Shake-Up: Mike Vrabel Removes Terrell Williams From DC Job

0:00Mike Vrable has made his decision. Tarell Williams will not be the Pat's defense of coordinator in 2026. This is Lockdown Patriots. You are Lockdown Patriots. Your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day. What's happening? I am your host Nick Cattles, who won and raised in New England, been covering the past for the past 16 years. Also the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots. Part of the Lockdown podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Your team every day. On today's show in the third segment, Jalen Hawkins is a free agent. And we think it'd be a good business decision to bring him back. The second segment will discuss the importance of this coaching staff

1:01staying mostly intact. But first, speaking of the coaching staff, Tarell Williams has reportedly been moved away from the defense of coordinator position earlier this week. Mike Rabel met with the media. And he told the media he was going to take a few days to work through things regarding the defensive coordinator position. Of course, Tarell Williams was hired to be the DC. Tarell Williams, unfortunately, had a lot of medical issues, including cancer, which thankfully, he has cancer free now. But that forced him to step away. That core inside linebacker's coach took over the defensive play calling duty while Williams was gone. So Mike Rabel, again, told the media this week. I'm going to take a few days. We're going to work through this. Well, it did not take too long. Ian Rapp report of the NFL network posted. The Patriots are moving defensive and the coordinator to rail Williams to a high ranking role on the staff with Williams now cancer free. The Patriots have opened up the DC position

2:03with inside linebacker's coach Zach core who called plays during the Super Bowl run a top candidate. Now, as far as the Williams role, I could imagine it's going to be some kind of senior consultant, maybe assistant head coach while he consults with the staff on the defensive side. But Williams will certainly be taken care of by Mike Rabel. So how did this happen? Why did this happen? First thing is I do wonder if health is a factor. I know that again, thankfully Williams is cancer free. But we're talking about long days and nights when you are a coordinator. You're putting in 60, 70, 80 hours at least every single week during the season. And even though your cancer free, it doesn't necessarily mean that your body is willing and ready to go right out of the gates. And so maybe just maybe this is a situation where Williams says, you know what?

3:03I'd much rather be in a different role. I don't have to put in 70 to 80 hours a week. I've got to take care of my body. I've got to take care of myself. I was lucky and fortunate that this thing played out the way it played out. And they were able to get to the cancer in time. And now I am cancer free. So maybe this is to rail Williams making the call. I could easily see Vrable go to Williams. Have this conversation and Williams say, I want to still be with the team. I want to be an important part of this coaching staff. But I just am not sure or don't want to be the defense of coordinator because of the amount of work it's going to take. Maybe Williams just kind of recalibrated his priorities. I mean, this happens, right? You are almost on the verge of death with with this cancer diagnosis. And you're wondering if you're going to live, you know, Williams told Andrew Callahan of the Boston Herald that he had very tough conversations with his family. He was looking at the idea of of dying.

4:03And doctors told him that it was certainly possible that he could go. So maybe this just kind of has recalibrated to rail Williams priorities. And he wants to spend a little bit more time with his family. We know Vrable is very mindful of his coaching staff. The hours they work. He's very mindful of making sure that they stay close with their family, stay in communication with their family, spend time with their family. So this could be a Williams call. You also have to look at it and say, well, if there is any kind of setback, God forbid. Of course, we hope he's cancer-free for the rest of his life. And things are all set, clean bill of health. And he lives another 35, 40 years. But if there's, you know, any kind of setback or he starts to feel sick, don't forget, he had two ailments. I'm not sure that we even found out what the first ailment was, which kept him from camp. A lot of stuff was going on with Williams. And so maybe they say, hey, look, God forbid.

5:04If you get sick again, it doesn't have to be cancer, but God forbid something else pops up. We're going to have chaos with the staff again. We're going to have to, you know, move guys around. It's probably better that we just put somebody in that spot that is going to be able and capable of being in that spot for the entire year without any issues. Now, of course, you can't guarantee anything, but the history is the history. So all of that could play a role. Possible names, possible names. That could be the next defensive coordinator for the Patriots. Let's not forget Jim Schwartz. Jim Schwartz was just with the Cleveland Browns. He was there DC last season. Wants it to be their head coach. They decided to hire Todd Munkin and Schwartz after a few days of going back and forth with the Browns organization decided to resign. Schwartz spent time with Vrable in Tennessee. So Jim Schwartz could absolutely be part of this thing. Shane Bowen, who was the Titans defense of coordinator when Vrable was down there. Of course, Shane Bowen was with the New York Giants

6:06and Brian Debal and he is no longer in New York. So Shane Bowen could also be a part of this mix. But ultimately, I think all of us look at this and say, this is that course job. This is going to be that course job. I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Mike Vrable would move to rail Williams. Again, maybe it was Williams' choice, but I find it very difficult to believe that Williams would be moved to this different position on the coaching staff and that Vrable would bypass that core after what he just did for him in 2025 and go outside of the organization to hire somebody else and put that core back as the inside linebackers coach. I would find that very difficult to believe. I have to imagine this conversation is to rail Williams is moving up to assistant head coach, senior consultant, whatever the title is going to be, that core is going to be promoted officially

7:06from the inside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. And frankly, core earned the gig. He deserves it. He deserves it. And I'm sure he feels weird about how it came together and I'm sure he's not super comfortable with the idea of replacing to rail Williams as the DC officially because of how it came about. But I'm also sure that Williams has given him his go ahead. I'm sure that Vrable has had the conversation with core and that core is ready to take over that spot. He earned the gig. It was a terrific run in the post season. And when you think about the fact that this was that course first time calling defensive plays live bullets. Man, he was thrown into it after week one and he got better and better and better as the season progressed. He earned the gig. And it also keeps cohesiveness from this year and what you established with the players.

8:07The players are comfortable with core. Not to say they're not comfortable with Williams. They say they are. But you know, this was the guy that was with them every single day. He was in meetings. He was working with them all year. Help them play as well as they did in the post season. So there is already that bond. And the communications have been established. Zach core knows how to have those conversations with certain players on the team. The players know exactly what to expect from Zach core. You bring somebody from the outside. You now might be messing a little bit too much with the formula. And when you look at it to real Williams. Zach core Mike Vrable. That's a pretty impressive trio of defensive minds handling that side of the football for 2026. I am very comfortable with that setup. Williams as assistant head coach defensive consultant. Zach core as your DC Vrable as your head coach.

9:07Maybe Shane Bowen comes in and replaces Zach core as the inside linebackers coach. That could be a possibility. And if Zach core ever moves on to being a head coach. If he if he continues to show that potential. And he's in the head coach conversation after 2026 or 2027. Maybe at that point to rail Williams will be ready to return him more comfortable. And then you could just slide him back or maybe you do something else. But I think it's it's rather obvious. I would put a lot of money down on Zach core being the DC. And I am very comfortable with Williams core and Vrable moving forward. A successful coaching staff could get heavily poached. But to this point. That doesn't seem to be the case for the 2025 past. That's great news for them and the team. Find out why next. This is Lockdown Patriots part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day.

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11:14If you love this podcast, but hate interruptions, try the every day or club. Add free discord access and more go to lock down patriots dot supercast dot com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. Don't forget, give us a thumbs up on YouTube if you're watching, throw a comment in as well. Do you want to see Mike Vrable go outside the organization and not promote that core or are you like myself and feel completely comfortable if it is. Core Williams in variable leading this defense. Don't forget to like, don't forget to comment and don't forget to subscribe. So far one coach has left the coaching staff. This came out earlier on Thursday, Robert Kugler, who was one of three offensive line coaches. Of course, Robert Kugler was originally with Gerard Mayo staff. He was one of the very few to hang on and stay in New England and coach this year. Robert Kugler has moved to the Pittsburgh Steelers Mike McCarthy has hired him and he's not going to be an online coach. It's a nice, I think little bump.

12:20Robert Kugler is going to Pittsburgh to be the tight ends coach. And if you know anything about coaching in the NFL, tight ends coaches, very critical to the operation. They work in the run game and the past game. And when Kugler was hired by Mayo's Patriots in 2024, there was a lot of talk about people around the game being impressed by him and thinking he had some, some potential and maybe one day being an offensive coordinator. Well, this is the next step. Kugler going to Pittsburgh to be the tight ends coach under Mike McCarthy. That's the next step towards being the OC. Thomas Brown, as of right now, what we know, he's still on the Patriot staff as the passing game coordinator and the tight ends coach. So I don't think the Patriots are itching to get rid of Thomas Brown from that spot. So Kugler is the only coach so far that we know of that has left the organization and having a cohesive staff is valuable.

13:21Stefan digs going back in November, he talked about why he picked the Patriots in free agency and he told Chris Mason of Mass Live, the following quote, I feel like it was a conglomerate young quarterback who showed some promise showed some skill set, control the ball. It's mobile being young, but then also Josh McDaniels, he's been around the game for a long time, homecoming for him. He's called a lot of great plays here and then for Abel. So it was a group effort with everybody for me personally. Stefan digs also later mentioned Todd Downing, who was the wide receivers coach, who had a connection with digs back in his Minnesota days. So the quote unquote conglomerate remains remains in place for the 2026 free agency period and the upcoming season. And so keeping as much of the staff together as possible, it's critical. And a lot of times you see a team goes to the Super Bowl team wins a Super Bowl, especially if it's unexpected, a number of those coaches, they're promoted in other places.

14:27But again, it doesn't seem so far that that's the case with the paths. And so if you can keep the vast majority of this staff intact, you're going to build on what you had in 2025. You streamline the process, you know, when you understand each other, you know each other, you know how you communicate with others on the staff. It streamlines the process. It becomes more efficient. You're not worried about stepping on egg shells, upsetting somebody, somebody not really picking up what you're putting down when you've worked with that person already for a full football season, you are much more comfortable with them. You bring somebody from the outside, you don't know how that's going to work at all times. And you also, you know, when you look at the coaching staff, these guys have a knowledge of what works with these players. They understand how these guys learn. They understand some of the some of the weaknesses they might have. They understand the strengths that these players have.

15:29And again, that makes it much easier to have conversations. It also makes it easier for Mike Vrable to delegate. Vrable understands the strengths and weaknesses of the coaching staff he has now. He's been able to evaluate these guys throughout the season. And so he might deploy somebody a little bit differently than he did this past season from what he learned, but having the same people on the staff allows you to do that and accentuate the strengths and hide the weaknesses. This is also awesome for Drake May. And I know we just watched the Super Bowl. We just watched the tough postseason, but we have to look at this 2025 year in totality. And I don't think anybody would disagree with the idea that Josh McDaniels did much more better than harm for Drake May. And now Drake May gets to walk into 2026, second year in the system, learning more understanding McDaniels, McDaniels, understanding May.

16:32Thomas Brown right now, still on the staff, Todd Downing right now, still on the staff. We know those guys had some pretty big impact during the season. And working with McDaniels and sprinkling in some different stuff. And as Josh McDaniels told Julian Edelman on his podcast, you know, a while back, you just kind of continue to fill the cup. Now as you get ready for year two, you continue to fill that cup for Drake May. And it just makes it easier and it's it's much more comfortable for the quarterback, walking into a room, knowing his entire staff, knowing what to expect. Less change, less confusion for the young players. I mean, think about Kyle Williams as you as you try to improve Kyle Williams and develop Kyle Williams over the next several months, hoping that it takes on a bigger role for 2026. Todd Downing, his positional coach was here in 2025. And so it's much easier to just continue that education for Kyle Williams with the same coach, Tony dues with Trayvian Henderson at running back. Same idea.

17:40So your younger players don't have to deal with constant shifting and constant change and, and oh, we got a new coach and this coach wants me to do it this way. My last coach during my rookie season wanted me to do it that way. You don't have to worry about those headaches. You don't have to worry about any of those. And you know, when you look at addressing needs as we get ready for free agency and as we get ready for the draft. You have a better opportunity to address the needs that you need to address because the systems are going to stay in place. If it is that core, the defense of coordinator, you know what you want to run. You know, and you know what you might have to add and how that might tweak your system a little bit. Same case with Josh McDaniels on the offensive side. So it's this, it's this understanding what you need, what you might have lacked in in 2025 in a certain way and how you think you can address that. You all get together in that room and you come up with ideas as to how can we be better be better with this. And instead of implementing an entirely new system and starting from scratch, you have a head start.

18:53The coach, the player relationships, all of this. All of this made easier if your staff mostly stays intact. And it's also I'll tell you what, it's also easier to sell free agents. The proof is in the pudding. Look at last year, you can say to him, look at what we just did. Nobody thought we would have nobody thought we were going to do much of anything. And all we did was get to the freaking Super Bowl. Look at last year, the coaching staff is back. Everybody's coming back from the staff or mostly everybody. All we need to do is add more talent and you are that talent. You are part of that talent that we need to add. It is a pitch job. But if you're a free agent and you're looking at this coaching staff and you see how the players from this year talk about the coaching staff and when you see the success on the field. That has to make an impact on you. If you're an offensive player, a wide receiver and you know, Josh McDaniels is going to be back in Todd Downing and Drake, and you see that the wide receivers in 2025 exceeded expectations. Why wouldn't you believe that you could exceed expectations?

20:13Coming up, we'll tell you why we are in. We are in on the idea of bringing back Jalen Hawkins. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. The winter games, they're officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events. You only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the winter games on Fandall, well, it just makes sense from metal counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports that you care about most. Fandall gives you more ways to stay connected to the action, the drama of curling matches. I love curling was watching curling last night. At least curling matches, they start slow and then they somehow get intense fast speed skating races decided by mere inches hockey games that just feel different right from the opening face off even niche events become must watch when you're fully locked into the competition.

21:15And Fandall keeps the entire Olympic experience engaging from start to finish the winter games as you know, they are on and there's no better way to follow them than with our friends at Fandall, Fandall, play your game. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. Jalen Hawkins is one of those six or seven unrestricted free agents that we have discussed earlier in the week. And you know, he has gone from a flyer, I think when he signed the 2024 are we going to take a flyer on him, mostly a special teams guy and maybe he'll help us out at safety every once in a while, but you know, maybe an end of the bench type guy. He went from being a flyer to being a significant part of the defensive back puzzle for this team this year and I say extend them. I would have absolutely zero issue if the Patriots extended Jalen Hawkins. He was very solid in 2025. We didn't talk a lot about him, which is a good thing.

22:20I mean, think about the safeties of the past, think about Kyle Dugger when he got burnt a lot in 2024. We spent a lot of time talking about Kyle Dugger. You don't necessarily want that to be the case. If it's this guy's getting beat deep all the times, guys getting shredded and coverage. Jalen Hawkins was solid. If not better than solid in 2025. Pro football focus ranked Jalen Hawkins. They rank him as the eighth best safety on the free agent market. His PFF grade was 72.7. They posted one of the leagues most quietly impressive defenders. His 81.3 overall PFF grade ranked six among qualifying safeties. That's a little confusing because they put PFF grade 72.7, but then they write that his grade was an 81.3 overall. I don't know. I don't own PFF. But they say that his 81.3 overall PFF grade ranked six among qualifying safeties entering the AFC championship game.

23:21He also placed second in PFF run defense of grade and seventh in PFF coverage grade. So I know that PFF is polarizing with their grading system. But Jalen Hawkins according to pro football focus was seen as one of the better safeties, one of the better free safeties and football this year. And even if you don't think he was that good, I think he was good. And so my question would be, why would you let a good player with knowledge of this defensive scheme? Why would you let that player walk? You have a lot of other holes, right? And the idea, like you look at the holes on this roster and you look at having to get younger in a number of different positions with those two things, working themselves out here this off season. So think that you can have the opportunity for the starting secondary to return in 2026. To me, that is desirable.

24:23If you say, all right, Christian Gonzalez, Carlton Davis, Marcus Jones, all coming back, Craig Woodson coming back, Jalen Hawkins coming back. We talk about starting from ahead in 2026. And you can start from ahead in your defensive backfield. If you just bring Hawkins back. Now everybody is back. They all understand their role. They all understand how to communicate with each other. They understand the scheme. Now you can start to sprinkle on more to the secondary with this scheme because of they are being familiar with each other and what they did this year. So with all the other holes you're working with and having to turn over some of this roster this off season, I just think if you could tell me this secondary is the same secondary next year as it was this year, I'd be fine with it. I have no problems with that. Why would you let a good player with the knowledge of the system and scheme walk out the door. You could say money, which will get to in a little bit with discussed the money in a little bit.

25:25The other thing about Jalen Hawkins that is interesting is he has a connection with Craig Woodson both played at Cal in 2019. They were both on the Cal football team in 2019. So they've known each other for a while. And I do think that helps you on the field. I think it helps your communication process on the field. I think it it almost kind of makes you feel like you know what the other guy is going to do because you understand what he's thinking because you know him. And you know him better than maybe some other players on the team or most players on the team. And we talk about violence, which is Mike Vrable, one of his favorite words when he talks about the defense as well as Terrell Williams violence. Both Hawkins and Woodson are physical safeties. And so I like the idea of their physicality and their violence for this defense that role that they can play. We talk about leadership all the time. And you might not know, but it certainly feels like Jalen Hawkins is a leader on the defense, not the leader, but he's a part of it.

26:32I remember watching one of those Mike segments on YouTube with the Patriots when they released it, they had Jalen Hawkins one week, Mike and man, oh man, constant energy, very vocal, talking to both offense and defense. Just feels like he's part of the fabric. And there was a video released recently where Mike Vrable is in the tunnel after the Super Bowl, which I think is great because you don't you don't only do that when you're winning games and everything is awesome, right? You got to show up for your guys and greet them when they just had their toughest loss of their career. And there's this video of Vrable. You know, shaking hands with guys talking to guys as they're walking into the locker room. And there's this moment with Jalen Hawkins where Vrable kind of squares up with Hawkins, he turns them. So they're looking directly at each other. And there's this conversation between Vrable and Hawkins. And if you see it, it just feels like Vrable understands that Hawkins is going to be one of those guys that is going to be able to walk into that locker room.

27:40And get them focused on, you know, what truly matters and get them ready to already start thinking about 2026 that conversation between Vrable and Hawkins to me was something that we should not overlook. I think those types of things mean something when the head coach is pulling somebody aside and saying, you know, we got to get those guys in there. We got to get those guys kind of ready mentally. We got, we got to, we got to deal with this together. It's a pull Hawkins aside like he did just makes me feel like Vrable sees Hawkins as one of the leaders on this team. One of the guys that he wants around. So how much money? Pro football focus. They had this story 10 defenders that deserve to get paid. Hawkins was one of those 10 defenders. Their projected AAV average annual value is $11 million per year. They write Hawkins enjoyed a breakout year. 28 year old safety showcased his range, logged an 85.7 pro football focus coverage grade at free safety with four interceptions.

28:46So his coverage grade was higher after the AFC championship game and the Super Bowl before leading into those two games without an established track record of success. Hawkins may aim to resign with the Patriots as he has proven himself with the staff. And I know Hawkins has gone on the record. If you've seen it, he wants to return. He called New England home. I think he wants to be here. I think he wants to play for Mike Vrable. I think he wants to play for Zach Korn, the assistant coaches. And a thing that could work in the favor for the Patriots here is that there are some good safeties on the market. So I don't think Hawkins is going to be the premier target. If you're looking at a safety, if you're looking for a safety. You know, you might look at a couple of other guys before you get to Hawkins and the safety market has been slow to move the past couple of years. So both of those things I think could work in the Patriots favor. You might be able to get Jalen Hawkins for a little less than the 11 million per season.

29:47But sign me up. Sign me up. You can always give the signing bonus and play with the money. I have zero issue bringing Jalen Hawkins back to this football team. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen for being in every day. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick See Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. And if you're looking for a gift for someone, make it easy. Check out the every day or club. Add free episodes of this show, exclusive discord server access and more subscriptions can be gifted through Lockdown Patriots dot supercast dot com. Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday.