On Friday afternoon, New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel announced that defensive coordinator Terrell Williams has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“I unfortunately have to tell you that Terrell Williams was determined to have prostate cancer, and is in the process of treatment and meeting with specialists and figuring out the best plan of attack to be able to attack this and heal it and fix it and allow him to get back to better healthy,” Vrabel said. “You know how much Terrell means to me personally and to the people on this football team. So, again, we want to send our regards and publicly let everybody know that’s what he’s dealing with. When he’s ready to talk, he’ll talk on his behalf, but I wanted to let you know that’s what was going on.”
Williams is considered to be one of the best defensive line coaches in football, with his coaching career spanning 27 years. He got his break in the NFL as the Oakland Raiders defensive coach in 2012, and has stayed in the big leagues ever since. He’s had stops with the Dolphins (2015-17), Titans (2018-2023), Lions (2024), and he was in the midst of his first defensive coordinator season with the Patriots this year, reuniting with Vrabel from his years in Tennessee.
While he only had one season with the Lions, he made an enormous impression—both as a coach and a person—while in Detroit.
“This guy understands scheme, highly intelligent, but then man, he understands personality of players,” coach Dan Campbell said of Williams back during the April owners meetings this year. “Like, to watch him—he treated every player different, man. Some guys he prodded, some guys he loved up, some guys he would just simply walk and whisper in their ear and then watch ‘em go, like, he’s got a knack about understanding how to make people go, and not everybody’s the same, so, unbelievable dude, unbelievable human being, great teacher.”
We wish Williams and his family the best in his recovery.
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