Terrell Williams joins the Lions in 2024 as run game coordinator/defensive line coach, bringing 27 years of coaching experience to Detroit. He most recently spent six seasons (2018-23) with the Tennessee Titans overseeing the defensive line, while adding the assistant head coach title in 2023.
From 2018-23, Williams's unit ranked fourth in the NFL with only 10,044 rushing yards allowed over that span. Under his tutelage, DE Denico Autry became the franchise's first player since Jevon Kearse (1999-2001) to record eight-or-more sacks in three consecutive seasons.
In 2022, Williams helped the Titans finish first in the NFL in rushing defense allowed (76.9 rushing yards per game), which was the second-lowest number in franchise history. They also led the League with a 3.4 yards per carry average. In the AFC Divisional Round, Williams helped the Tennessee defense tie the postseason single-game sack record with nine sacks against Cincinnati.
Throughout his time with the Titans, Williams developed 2019 first-round selection DT Jeffery Simmons to become a two-time All-Pro and Pro Bowler. In 2021, Simmons earned Second-Team AP All-Pro honors after setting career-highs in pressures (58), tackles (54), tackles for loss (12), sacks (8.5) and pass defenses (six). In 2020, Williams assisted Simmons in becoming the first player in club history since at least 1999 to post at least five pass defenses, 3.0 sacks and three fumble recoveries in a single season.
Williams also tutored veteran DE Jurrell Casey in Tennessee, helping him earn his fourth and fifth Pro Bowl selections in 2018 and 2019. In Williams's first season with the Titans, the team ranked second in red zone scoring defense (44.7 touchdown percentage), third in points allowed (18.9 per game) and eighth in overall defense (333.4 yards allowed per game).
Prior to his arrival in Tennessee, Williams spent three seasons (2015-17) with the Miami Dolphins coaching the defensive line. In his time with Miami, DE Cameron Wake tallied 29.0 sacks, the eighth-highest total by a player over that span. He also worked with All-Pro DT Ndamukong Suh, who totaled the eighth-most sacks (15.5) among defensive tackles in that period.
In 2016, Williams helped the Dolphins to their first playoff berth since 2008, a year in which both Wake and Suh earned Pro Bowl selections. Wake finished third in the AFC and tied for sixth in the NFL with 11.5 sacks.
In his first season with Miami in 2015, Williams assisted Miami in becoming one of just four NFL teams to have three players with at least six sacks – 7.0 by Wake, 6.0 by Suh and 7.5 by DE Olivier Vernon. Vernon finished the year with 36 quarterback hits, the third-most in the NFL, and tied for fourth among all players with 18 tackles for loss.
Williams first entered the full-time NFL ranks as a defensive line coach for the Oakland Raiders from 2012-14. In 2014, the Raiders defense ranked eighth in the NFL in fewest rushing yards allowed per play (3.97) and finished second in the League in stuffs with 54.
Before Oakland, Williams spent 14 years working as a defensive line coach throughout the collegiate ranks. He spent the 2010-11 seasons at Texas A&M, advancing to a bowl game in both years. The Aggies led the nation with 51 sacks in 2011 and finished third nationally with an average of eight tackles for loss per game. In 2010, Williams helped Texas A&M share the program's first Big 12 South crown for the first time in over a decade.
From 2006-09, Williams worked at Purdue and tutored future NFL DL Anthony Spencer, who led the NCAA in tackles for loss and was a First-Team All-American before becoming a first-round pick with the Dallas Cowboys in 2007. Throughout his time with the Boilermakers, Williams developed future NFL players such as the Lions' Cliff Avril, Alex McGee, Mike Neal, Ryan Kerrigan, Kawann Short and Ryan Baker.
Williams coached the defensive line at Akron from 2004-05, helping the Zips win the Mid-American Conference Championship in 2005 and play in the Motor City Bowl, both firsts in program history. Williams also spent two years (2002-03) as the defensive line coach at Youngstown State.
He served on the coaching staff at North Carolina A&T from 1999-2001, where he tutored Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager Brad Holmes, then a defensive tackle for the Aggies. He got his start in coaching working with the defensive line at Fort Scott Community College during the 1998 season.
Williams had three summer internships in the NFL during his college coaching tenure. During the summer of 1999, he assisted the Jacksonville Jaguars with the defensive line, and he had a similar role with the Seattle Seahawks in 2007 and with the Dallas Cowboys in 2008.
A native of Los Angeles, Williams played nose guard at East Carolina and helped the Pirates to a Liberty Bowl victory over Stanford in 1995. He transferred to East Carolina from West Los Angeles College and earned a bachelor's degree in communications with a minor in history. He and his wife, Tifini, have two sons, Tahj and Tyson, who passed away in 2012.
