#Jets’ Avery Williamson set to return from ugly knee injury

It has been almost a year since Avery Williamson tore the ACL in his right knee in a meaningless preseason game in Atlanta.

The injury occurred late in the second quarter of the game, and Williamson was the only veteran starter still on the field for the Jets when a teammate crashed into his knee in the end zone. Coach Adam Gase took the blame for leaving the inside linebacker in the game and said he felt terrible about it.

Now, Williamson is close to returning to play, and the Jets need him more than ever after C.J. Mosley opted out of the 2020 season. Williamson said he will be ready for the season, and he is over the bitterness that followed the injury last year.

“At the end of the day, if you hold onto stuff like that it’s just going to eat away at you,” Williamson said via Zoom on Wednesday. “I had my moments where I was in some dark places and didn’t want to talk to anybody. I feel like I moved past it and just the fact that I’m running and able to move and closer to being on the field, that’s the happiness that I want to have.”

Williamson is on the physically unable to perform list, but the Jets expect him to be cleared during training camp and ready to go for Week 1. Williamson is not the only one excited for him to return to the field.

“It’s one that I take a lot of responsibility on,” Gase said of Williamson’s injury on a conference call Wednesday. “I was kind of kicking myself thinking, ‘He should have never been on the field. This should have never happened. We should have had him for the season.’

“He was great about it. He knew how I felt about it. He focused on getting better. I know he’s excited about getting out there. I’m going to be extremely excited to see him going again and see where he’s at. I just want to see him get in pads and just be able to start playing football again. That’s going to be a good day for me personally. I know for him it will be a great day.”

It has been an interesting offseason for Williamson. The Jets signed him to a three-year, $22.5 million contract in 2018. That deal had no more guaranteed money in it this year, which led to speculation he could be a cap casualty. Instead, the Jets held onto him, but his roster spot felt tenuous even as players reported to camp.

“In this business, you never know what can happen,” Williamson said. “I try to just ignore the noise and just keep on working, just try to stay focused. It’s kind of hard when you don’t have anything to do during quarantine.”

When Mosley made his decision, Williamson’s value skyrocketed for the Jets, who are going to need him to either replace Mosley at the “Mike” (middle) linebacker spot or be their (weak-side) “Will” linebacker, where he was slated to play last year before the injury.

Williamson, 28, had been looking forward to playing next to Mosley this season, so he was upset when he heard the news that Mosley had decided to sit out the season because of COVID-19 concerns.

“I hated to hear it,” Williamson said. “I was really excited to be able to play with him this year being the both of us were out last year. At the end of the day, I’m just hoping that whatever he’s going through he’s going to be good and be ready to go next year. I was definitely upset about it, but I support my guy. It’s just the next-man-up mentality. We’ve got guys in the room who can play linebacker. They showed it last year when me and him went down. We had guys step up.”