According Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, indicated that Williams is currently in the process of undergoing treatment.
Terrell Williams, the 51-year-old defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to comments from Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel during a news conference on Sept. 26.
According to The Associated Press, Vrabel indicated that Williams is currently in the process of undergoing treatment and taking meetings with specialists in order to “figure out the best plan to be able to attack this and heal it and allow him to get back to better health.”
Vrabel added, “Our medical staff and the people in this town have been fantastic to help him and get him started with that process.”
Presently, linebackers coach Zak Kuhr has defensive play-calling duties in Williams’ absence, and the defensive coordinator will be around the team as much as he is able to. Williams called the plays in the Patriots’ season-opening loss, a game in which his defense only gave up 20 points, but an inconsistent offense cost them a win.
According to Boston.com, the announcement coincides with the NFL’s yearly Crucial Catch initiative, its collaboration with the American Cancer Society that promotes the prevention and early detection of cancer, which the ACS notes can impact anyone, at any age.
“This week is Crucial Catch, and I unfortunately have to tell you that Terrell Williams was determined to have prostate cancer and is in the process of treatment, meeting with specialists, and figuring out the best plan of attack to heal it, fix it, and allow him to get back to better health,” Vrabel noted in his comments.
Coach Vrabel provides an update on defensive coordinator Terrell Williams. pic.twitter.com/wUksEnTEkL
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 26, 2025
He continued, “You know how much Terrell means to me and the people around this football team. So, we want to send our regards and just publicly let everyone know that’s what he’s dealing with. I don’t know if he could get any better anywhere else. Our medical staff and the people in this town have been fantastic to get this started in that process.”
According to the head coach, Williams was one of his first hires when New England offered him the job. The two share a synergy dating back to Vrabel’s first head coaching stint with the Tennessee Titans, where Williams served as the defensive line coach.
“When you do this, you’ve got to have people that you trust implicitly, that are loyal,” Vrabel noted, characterizing his relationship with Williams. “He’s been that. When you get into [expletive] storms during the season, he’s got an ability to reach everybody. He always kept me in perspective, very few people. He’s always willing to share his thoughts with me as I needed a guardrail.”
He concluded, “Our thoughts and prayers — and T (Williams) knows all this, we talk all the time — are with him and his family. We care about him.”
Prostate cancer tends to disproportionately affect Black men. In 2020, per 100,000 men, only 95 white men were diagnosed with a new case of prostate cancer, while 154 Black men were diagnosed.
According to Dr. John Stewart, chief of surgery for Morehouse School of Medicine at Grady Health System, it is of vital importance that awareness of prostate cancer is raised in order to improve the outcomes of Black men in particular.
“We’ve got to make sure to get the word out about prostate cancer screenings,” Dr. Stewart told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “As Black men, we aren’t exactly fond of interactions with the medical system. We see it in prostate cancer, we see it in colonoscopy screenings. We have to create a better agenda for men’s health in our community.”
Likewise, Dr. Wayne Harris, an associate professor in Emory School of Medicine’s department of hematology and medical oncology, noted that Black men should get screened earlier due to the more aggressive nature of prostate cancer in that population.
“In the African-American community, it [prostate cancer] is known to have an earlier onset and have a more aggressive profile for reasons that are not fully clear,” Harris said. “There’s this broad spectrum of contributing factors, but not one specific thing that says this is why there are disparities. The consensus is that there should be an individualized discussion with the patient’s physician.”
Stewart noted that the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s son Dexter King in January 2024 provided an opportunity to reaffirm to the Black community that prostate cancer does not care who you are or what your social status is.
“This is an opportunity to continue to educate our community and let people know that prostate cancer is not a respecter of social status. It’s not a respecter of position,” Stewart told the outlet. “It is a real issue that we have to address head on.”
