FRISCO, Texas — As the Dallas Cowboys try and prepare to welcome new additions to the roster for their Week 11 matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, they do so with the heaviest of hearts following the tragic news of Marshawn Kneeland's passing. Those new additions that look to try and hit the ground running include Quinnen Williams, a former third-overall pick who is being reunited with defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton.
The two spent four seasons together with the Jets, so it would be an understatement to say they know each other well. They've been in the trenches together, and it was Whitecotton coaching up Williams from being a third-overall pick in 2019 to multiple Pro Bowls and First-Team All-Pro nod in 2022.
"I'm super happy to be part of this defensive line group that's super loaded and super talented with Kenny Clark and [Odighizuwa] and Dante Fowler and coach Aaron [Whitecotton]," Williams said immediately after his arrival. "It's unbelievable to go to work with those guys, and I'm looking forward to it."
That sentiment is echoed loudly by Whitecotton, to say the least.
"I'm excited [he's here]," he said. "Obviously, we have a history together. It was a good history, and he's a phenomenal person, a phenomenal player and a hard worker. I was telling [head coach Brian Schottenheimer] he's probably the most humble and hardest working top-3 pick I've ever been around in my life. He just comes to work every single day with a hard hat mentality."
Schottenheimer made a note to point out that Whitecotton is "three-for-three" in his pitches this year, having successfully convinced the Cowboys to sign Solomon Thomas, former All-UFL talent Perrion Winfrey and to now make a blockbuster trade to reunite him with Williams.
And, for Whitecotton, Williams' character and work ethic were as important to his selling points as was the film that everybody has access to.
"You see him make plays, everybody sees him make plays — the guy's been to Pro Bowls, he's been an All-Pro — that's all on display," said Whitecotton. "But behind the scenes, knowing how he works and how he approaches the game, that's a window I've had for four years that not everybody else had."
The next question that needs answering is a great problem for the Cowboys to have, in that they now have a total of six Pro Bowls between Williams and Kenny Clark, the latter having been acquired in the Micah Parsons trade one week ahead of the start of the regular season, but also impact players like Thomas and Osa Odighizuwa — while also developing rookie seventh-round pick Jay Toia.
There’s a plan in place, but also an excitement surrounding the more traditional way of bringing the guys into games, rotationally-speaking.
"We rotate enough that all those guys get starter reps," Whitecotton explained. "It's not like, 'Oh gosh, what are we gonna do now?' It's a good way for us to keep the mix and the flow going. And then you have different types of players playing next to one another like Quinnen next to Solly feels really different than Kenny next to Osa, and Solly next to Osa feels really different to an offensive line than Osa next to Jay [Toia].
"It's a really nice way to have options and a mix, and to do some different things with those guys."
One thing is for certain and that's the face Williams isn't worried about how he'll fit, because he knows he will, and he trusts Whitecotton to figure it all out, the pre-existing trust prevailing.
"Whatever my job is to do, man," Williams said. "I think that's mostly the coach's job to figure out how that is going to happen. Like I said, they're two elite defensive tackles. …When it comes to the things that they both do, I know Kenny Clark very well. I studied his film like no other when he was at Green Bay in the 2-tech rushing he had."
"I love to see [Odighizuwa] the things he's done recently the last two to three years. The pass rushing, the run stuff that he has and the disruptiveness that he has also. And you've got Solomon Thomas in that room also who I'm very familiar with, so I'm just super ecstatic to be a part of a group of guys that not only I can learn from, grow with, but work alongside."
What also bodes well for the reunion is the short amount of time Williams and Whitecotton spent apart, so it's not as if they need to get wildly reacquainted with each other. Quite the opposite is true, considering the last time they worked together was the 2024 season.
"It's like riding a bike," Whitecotton joked. "I mean, we were split up for, what, eight months?"
That's about right, and while many wonder if the viral clip of the two going toe-to-toe on the sidelines in New York is indicative of their relationship, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Whitecotton cleared the air about the incident and, as one would expect, it was simply a heat-of-the-moment reaction between a coach and his player and, as it turns out, no one watching the broadcast saw what happened next.
"The funny part about that clip is the cameras made sure to turn when we were hugging it out right afterwards," he said of the exchange with Williams. "It's a passionate game. We're both passionate competitors and we want the same thing. … It was all love five seconds later. It probably wouldn't have ended good for me but at least they know I was ready to go."
Convincing the Cowboys to bring Williams to Dallas, however, will likely end well for him.
