Detroit Lions set to hire new defensive line coach

According to Diana Russini of The Athletic late Wednesday night, from the Senior Bowl in Mobile, the Detroit Lions will hire Tyrell Williams as their new defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator.

John Scott was hired as the Lions' defensive line coach last year. He's presumably out of a job now, but there's no word on his status as of Thursday morning. He could just be changing his role on the Lions' coaching staff.

Justin Rogers of the Detroit News clarified the deal is not quite done, but there's a verbal agreement in place for Williams to join the Lions' coaching staff. A snag before it's made official would be surprising.

Williams started his coaching career at the college level in 1998, and he's been a defensive line coach all the way along. He made the jump to the NFL with the Oakland Raiders in 2012, the moved to the Miami Dolphins in 2015. He has spent the last six seasons as the Tennessee Titans' defensive line coach, adding assistant head coach to his duties this past season (including serving as the head coach for a preseason game). He's the head coach of the American team at the Senior Bowl this week.

Terrell Williams is very familiar to key Lions' people

When Williams landed with the Dolphins in 2015, he crossed paths with Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who became the interim head coach there that season.

Williams' second coaching job was at North Carolina A&T from 1999-2001, where he was Lions' general manager Brad Holmes' position coach as a defensive tackle there.

More broadly, over the course of his career Williams has a long list of players he has helped develop. Ryan Kerrigan, Cliff Avril, Von Miller, Cameron Wake, Jeffrey Simmons, Denico Autry and Jurrell Casey to name a few. Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Josh Paschal, etc. will be his new pupils in Detroit.