The New England Patriots have promoted Zak Kuhr to the team\u2019s defensive coordinator job.<\/p>\n
Kuhr took over defensive play-calling duties in Week 2 last season after then-defensive coordinator Terrell Williams stepped away while battling cancer.<\/p>\n
Under Kuhr, New England\u2019s defense improved throughout the season and became the driving force behind the team\u2019s run to Super Bowl LX, surrendering just 26 points over its first three playoff games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he really can adjust quickly, and he has an ability to not get hung up,\u201d Mike Vrabel said of Kuhr prior to the Super Bowl. \u201cWe sub and we make different calls, and I\u2019m always trying to watch and make sure that we\u2019re coordinated in what we\u2019re doing. He\u2019s done that. He did a great job in the offseason. He\u2019s a good teacher, good communicator. He\u2019s really helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the season, the Patriots moved Terrell Williams \u2014 now cancer-free \u2014 into a high-ranking role on staff, officially opening the defensive coordinator position for Kuhr to be promoted.<\/p>\n
Kuhr, 37, previously worked with Vrabel at Ohio State before joining him in Tennessee as a quality control coach in 2020, and then as an inside linebacker assistant for three seasons. After spending the 2024 season with the New York Giants, Kuhr joined the Patriots last offseason as inside linebackers coach. That role will now be filled by Vinny DePalma, who has worked with the position since arriving to New England in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots have promoted Zak Kuhr to the team\u2019s defensive coordinator job. Kuhr took over defensive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,95588,726,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-759961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-coaching-staff","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-news","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116090823381070683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759961","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=759961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}