FOXBORO — Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel will make an official announcement Friday about the team’s defensive play-calling plans for their Week 2 matchup against the Dolphins with coordinator Terrell Williams on health-related leave.
This is the second time Williams has been away from the team for health-related reasons since he was hired in January. In the spring, inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr took over play-calling duties when Williams was home during OTAs and minicamp,
Kuhr said Thursday he’s unsure about plans for this week.
“I don’t know what’s going to be called upon or anything like that, but when you’ve got guys on our unit — like (Robert) Spillane, guys like Marcus, Jones, Harold Landry, those three captains — coming to work is pretty easy, and everything’s a collaborative operation with the players and the coaches and being aligned,” Kuhr said. “And I don’t think anything can ever really change that.”
Cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton said the Patriots’ defensive coaches usually work together anyway, even when Williams is at the facility.
“We’re really going all the way back to Tennessee when so many of us were together (under Vrabel),” Hamilton said, referring to Kuhr, Williams, defensive line coach Clint McMillan and safeties coach Scott Booker . “It’s a collaborative effort. We meet on everything. We miss having (Williams) around, because he’s just a great dude and great personality, but in terms of the work, we always are collaborative anyway, so it’s kind of like business as usual, even though we love when he’s here.”
Kuhr opened up his media availability Thursday with a statement about Williams, and avoided specific questions about the 51-year-old defensive coordinator.
“I just want to say I’m not going to really comment about Terrell right now, out of respect for him and his family, but just our prayers with him and his family,” Kuhr said. “He means the world to me. I challenge anybody to find a better man, better dad, better coach, better friend, better mentor than anybody. So, out of respect to him, not gonna really comment on him, but I’m always thinking about him and what he means to this team.”
Vrabel said Wednesday that Williams’ current situation is unrelated to his health issue in the spring, adding that he and Kuhr would work with the staff to go over the game plan this week.
“I’m still just the inside linebackers coach,” Kuhr said. “I’m getting the ‘backers ready for Miami. All the guys, or anything we got to step up, we can step up, but everything’s pretty status quo right now.”
Hamilton remembered Kuhr “knew everything” when he was an inside linebackers coach with the Titans, who hired him to coach defense in 2020 after he worked as the offensive coordinator at Texas State (2017-18) and an assistant at Texas in 2019.
“He was sharp. He knew all the fronts, he did all the drawings, he knew all the adjustments,” Hamilton said. “He was always on top of things, and it’s continued to show.”
Originally Published: September 11, 2025 at 4:41 PM EDT