The New England Patriots will be looking to fill their now vacant defensive coordinator position this offseason.

It’s not because somebody has been fired after New England’s run to Super Bowl LX. It’s actually because now former defensive coordinator Terrell Williams has been moved to a different position in the organization.

Williams, 51, missed most of the 2025 season after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to Mike Reiss of ESPN, he’s moving to a high-ranking role on Mike Vrabel‘s staff.

It has been a rough year for Williams.

Vrabel hired him because of the relationship they had developed with the Tennessee Titans. Williams had previously been Vrabel’s defensive line coach in Tennessee. He was with the Titans from 2018 to 2023. In 2014, he served as the defensive line coach and run game coordinator for the Detroit Lions.

He had a “health scare” in the spring of 2025 but made it back with the team for training camp and the first week of the regular season.

Unfortunately, he was then diagnosed with prostate cancer, though Vrabel has said that Williams was recently “cleared” to return to coaching.

New England Patriots may consider promoting Zak Kuhr to defensive coordinator 

The Patriots will now need to fill this vacant position and one would imagine that inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr will be the favorite to be promoted.

Kuhr, 37, was promoted to defensive playcaller in Williams’ absence.

Kuhr was an assistant head coach at Texas State in 2018, an assistant coach in 2019 and he jumped to the NFL in 2020 as a defensive quality control coach for Vrabel in Tennessee.