To close out their five-day practice block last Friday, the New England Patriots held a scrimmage. Besides splitting the roster in half, they also did the same with the coaching staff. On one side, you had the Blue Team led by running backs coach Tony Dews; on the other, the White Team was led by Terrell Williams.
For Williams, it was a return to the spotlight after a disrupted 2025 season and subsequent role change within the organization. Originally arriving as defensive coordinator alongside Mike
Vrabel last year, he was named assistant head coach this offseason.
Before Friday’s scrimmage, Vrabel gave insight into what Williams’ new role entails.
“He’s really taken control of that front seven,” the Patriots’ second-year head coach explained. “It’s something that’s critical to our defense, the way that we want to play, the style that we want to play and making sure when we pressure, when we run games, when we’re in different fronts.
“That’s kind of really being able to bring Clint [McMillan]’s guys and [Mike Smith]’s guys together so that everybody’s seeing it the same way and that we’re coordinating how we want to rush and the way that we want to rush. So, that’s one way, still continuing to support Zak [Kuhr] and the defensive staff.”
Williams’ one-year tenure as defensive coordinator was marked by medical challenges. After already missing time during the offseason because of what he later called a “health scare,” he was diagnosed with prostate cancer following New England’s regular season opener against the Raiders. With the now-52-year-old taking a leave of absence, inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr took over play-caller duties.
Kuhr, with behind-the-scenes support from Williams, coordinated a defense that helped the Patriots get all the way to the Super Bowl. His eventual promotion to full-time DC was therefore a logical step — as was Williams moving to assistant HC, especially with a focus on the defensive line.
Before joining the Patriots in 2025, after all, Williams had spent his entire 27-year coaching career from college to the NFL along the D-line. Among his stops were the Titans, for whom he coached the position group throughout Vrabel’s six-year tenure as head coach.
In 2023, their final season in Tennessee, he also supported Vrabel as assistant head coach.
“I’ve always said he’s got a really special quality of being able to reach a lot of different players, whether that’s on defense or offense,” Vrabel said about Williams. “He’s already made bonds with guys like Caleb Lomu and Eli [Raridon]. He’s seen a lot of football in this league and been around a lot of different players. I see him spend a lot of time with guys. I always like that — when guys that have experience on one side of the ball and they have the capability of doing it, of reaching players on the other side of the ball that maybe his position goes against, and they can tell him the things that they’re doing well or any things to be able to encourage them.”
