Vrabel highlights Terrell Williams’ Patriots role as practice scrimmage splits ‘Blue’ and ‘White’ coaching staffs

The New England Patriots closed out a five-day practice block with a scrimmage that mirrored how their coaching staff is organizing responsibilities this summer. According to Yahoo Sports, the practice ended with the team splitting its roster into two squads, then splitting the coaching staff the same way, creating a “Blue” side and a “White” side for the session’s on-field work.

On the “Blue Team,” the group was led by Tony Dews, New England’s running backs coach. On the “White Team,” Terrell Williams, newly named assistant head coach this offseason, led the coaching side for that portion of the scrimmage, setting the tone for how the Patriots are thinking about leadership on the practice field.

The structure matters because training camp is where assistant coaches translate the head coach’s plan into repeatable teaching, and it is also where players learn how the staff will respond to live situations. A split format during a team scrimmage can help the coaching staff manage different looks, quicker corrections, and more direct feedback within the same overall session.

Terrell Williams’ promotion to assistant head coach, referenced in the report as a change from this offseason, is the key personnel context for why the scrimmage setup stands out. The assistant head coach role is generally positioned to coordinate across groups, manage practices and communication, and provide an additional layer of organizational leadership when the team is executing long stretches of work over the course of training camp.

Mike Vrabel’s involvement is part of the backdrop as well. The report frames Vrabel as offering insight into Williams’ new role, suggesting the head coach is specifically emphasizing how Williams will operate within the day-to-day structure of the Patriots. In practice, that can affect everything from how coaches run drills to how players are coached on decision-making and execution during game-speed reps.

The report also indicates that the session was designed to create parallel environments for players and coaches, with the “Blue” and “White” branding carried across both rosters and staff. That kind of mirrored setup can reduce bottlenecks, increase time spent on coaching points, and allow the staff to evaluate how the teams perform under different instructional leadership during the same practice window.

There is, however, a caveat in what can be concluded from this type of camp information. A scrimmage-led split does not, by itself, reveal roster depth chart outcomes or final positional pecking order. It does, though, provide a clear window into the internal mechanics of how New England plans to run its summer practices and how its assistant head coach is being integrated into the leadership chain.

What to watch next is whether the “assistant head coach” function remains visible in future camp sessions, particularly in the way the Patriots organize coaching coverage during live periods. If New England continues this split approach, players and observers can look for consistent patterns in how Williams directs team-wide communication and situational emphasis, and whether that shows up in how the staff corrects execution and process in subsequent scrimmages.