Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams will travel with the team to Super Bowl LX, coach Mike Vrabel announced Thursday.
Williams has spent the season on leave as he undergoes prostate cancer treatments.
“He’s doing good,” Vrabel said, via Brian Hines of patspulpit.com. “He’s excited about traveling with us. I appreciate you asking. Doing well, so we’re excited about having him.”
Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr assumed additional responsibility when Williams went on leave, but Williams has spent time around the team.
“It means a lot,” captain Marcus Jones said. ”First off battling what he had to battle through and everything like that so we’re glad that he’s feeling way better. And then he has a lot of the situation of hard work and dedication when it came down to this defense from the beginning. He’s been involved whenever he didn’t have to be, you know what I mean? So, we’re happy about that for sure.”
The Seahawks released their second injury report of the week on Thursday and it showed a few changes from Wednesday.
Linebacker Ernest Jones (chest) was upgraded to limited participation. The team only held a walkthrough on Thursday and Jones was listed as a non-participant on Wednesday’s estimated report.
Left tackle Charles Cross (foot) was listed as limited on Wednesday, but dropped to out of practice on Thursday. The Seahawks will issue estimated injury designations for this week on Friday and then hold more practices after traveling to Calfornia over the weekend.
Tight end Eric Saubert (hamstring) also dropped to out of practice. Tackle Amari Kight (knee) remained a non-participant.
Wide receiver Jake Bobo (hand), quarterback Sam Darnold (oblique), tackle Josh Jones (knee, ankle), safety Julian Love (shoulder), fullback Robbie Ouzts (neck), fullback Brady Russell (hand), and linebacker Drake Thomas (shoulder) were listed as limited for the second straight day. Linebacker Chazz Surratt (ankle) was the only player listed as a full participant.
The number of known Hall of Fame voters who did not vote for Bill Belichick has doubled. From one to two.
Mike Chappell of Fox59.com, who has the Indianapolis vote on the 50-person panel, has joined Vahe Gregorian of the Kansas City Star in disclosing that he did not vote for Belichick. Unlike Gregorian, Chappell voted for Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Under the current rules, Belichick, Kraft, and three senior candidates (Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, L.C. Greenwood) were in the same five-person bucket. Each voter listed three of them on their ballots.
Chappell included Kraft but not Belichick. Chappell cited Kraft’s “role in building the Patriots dynasty beginning in 1994 AND his undeniable role in helping negotiate the end of the 100-play-day work stoppage in 2011 — while his wife was gravely ill — that has resulted in long-standing labor peace.” Chappell also pointed out that Kraft has “also been involved behind the scenes in bolstering the NFL’s ever-increasing TV revenue.”
As to Belichick, Chappell cited Spygate. He also said #Deflategate was mentioned during the discussion. (That’s a new wrinkle.)
“There’s no erasing the stain of Spygate from his bio,” Chappell wrote. “This wasn’t alleged behavior. The NFL fined Belichick $500,000 — the maximum allowed — along with docking the Patriots $250,000 and a first-round draft pick for illegally videotaping New York Jets signals in 2007.”
Chappell also said he’s not in favor of grouping senior players with coaches and contributors. Chappell voted for two players and Kraft.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Kraft and Belichick pulled votes from each other,” Chappell wrote.
Chappell expressed confidence that Belichick will make it next year, admitting that his failure to vote “in no way insinuates Belichick isn’t Hall-of-Fame-worthy. (Chappel is right; it doesn’t “insinuate” it. His failure to give Belichick a Hall of Fame vote expressly says it.)
Chappell also dubbed as “asinine” the theory that Belichick’s attitude toward reporters was a factor. But Chappell can’t know what prompted some to entertain Spygate as an impediment. For one or more voters, Spygate may have been a pretext for the conscious or subconscious bias regarding a coach who was, at times, a gratuitous jerk to reporters (and, at times, still is).
The real problem here is the shift away from straight up-or-down voting for each finalist. The sooner the Hall of Fame gets back to that, the sooner situations like this won’t arise in the future.
And, frankly, all 50 voters should refuse to participate in the voting process unless that happens. The current approach creates unintended results, and it makes all of the voters look bad — even the ones who voted for Belichick.
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters earlier on Thursday that he has “not much” concern about Drake Maye’s shoulder injury when it comes to the quarterback’s availabiltiy for Super Bowl LX.
That’s been the consistent word out of New England all week, which Maye reiterated with his own comments in a Thursday presser.
“Yeah, I’m feeling good,” Maye said after the Patriots’ Thursday practice. “Got out there, moving around a good bit today. I was able to do some of the jog-through, so feeling good, and looking forward to being ready to go. This is the game you dream of playing, so looking forward to getting out there and getting a chance to play in the Super Bowl.”
Though New England did not practice on Wednesday, Maye was listed as limited on the team’s estimated report. It’s unclear if he’ll be listed as limited or full on Thursday, but Maye told reporters that he did participate and throw in the day’s session.
“I’m trying to do whatever I can to get back to 100 percent,” Maye said. “I think a lot of people in that locker room would say the same thing. Having a two-week break is nice to maybe rest a little more and get back to get to know the Seahawks as well as I can. And from there, looking forward to getting out to practice and trying to transfer that to live game reps.”
Maye also does not anticipate the should injury hindering his performance against Seattle next Sunday.
“No, I don’t think so,” Maye said. “That’s why you spend time, that’s why you have trainers. I think it’s just been one of those things where it’s a long season, sometimes things show up, and I’m going to do whatever I can to feel 100 percent. I’m sure I’ll get, if not there, then as close as you can — 99 [percent], or do whatever I can to make sure I’m throwing and do whatever I can to help the team win.”
Maye, an AP 2025 MVP finalist, has completed 56 percent of his passes for 533 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions in his three postseason games. He’s also rushed for 141 yards with a TD.
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was listed on the team’s estimated Wednesday injury report as limited due to a right shoulder issue.
But head coach Mike Vrabel reiterated to reporters on Thursday that he doesn’t have much concern about the quarterback’s potential availability for Super Bowl LX.
“I try not to have a whole lot of concern,” Vrabel said in his press conference. ”I just want to try to prepare the football team, make sure that everybody’s ready, that we all have a plan, not to surprise anybody and make sure that our guys are focusing on the first- and second-down plan.”
Vrabel later added that the Patriots won’t do much differently from a practice standpoint due to Maye’s shoulder.
“I think we’re going to operate as we normally would here on a Wednesday,” Vrabel said. “Even though it’s Thursday, this is a Wednesday for us, and that’s kind of how we’ll approach it.”
The Patriots will issue two more injury reports this week before heading to the Bay Area for the final game of the 2025 season over the weekend.
