{"id":748603,"date":"2026-02-13T06:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748603\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T06:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:14:18","slug":"patriots-defensive-coordinator-terrell-williams-being-moved-to-high-ranking-role-dc-spot-now-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/748603\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams being moved to high-ranking role; DC spot now open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New England Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, now <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/patriots-dc-terrell-williams-declared-cancer-free-following-battle-with-prostate-cancer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cancer free<\/a> after battling prostate cancer, is being moved to a high-ranking role within Mike Vrabel&#8217;s coaching staff, leaving a vacancy at defensive coordinator, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr, who filled in for Williams and drew positive marks for his play-calling during the Pats&#8217; run to the Super Bowl, is a top candidate, per Rapoport and Pelissero.<\/p>\n<p>Williams, 51, has a long history with Vrabel dating back to their time together in Tennessee when Williams was defensive line coach from 2018-2022 before gaining the title of assistant head coach under Vrabel in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Williams was hired as the Patriots DC upon Vrabel&#8217;s hiring this past offseason. Williams called defense in the team&#8217;s season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders, but stepped away in the days following to deal with his cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, now cancer free after battling prostate cancer, is being moved to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1227,7,249,6,609,4267],"class_list":{"0":"post-748603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-no-minute","13":"tag-offseason-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116061855541719124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}