Most guys going against the Jets’ offensive line might ask, “Where is Wayne Hunter when you really want him?”
Buffalo defensive end Mario Williams is not like most guys.
“He’s a game-changer,” Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez said Wednesday. “He gets his hands on the quarterback and you’re in trouble.”
Welcome to your first Jets’ starting assignment, right tackle Austin Howard.
“Instead of looking more toward what he is, I look at what I am. I came from being an undrafted free agent where nobody thought I’d make the Eagles’ squad to having this opportunity with the Jets,” said the 6-foot-7, 333-pound Howard. “Nobody expects more out of me than I expect out of myself.”
As long as it’s more than what the Jets got from Hunter. Williams, a 6-6, 292-pound human battleship and the No. 1 overall pick in 2006, did not become the NFL’s highest-paid defensive free agent ever this offseason (six-year deal, potentially worth $100 million with $50 million guaranteed) by accident.
Williams, who as a 10-year-old slung 80-pound bags of cement for a summer job in North Carolina’s humidity, recorded 53 sacks in six seasons with the Texans, two of the campaigns ending with Pro Bowl starts.
So for Sunday’s season opener, Howard, the $540,000 Jets’ base pay wage earner, frequently will engage the Bills’ bundle of fun at MetLife Stadium. At his current pay grade, the 25-year-old Howard could equal Williams’ free agent haul by merely playing until he is 117. But he has to survive days like Sunday.
“Probably the only thing worse than that would be the [Cowboys’ DeMarcus] Ware kid,” said Jets coach Rex Ryan, who used linebacker Aaron Maybin and defensive end Quinton Coples this week in practice to simulate Williams. “You don’t want to just leave anybody out there by himself down after down, but sometimes he will be by himself. Against any great pass rusher, you have to do things to help slow him down.”
So Maybin and Coples were trying to give the Jets an idea of what to expect, hoping to copy Williams’ moves and speed.
“There are certain things you just can’t emulate,” Maybin said. “I can’t make myself 6-7 and 300 pounds.”
“He has long arms, he’s quick,” said Howard, who also compared Williams with Ware. “All the things good pass rushers have, he has it.”
So Howard or Hunter, Williams doesn’t care who tries the slowing down stuff. He is ultra anxious to play after a season that was cut to five games with a torn pectoral muscle.
“My biggest thing, I’m really excited about simply getting back out there on the field,” he said. “With everything that’s happened in my situation, just finally getting back out there to play ball is what I’m looking forward to doing, no matter who it’s against. You should be champing at the bit, whoever you’re facing.”
Williams said he feels no pressure to live up to his free agent contract, roughly the size of Norway’s gross national product and providing $5.9 million in base pay this season. He just wants to be himself and help the Bills improve from being 27th in sacks, 26th in total yards last season.
“I just need to get after it,” he said. “Get off the ball, get after it and make things happen.”