Seahawks’ Leonard Williams gets what he deserved: NFC player of the week

Mike Macdonald lobbied. Leslie Frazier lobbied.

Leonard Williams balled out.

Finally, a game after he could have — probably should have won the award — Williams is the NFC defensive player of the week. The league announced Wednesday the Seahawks defensive end won the award for the third time in his seven-year career.

It’s the second consecutive player-of-the-week award for Seattle. Safety Coby Bryant won the honor last week following his interception return for the touchdown that sealed the team’s 16-6 win over Arizona.

If he keeps this up for Macdonald’s resurgent defense, Williams could be the player of the month.

The 6-foot-5, 310-pound defensive end has in Seattle’s wins over Arizona and the New York Jets the last two games a total of:

• 4 1/2 sacks

• six tackles for losses

• 10 total tackles

• six quarterback hits

• two passes defensed — as a defensive lineman

• the first touchdown of his life, the game-turning, 92-yard pick six off three-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers last weekend

• and a blocked extra point

Williams had joked in the week following Bryant winning that him, Williams, not winning it was a “sensitive subject.”

It’s not anymore.

On his first-ever touchdown last weekend against picking off Aaron Rodgers dropping from nose tackle, Williams said he was looking for teammates to lateral the ball to when he got to about midfield on his 92-yard return.

After he reached the end zone Williams’ only thought: “Lay down.”

On the sidelines, he was crushing the oxygen mask on the bench into Seattle’s next defensive drive.

“Just officially...I don’t know how this works, but if we can nominate Leonard Williams for player of the week, he’s just playing at an all-time elite level,” Macdonald said after the Seahawks finished off the 26-21 victory over the Jets in the New Jersey Meadowlands. “You know, to have a pick six, I think they told me he was going about 17-and-a-half miles an hour, which was pretty fast for a man that size.

“So he’s playing out of his mind right now.”