Quincy Williams came to the Jets as Quinnen's older brother, a waiver pickup from the Jaguars before the start of the 2021 season. And the elder Williams quickly made a name for himself. He became a big-play, tackles-for-loss, 100-tackles-a-season guided missile. He earned Curtis Martin Team MVP recognition from his teammates and Pro Bowl recognition from the NFL.

But now there's a new chief architect in town in head coach Aaron Glenn. And Quincy has realized he's got more work to do.

But it's all good for Williams.

"Coach challenged me on in the beginning," Williams said after Tuesday's OTA practice in his patented rapid-fire delivery, "When he first got the job, he gave me a call. We had an hour-and-a-half conversation just on his vision and also me getting his vision to the players and stuff so we were all on the same page. And then he challenged me with a couple of things to work on this offseason and then to show it during the season."

Glenn also mentioned the call, which sounded to be equal parts a pat on the back while a fire was being lit under the nether regions.

"I told Quincy, when he first came in and met with me, some things I want him to work on," Glenn said. "And he is doing everything he can to get better at those things. I don't lie to players, and he's a good player, but there are also some things he's got to get better at, and he understands that,

"And that just goes to show you a sign of a really good player. In this league, even the best players get criticized. But they want to be, too, because they want to be better, and he's one of those guys that wants to be better."

One AG spotlight could shine on Williams' pass-rushing abilities. He wasn't asked to rush the QB much in the Robert Saleh/Jeff Ulbrich scheme, so his pressure stats — 9 sacks, 16 QB hits combined the past four seasons — are not through the roof.

Neither he nor the HC nor the DC (Steve Wilks) are talking yet about what a more pressure-oriented Jets D will look like, but as Glenn said Tuesday, "It's clear the players are excited about what we're doing."

Williams also said, when asked what taking his game to the next level might look like, that he was given some leadership points to ponder.

"The first part of it is the one I'm working on right now, being a leader on the team and then also being a part of the foundation of the team, No. 1," he said. " No. 2 was really just getting the defense down pat to become that person where I can look at the offense and worry about what the offense is doing and not more of what are we doing or where I fit into a defense."

For his leadership training, Williams checked in with the uber-leader of the Jets' defense from 2021-23. He played alongside C.J. Mosley for those three seasons and also for the start of last season before injuries limited Mosley to two of the Jets' last 15 games. Mosley was released in March but is still in the area not far from One Jets Drive.

"C.J. came to my camp this weekend, so we had a conversation," Williams said. "Also, he's still in New Jersey, so we've grabbed lunch a couple of times. Right now it's the mindset of picking his brain on how to be more of a leader. When he came to the Jets, to a new team, he actually sat out a year. So it was like what are the things that you worked on to come to a team that you really didn't know? How did you become a leader to those guys?"

Combine Williams' nose for the football with an enhanced role in implementing the culture and defensive scheme being installed in OTAs by Glenn and Wilks, and there's no telling how big of an impact the Jets' No. 56 can have. But as Williams said, right now the foundation for this high-rise is still in the planning stages.

"Every year my mindset is to get better. Sometimes I don't have a blueprint. Sometimes it takes me a while to find out what that next level looks like," he said, adding that the phone call from his new HC " was one of those things where all the thought processes went out the window and it was more like, all right, you have your challenge, now let's create a blueprint to get to those challenges as a team and then those challenges as an individual. Because if I get my team goals, then I get my individual goals."