The Patriots are promoting inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr to defensive coordinator and have named Terrell Williams assistant head coach.
Kuhr assumed the responsibilities of defensive coordinator when Williams took a medical leave of absence following the Patriots regular-season opener. Kuhr became the team's de facto defensive coordinator and defensive play-caller for the final 20 games of the season, including a tremendous postseason run by New England's defense. Williams will remain on the coaching staff as an assistant head coach, a title he held on head coach Mike Vrabel's staff in Tennessee in 2023. Although the reason why he stepped into the role was unfortunate, Kuhr grew into the job and his defense led the charge to Super Bowl LX, likely making this an easy decision for Vrabel.
"Zak has been fantastic," Vrabel said. "I think that, much like players when given opportunities, coaches sometimes have the same thing. When they get more opportunity, they take advantage of it and then turn that into something else."
While speaking with Patriots.com at the NFL Scouting Combine last month, head coach Mike Vrabel went into more detail about Williams's role as an assistant head coach.
"It's going to be a strong role on the defense. He's going to act as a coordinator in presenting information and ideas and making sure we're really solid across the front from our edges to the interior," Vrabel said. "We have some guys inside that I think can continue to develop and grow, whether that's Milt [Williams], Christian [Barmore], or anybody else. I think those guys can continue to get better; Terrell will have a large hand in that, but he's also going to be able to help me and be an extension of me throughout our program."
In the regular season, the Patriots finished fourth in scoring defense (18.8 PPG) and 11th in EPA per play. However, New England's defense was even better in its playoff run, leading to the Patriots AFC championship. In its four playoff games, New England's defense held opponents to -0.23 EPA per play, which would have led the NFL during the regular season. The Pats allowed just 13.8 points, produced 13 sacks, had 23 tackles for loss, and created eight turnovers, including forcing five turnovers in a divisional round win over the Texans.
Kuhr pushed the right buttons in the postseason by increasing the Patriots blitz rate and leaning more into a man-coverage identity with cornerback trio Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, and Marcus Jones. The Pats blitzed their playoff opponents on 44.3% of their drop-backs, producing a 37.4% pressure rate, and played man coverage 36.8% of the time. During the regular season, they blitzed on just 27.6% of their pass plays with a 29.8% man coverage rate. The play-calling formula led to three straight dominant performances and the Patriots also held Seattle to their lowest play success rate of the season in Super Bowl LX (32.4%).
Along with finding the right play-calling mix in the playoffs, players pointed to Kuhr's attention to detail and clear messaging as strong suits of his coaching style. For instance, the Pats DC broke down Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker's running style going back to Walker's time at Wake Forest, which was the first college he attended before transferring to Michigan State. Kuhr also spoke about Justin Herbert's 81st percentile hand size as an advantage when the Chargers quarterback scrambles, as Herbert can use his off-hand to run faster and stiff-arm defenders.
Under Kuhr, New England will keep the same defensive system, which leaned more on split-safety coverages and four-man fronts than prior Pats defenses under former coach Bill Belichick and his disciples. The Patriots played split-safety coverages, such as quarters and cover two, 42% of the time, their highest rate since at least 2018. They also called line stunts at the second-highest rate in the league (25%), generating pressure with a combination of simulated pressures and line games in the postseason. One would expect those trends to continue now that Kuhr is officially the defensive coordinator.
The Patriots also promoted defensive assistant Vinny DePalma to inside linebackers coach and added three new coaches: Charles London (offensive analyst), Jonathan Decoster (O-Line assistant), and B.J. Edmonds (defensive assistant). DePalma, who handled many of the responsibilities last season while Kuhr was the de facto DC, officially takes over as inside linebackers coach with Kuhr being named defensive coordinator.
London joins the staff after serving as Vrabel's quarterbacks coach/pass-game coordinator with the Titans in 2023, and Decoster fills a vacant role left behind by Robert Kugler's departure to the Steelers. By adding Decoster to the staff, a former O-Line assistant for the Florida Gators, New England will still have three coaches working with the offensive line. Decoster joins head line coach Doug Marrone and assistant Jason Houghtaling in the offensive line room. Edmonds joins Vrabel's staff after spending last summer with the Patriots as a coaching intern.
The Patriots retained two of Vrabel's top assistant coaches in Kuhr and Williams to build on the foundation of a successful 2025 season.
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