 yards (2.9 yards per carry). That includes a minuscule 3 yards before contact (0.4 per carry).

Quinnen Williams, you’re up next.

No. 95 has another golden opportunity to wreck the opponent’s entire offensive gameplan.

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