IW #18

Isaiah Williams

Wide Receiver · Illinois

An undrafted former Illinois quarterback-turned-receiver, Isaiah Williams won the Jets' team MVP award in 2025 as a dynamic return specialist.

Isaiah Williams took a winding road to becoming a fan favorite in New York, bouncing from Detroit to Cincinnati before landing with the Jets in 2025. Once he found a home in New York's return game, he turned into one of the most explosive special teams weapons in the AFC.

★ First-team All-Big Ten receiver at Illinois in 2023

★ AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, Week 8 of 2025

★ Jets Curtis Martin Team MVP for the 2025 season

★ Second alternate for the 2026 Pro Bowl Games

Path to the league

Williams began his college career as a quarterback at Illinois before switching to wide receiver in 2021. Over his final two seasons with the Fighting Illini he caught 129 passes for 1,240 yards and nine touchdowns, earning First-team All-Big Ten honors in 2023. He went undrafted in 2024 and signed with the Detroit Lions, who released him that November.

Career highlights

After Detroit, Williams was claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals, where he primarily worked as a punt returner before signing with the Jets off Cincinnati's practice squad in September 2025. He was briefly waived by New York early in the season after mistakes on returns, but the team quickly re-signed him to the practice squad and brought him back to the active roster within a week.

2025 season recap

Once reestablished with the Jets, Williams took off, averaging 14.1 yards on 26 punt returns with two touchdowns and 31.3 yards on 20 kickoff returns from Week 6 on. He earned AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 8 after a five-kickoff, 132-yard return performance against Cincinnati, scored a punt-return touchdown in Week 10 against Cleveland, and was named the Jets' Curtis Martin Team MVP for the season.