Isaiah Williams doesn't want to just be known as Isaiah Williams the returner.
"I feel like whenever you do something well, people try and put you in a box," Williams said. "Yeah, I can return, but I'm a football player. I can run routes, I can catch the ball and I can do all these things on the football field."
Although, in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears, as Williams ran a post route down field, he wasn't expecting the ball -- let alone to score his first receiving touchdown.
"Nine times out of 10, the play that was called, it never comes to the post ... you're considered an alert," Williams said. "An alert is basically if the quarterback likes the matchup, he gives it a shot. But when the quarterback progressed from one, two, three, you're not in that progression."
Yet QB Geno Smith threw him "a perfect ball." All Williams had to do was break the tackle and run into the end zone for the 58-yard score.
"It felt good being able to show what I could do," Willams said. "It's just a blessing anytime you can score in the NFL."
Williams is now one of six players with 3 TDs of 50-yards-plus since the start of last season, which includes his two punt return TDs in 2025; but when Williams started playing football, he didn't always want to be a wide receiver -- he was a quarterback.
"You could be a great receiver, but you're depending on so many people to get the ball," Williams said. "At quarterback, the ball is in your hands every single play."
In seventh grade, the quarterback on his little league team quit, and Williams took over. By eighth grade he fell in love with the responsibility.
Williams was recruited out of high school as an athlete, rather than at a specific position and initially was a quarterback at Illinois. In 2020, his redshirt freshman season, he started four games under center and was 26-of-63 passing for 393 yards and 4 TDs and 389 rushing yards, the ninth most in a season by a QB in school history. Williams set the Illinois single-game rushing record by a QB with 192 yards against Rutgers in his first career start.
But in 2021, when Bret Bielema took over the program, he saw Williams as more of a slot receiver and encouraged him to switch positions.
"We had one of those practices that like full speed but it's a walk-through, it's not really a lot of competition but it's full speed and [Bielema] told the quarterback to throw me ball on every single play," Willams said. "After that I was just like, you know what? I'm going to move and it just feels more natural and I wanted the opportunity to play that year."
Williams led the Fighting Illini in receptions for the next three seasons, but he never had a deep-ball TD moment like he had in Week 4.
"For the most part it was strictly just short stuff and then you get the stigma put on you like he's the gadget guy," Williams said. "So, it felt so good like I was used in a way that I had never really been used before."
The Jets have used Williams in a lot of different ways. He's still one of the Green & White's primary punt and kick returners, but offensive injuries have lengthened his job description.
In Week 1 Williams knew his number would be called on special teams and when the offense lined up in 13 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs) "to get the big block." But now, Willaims has also been involved in 11 and 12 personnel sets.
"I just want to be that guy who the team could depend on," Willaims, who was named one of the team's captains, said.
He spends a couple of extra hours each day studying the playbook, nailing the nuances of each WR position and play call. It's something being a QB helped him learn how to study efficiently, but Williams plans on being ready for whatever the coaches need him to do.
"The way he works the consistency in his mindset, and then on Sunday's he makes plays. I think that's something that we all can continue to follow," Smith said. "I love when Isaiah is out there, he's blocking guys probably twice his size, but he has no fear and that's the mindset that we want to have on this offense."
