The New England Patriots have hired former Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinator — his third stint in that role with the team, but his first since the departure of longtime mentor Bill Belichick.
The Patriots, who named Mike Vrabel as coach this month, also hired Terrell Williams, who spent six years on Vrabel's staff in Tennessee, as defensive coordinator and retained current New England special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer.
McDaniels was the Patriots OC during Vrabel’s final three seasons as a player in New England and was one of the longest-tenured assistants under Belichick, working for him a total 15 years, including nine as offensive coordinator, and all six of the franchise's Super Bowl wins. He also served as quarterbacks coach, working with Tom Brady; McDaniels now will be charged with mentoring Drake Maye as he enters his second season.
Williams was the Lions defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator last season, when the Detroit defense allowed just 98.4 yards per game in 2024, the fifth-fewest yards in the NFL. He was on Vrabel's first staff in Tennessee and was promoted to assistant head coach in 2023.
After Vrabel was fired by the Titans following the 2023 season, he released a statement in support of Williams being named as a head coach of the Senior Bowl collegiate showcase game.
“There is no more deserving person to be a head coach for the Senior Bowl or any level than Terrell Williams,” Vrabel said then. “His loyalty, dedication, and service to the Titans program for the last six years has not gone unnoticed. Terrell is a creative teacher and developer who also makes a unique connection with his players and those on the other side of the ball. I can’t thank him enough for the impact that he has made on me personally as well as with our team. I am excited to watch him excel as a head coach in the Senior Bowl."
Under Springer, Patriots special teamer Brenden Schooler earned first team All-Pro honors and his first Pro Bowl invitation, and Marcus Jones was second in the NFL with a 14.8-yard average on punt returns. Prior to his arrival in New England, Springer spent two seasons as a special teams assistant with the Los Angeles Rams and eight seasons coaching in college.
McDaniels left New England in 2009 to become the Broncos head coach for two years, followed by one season in St. Louis as the Rams offensive coordinator. He then returned to the Patriots before leaving again in 2021 to take over the Raiders, where he was fired eight games into the 2023 season.
The Patriots also interviewed Vikings assistant offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, former Chicago Bears interim coach Thomas Brown and Los Angeles Chargers passing game coordinator Marcus Brady.
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FILE - Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels watches from the sideline during an NFL football game against the New England Patriots, Monday, Dec. 19, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected a Trump administration push to reinstate a sweeping pause on federal funding, a decision that comes after a judge found the administration had not fully obeyed an earlier order.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, the latest in a string of court losses that is increasingly frustrating top administration officials as it slows President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging agenda.
The appeals court also said it expected the lower court judge to clarify his original order. The Trump administration quickly pushed to withhold Federal Emergency Management Agency money sent to New York City to house migrants, saying it had “significant concerns” about the spending under a program appropriated by Congress.
The Justice Department had previously asked the appeals court to let it implement sweeping pauses on federal grants and loans, calling the lower court order to keep promised money flowing “intolerable judicial overreach.”
U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island is presiding over a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic states filed after the administration issued a boundary-pushing memo purporting to halt all federals grants and loans, worth trillions of dollars. The plan sparked chaos around the country.
The administration has since rescinded that memo, but McConnell found Monday that not all federal grants and loans had been restored. He was the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order.
Money for things like early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research has remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order halting the spending freeze plan, the states said.
McConnell, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, ordered the Trump administration to “immediately take every step necessary” to unfreeze all federal grants and loans.
He also said his order blocked the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, a move announced last week.
The Justice Department said McConnell's order prevents the executive branch from exercising its lawful authority, including over discretionary spending or fraud.
“A single district court judge has attempted to wrest from the President the power to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ This state of affairs cannot be allowed to persist for one more day,” government attorneys wrote in their appeal.
The states, meanwhile, argued that the president can’t block money that Congress has approved, and the still-frozen grants and loans are causing serious problems for their residents. They urged the appeals court to keep allowing the case to play out in front of McConnell.
Judges have also blocked, at least temporarily, Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., access to Treasury Department records by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and a mass deferred resignation plan for federal workers.
The Republican administration previously said the sweeping funding pause would bring federal spending in line with the president’s priorities, including increasing fossil fuel production, removing protections for transgender people and ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
A different federal judge in Washington has also issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that some nonprofit groups weren’t getting their funding.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as Elon Musk listens in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
