Milton Williams never wanted to leave the Eagles. They never offered a contract, and the Patriots were the beneficiaries.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Milton Williams was autographing Super Bowl LIX merchandise about a week after the Eagles routed the Kansas City Chiefs when general manager Howie Roseman sidled up next to him.

Williams had four pressures, two sacks and a forced fumble as he and his fellow linemen pounded quarterback Patrick Mahomes in New Orleans a year ago. Roseman had come to congratulate the defensive tackle, but also to intimate that the Eagles would not be offering a contract extension to the free agent-to-be.

“That was when all the players sign the Super Bowl merch,” Williams said to The Inquirer on Wednesday. “[Roseman’s message] was like, ‘Get the most you can.’ Once I heard that — and meanwhile I was talking to my agent about the deal — I thought, ‘They’re probably not going to offer.’” (Through an Eagles spokesman, Roseman confirmed the exchange occurred.)

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He was right. Williams said he was crushed. He said he wanted to stay in Philadelphia.

“We had just won a Super Bowl. Of course I didn’t want to leave,” Williams said. “But I got to do what’s best for me. They had their agenda of what they wanted to accomplish, and I wasn’t part of it. So they let me go.”

Williams ultimately signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the New England Patriots — the largest amount given to any free agent last offseason and the most in franchise history. He said he knew it would have been difficult for Roseman to match, but to him the silence was deafening.

“I wanted to see, like, what the interest was,” Williams said. “I had been there four years, giving all I can, playing hurt, putting my body on the line. It wasn’t business. I wanted to see what they had, but they probably knew I was out of their price range.

“Still, an offer would have [meant] maybe they do want me to come back. No offer is ‘we good.’”

Roseman had difficult decisions to make last offseason, particularly on the defensive line. The Eagles allowed both end Josh Sweat and Williams to depart in free agency, with three first-round D-linemen slated for eventual pay increases.

Tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis have yet to sign second contracts, but extensions could come this offseason. The Eagles also had the younger Moro Ojomo, a 2023 seventh-round pick, waiting in the wings.

But for Williams and his father, Milton, Sr., the lack of an offer was a slight.

“What pissed me off [is] they didn’t even offer him, offered nothing,” the elder Williams said to The Inquirer. “They didn’t even entertain it. They just straight up told him — Howie Roseman said, ‘Milton, go get the bag, man, because we’re not going to be able to pay you.’

“That’s what he said to my son. … My son — it was like he wanted to cry. He said, ‘Dad, all I do...’ I said, ‘I understand, son. It’s a business. You’ll get yourself something.’”

The younger Williams got plenty. But he desired more than just to increase his bank account, his father said. He wanted to be wanted by the organization that drafted him in 2021. Williams felt he never got the opportunity to show his abilities because he always had higher draft picks or high-priced free agents ahead of him.

“They had their agenda. They drafted them boys in the first round and invested a lot of money in them boys,” Williams said. “I was a third-round pick and they didn’t invest as much in me. That’s what I tell [my teammates], in the NFL it’s all about money. Money makes everything go. That’s how you see who’s going to play and what percentage of snaps.

“It’s all about money and I wasn’t making that much.”

Williams is making a lot now. At $26 million per year, he’s behind only the Chiefs’ Chris Jones among NFL defensive tackles. The larger salary meant more playing time, but also more responsibility and more pressure.

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The 26-year old has met and exceeded those expectations, according to most observers. He was at the center of the Patriots’ remarkable one-year turnaround — led by new coach Mike Vrabel — from basement-dwellers to the cusp of winning a championship.

Williams is one of only three players on the team to have previously won a title and he would become just the fifth player in NFL history to win consecutive crowns with different teams if New England upsets the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in Super Bowl LX.

“About three weeks ago, Coach Vrabel asked everybody in the organization, ‘Who here was in this situation last year in the playoffs?’” Milton Williams Sr. said. “And my son was the only one to raise his hand in the entire organization — nobody, coaches, staff — nobody else in the playoffs.

“That was powerful right there. And now they’re in the Super Bowl.”

Williams admitted that he initially felt some pressure when he inked his deal, which included $51 million guaranteed. But the Patriots had done their homework. Vrabel said he knew a lot about Williams’ character from pre-draft evaluations the Titans did when he was in Tennessee.

“We did a lot of work on him coming out of the draft … and the type of person that he was, and the family that he’s come from,” Vrabel said on Monday. “So we knew the person that we were going to get and we were confident that he was somebody that we were going to add to our roster.”

But it wasn’t until the Patriots actually got Williams in the building that they realized how hard he worked.

“It was most surprising the more I’ve been around him,” defensive line coach Clint McMillan said. “There’s a lot of talented players, but how he’s wired is the thing that I was most excited about. He’s a grinder. He puts his nose down and he keeps working. He’s never satisfied.”

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Williams wasted little time making his presence felt. He had seven pressures in the season opener, according to NextGen Stats, and 32 total through 10 games with a 13% pressure rate that was among the best at his position.

But he suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 11 and missed the next five games. It was first time he had been sidelined by injury in his career. The Patriots suffered as a result, particularly in defending the run. When Williams was in the lineup, they held offenses to just 3.7 yards per carry. When he was out, they allowed an NFL-worst 5.0-yard average.

“It was a big change because a lot of guys [offensive game-planners] were focused on where I was at,” Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore said about Williams’ absence. “But when he came back it was an epic time because that man right there, he’s a good player. We already knew he brought a spark to our defense.”

He’s elevated his performance in the postseason and had four pressures and two quarterback hits in the AFC championship game vs. the Broncos. He told The Inquirer that he was randomly tested for drugs after the game.

“We don’t do drugs, man,” Milton Williams Sr. said. “We don’t do drugs right here. We work, man.”

Vrabel has used Williams like a chess piece up front, having him swap sides in the interior and even jump out to the edge on occasion. Roseman highlighted Williams’ versatility when he drafted the Louisiana Tech prospect who lit up the NFL combine almost five years ago.

But the large majority of his snaps in Philly came at right defensive tackle because Fletcher Cox and Carter preferred to rush primarily from the left. Williams also wasn’t asked to take on a leadership role with the Eagles. He’s had to learn on the job in New England.

“I was never the guy that you would come ask questions,” Williams said. “We had other vets on our team who had done it before. I’m only 26, but I’m one of vets in the room because of my experience playing — it’s crazy.

“I’m just trying to spread the knowledge like some of the vets in Philly did when I was there.”

Williams had some struggles as a rookie and he and the team faced criticism because he was drafted just one pick after Alim McNeill, a bigger bodied defensive tackle who became a high-impact rookie with the Lions. Senior scout Tom Donahue preferred McNeill, and the Eagles were in position to draft him but traded down from No. 70 to No. 73 in exchange for a sixth-round pick. McNeill went 72nd, and the Eagles took Williams 73rd. Donahue was caught by TV cameras begrudgingly shaking Roseman’s hand in the draft room after the pick was made.

Roseman’s projection panned out and Williams became one of the league’s more explosive interior rushers and a high-motor guy. But he often felt idle.

“He would get frustrated because he was like, ‘Dad, I’m putting in my work,’” Milton Williams Sr. said. “I’ve been at practice before and I see these guys and they can’t finish a drill and land on their backs or whatnot. And I see that and he finished the drill and got 15, 20 seconds left still.

“And I said, ‘I understand. But you know what? Whenever you’re on the field, make them call your name. Bottom line.’ That’s our saying right there: ‘If they’re calling your name on the field, that means you’re doing something.’”

But when the Eagles extended their first- and second-round draft picks from 2021 — wide receiver DeVonta Smith and guard Landon Dickerson — after their third seasons, Williams wasn’t next in line. He thought he would be.

“I was waiting. I was in the last year of my deal. I’m like, ‘It’s now or never,’” Williams said. “Every time I step out on the field if I wanted to be there I was making sure I was making plays. But I was also putting out good tape for a situation like this.

“If they don’t want me to sign [early], I was going to change that, and watch me be a professional and get better every year as a player.”

Williams said he watched the Eagles regress without him this season. Their issues were many, but mostly on the offensive side. Williams said he kept in touch with various players and coaches and that Brandon Graham recently reached out to tell him he was proud of him.

The Patriots have leaned on Williams’ knowledge of Super Bowl week since he had experienced it twice previously. Vrabel put together a roster of underdogs. Williams may be the highest-paid, but he knows how it feels to be overlooked.

“We got a lot of guys who got released because they thought they weren’t good enough, or they wanted to go in another direction,” Williams said. “So they got a lot of stuff in the back of their minds to motivate them and push them. ‘OK, you didn’t think I was good enough? I’ll show you.’ You make plays on this stage, it’ll change your life.

“I did it.”

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The journey started in Crowley, Texas, about a 30-minute drive south of Fort Worth. At Bicentennial Park, Williams would run hills along with his father. He still goes back there to maintain the hunger he first had when he felt disregarded.

“He’s had a chip on his shoulder all his life, from little league on up,” Milton Williams Sr. said. “He’s not the rah-rah type person. He’s just going to put the work in. And now that people are finally seeing what he can do, he’s just working. It ain’t over. They ain’t seen nothing.

“They haven’t seen anything yet.”