The Detroit Lions felt the wrath of the NFL Playoffs. Washington unceremoniously bounced the lovable Lions, the one seed in the NFC, and red-hot all year. Jayden Daniels showed poise and no fear in taking Jared Goff and the Lions down. And since then, things haven’t gotten better.
Attrition has hit the Detroit Lions coaching staff hard. Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson are both expected to move on this offseason, and now another coach is expected to flee the team.
The New England Patriots are expected to hire Terrell Williams as the team’s newest defensive coordinator. New head coach Mike Vrabel will reunite with Williams, who he had on staff in Tennessee throughout his entire tenure. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the news on Williams’ hire.
“Lions defensive line coach Terrell Williams, who worked with Mike Vrabel in Tennessee from 2018-2023, is leaving Detroit to become the Patriots defensive coordinator,” Schefter posted on X.
Williams served as high as assistant head coach under Vrabel in Nashville, doing so in his final season. But defensive coordinator is certainly the 50-year-old LA native’s most premier coaching position yet. He worked as a defensive line coach for his entire coaching life dating back to 1998.
Williams has coached at virtually every football level, working at Fort Scott, North Carolina A&T, Youngstown State, Akron, Purdue, and Texas A&M in the college circles. In the NFL, he’s coached in Oakland, Miami, Tennessee, and of course Detroit. This will be his biggest shot yet, so we’ll see how it pans out. The Patriots are a clear rebuilding effort, so hopefully he’s given time to work.
Detroit will continue to likely feel attrition on their coaching staff. Such is life in the NFL. The NFL world reacted to the news.
That included reactions from NFL players too.
Jeffery Simmons, one of Williams’ former players in Tennessee, said, “Wow! So happy for Big T man! You deserve it Coach! Congrats to you and your family!”
12-year NFL veteran Will Blackmon called him a leader.
“This is a big loss,” Lions writer Nolan Bianchi said.
“I HATE this loss,” one Lions fan bemoaned.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022