During a press conference Wednesday, New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel announced Wednesday that defensive coordinator Terrell Williams is stepping away from the team to undergo medical tests, leading to a former Giants and Rutgers assistant to take on a more prominent role on the defense.
Vrabel said Williams will be away for several days due to health issues unrelated to an incident from March. Inside linebackers coach Zac Kuhr will assist with defensive coaching duties for Sunday’s game against the Miami Dolphins.
“I didn’t want to put out a statement, I would rather just speak on it myself,” Vrabel said as he opened the press conference. “Due to some unforeseen ongoing issues, Terrell Williams will be away for the next few days. It’s nothing related to the incident from March, but it was something that just came up. We’ll have to run some more tests, and we think it’s best, and I think it’s best, that he focuses on that as we prepare for Miami with what we’ve been doing.”
Kuhr spent last season on Giants head coach Brian Daboll’s staff as a defensive analyst. He also spent time with the Tennessee Titans as an assistant on Vrabel’s staff and was Rutgers’ running backs coach in 2016.
“Zac and I have been working with the staff to make sure that we’re where we need to be,” Vrabel said. “That’ll be all we’ll talk about with Terrell, but I just want to let you guys know what would be going on.”
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Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.
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