Mike Vrabel filled the final of the three coordinator jobs on his new Patriots coaching staff with a familiar face.
The Patriots are expected to name Terrell Williams, who was with Vrabel for all six of his years with the Tennessee Titans, as the team’s defensive coordinator, a league source said. The move comes after news that Josh McDaniels will be the Patriots’ offensive coordinator and that Vrabel will retain special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer.
Vrabel hired Williams as the Titans’ defensive line coach in 2018, then promoted him in 2023 to assistant head coach. Vrabel thought so highly of Williams that he made Williams the team’s head coach for a 2023 preseason game to get him more exposure and experience.
“The respect I have for him, the way that he goes about his business, the way he treats people, the way he treats coaches and players, he has a great grasp of it,” Vrabel told The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt in November. “He got along and had relationships with offensive coaches, special teams coaches, defensive coaches. He knows what he believes. He’s a good football coach, a great husband, great father.
“I relied on Big T a lot to help me on guys that I couldn’t reach or I was having trouble with or he had a better relationship with than I did. He cared about the team. It wasn’t like he just cared about the D-line.”
After Vrabel didn’t land a head-coaching job last year, Williams worked as the Detroit Lions’ run game coordinator and defensive line coach. Now he’s reuniting with Vrabel in a role where his work will be cut out for him.
The Patriots’ defense was a mess last season. They lack elite talent. Their pass rush was abysmal. Their linebackers struggled. Their safeties regressed. Cornerback Christian Gonzalez was a bright spot, but there weren’t many other defensive highlights in 2024. It’s Williams’ job to fix that.
Williams is the only one of the Patriots’ three coordinators with experience working for Vrabel. While Vrabel was on the Patriots as a linebacker when McDaniels was an assistant coach, they don’t have a lengthy relationship.
But Williams, who didn’t know Vrabel before landing the Titans’ D-line job, said Vrabel would make it easy for coaches to understand their role.
“You know exactly what he’s looking for and how he expects your players to play,” Williams told The Athletic in November. “And then now as a coach, it makes it easier. You can just go out and do your job.”
Williams, 50, has mostly coached defensive lines. He started in the college ranks, then jumped to the NFL in 2012 with the Oakland Raiders before stints in Miami, Tennessee and Detroit.
In Detroit, Williams joins the list of assistants head coach Dan Campbell will have to replace. After losing offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears and with defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn expected to depart as well, Williams’ exit looms large. He worked with Campbell in Miami years ago, and Campbell often called him the best defensive line coach in the league.
Lions players praised Williams’ teaching style and ability to communicate — particularly star pass-rusher Aidan Hutchinson, when healthy. Though he’s never been a defensive coordinator, Williams is a trusted veteran coach who knows what Vrabel is all about from their time together with the Titans.
Now, after a year alongside Campbell, he’s got the big task of turning around the Patriots’ defense as one of Vrabel’s most trusted assistants.
“He cared about the team immensely, it was important to him,” Vrabel said in November. “When we won he was a big part of that and he shared in that excitement and it bothered him when we lost. He worked hard at it. His group was always prepared. … He had them ready to go.
“He had a good relationship with coaches on our staff, he helped young coaches develop and they would work on the third down plan or whatever we were trying to do. And I always appreciated that.”
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