Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has emerged as a powerful candidate for Miami’s head coaching job. The Dolphins are organising a second interview with Hafley, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. It’ll be the primary in-person meeting between the 2 sides.
Hafley has a vital connection in recent Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, a longtime Packers worker. He and Hafley spent the past two years together in Green Bay.
Hafley’s defense has been an above-average group in back-to-back seasons, especially when it ranked top 10 in points (sixth) and yards (fifth) in 2024. While the unit fell to a still-respectable eleventh in scoring and twelfth in total defense in 2025, losing Micah Parsons to a season-ending ACL tear in mid-December didn’t help Hafley’s cause.
Parsons went down in a loss to the Broncos in Week 15, the start of a ruinous skid for the Packers. After starting 9-3-1, they lost 4 in a row to complete the regular season 9-7-1. The Packers nonetheless clinched a playoff berth and jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead within the wild-card round against the Bears, but a second-half collapse led to a 31-27 loss.
Although Green Bay’s defense yielded a whopping 25 fourth-quarter points to Chicago, it didn’t affect Hafley’s stock across the league. Together with the Dolphins, Hafley has interviewed with the Cardinals, Falcons, Raiders, Steelers and Titans. The Dolphins are the primary team to request a second meeting with him.
If Miami hires him, the 46-year-old Hafley would add to the franchise’s long-running list of first-time NFL head coaches. The Dolphins haven’t chosen anyone with prior head coaching experience within the league since Dave Wannstedt took the reins in 2000. Hafley’s lone stint as a head coach got here with Boston College from 2020-23, a four-year span during which the Eagles went 22-26 and played in two bowl games.