Dolphins hire Jeff Hafley - new head coach

Did they hand out hamster wheels during the announcement?

 

Hafley’s defense has been top 5 so that’s actually a good thing. His only knows our defense has been inconsistent at best.

Plus with his relationship with Sullivan, their vision should be similar and no “learning curve”.

Had we hired Chad Alexander from the Chargers, I would have bet on us landing Harbaugh. When it was announced we hired Sullivan, I knew it was going to be LaFleur if he didn’t get a contract extension of Jeff Hafley.

 

It was #6 in 2024 and #11 in 2025 (by points, which is what matters). Good, but not great.

 

Admittedly I don't know much about him. The hiring itself seems repetitiously automatic. I assumed we fired McDaniel because we were going after a much bigger, more sought after name. I was wrong.
That doesn't mean it won't work. I know nothing about the guy the same way I knew nothing about Sean McVay when the Rams hired him.

He's a defensive guy, so I expect that to be our strong point next season. Get a franchise quarterback in here to run an offense and we might have something.

 

I can't really get excited. It seems like we're going with a mediocre defensive coordinator who may be a good motivator.

 

If this was a hire with Grier as the GM, I wouldn’t be thrilled at all. Sullivan is bringing in someone he knows and worked with so it may be a good hire.

But let’s face the hard fact that 2026 is going to SUCK regardless of who’s here. Thanks a lot Grier.

 

I’m not so sure. Was McCarthy a GOOD coordinator or did he benefit from Rodgers outstanding play? Honest question

 

Let's face it, he's not super exciting, but that doesn't mean he can't or won't be a good coach.

He was a major upgrade for the Packers D when he came in. The raw numbers don't always reflect it, but he is a good coordinator and really changed the mentality of their defense.

And let's face it. What will ultimately determine his fate is probably going to be the decisions related to Tua and the QB position more than anything he does on defense. His offensive staff will be important and our new GM better be ready to work.

 

I'm glad Grier is gone (4 years too late), but I don't see how this Hafley guy is an upgrade over McDaniel. His defenses over the last couple of seasons in GB were good, but not great or exceptional in any way. His previous HC experience at BC was bad with a losing record.

We should have gone after a proven HC. This just looks like more of the same mediocre BS. Seems Ross **** the bed once again.

 

Championship!!!

 

We honestly have no idea if he's an upgrade or not. None. It's not a sexy or exciting hire, but that has no bearing on whether he will succeed or fail. And even "proven" coaches fail in new environments. They may have a better chance at success, or better knowledge, but they can fail just the same. There is no guarantee that Harbaugh will succeed at anything in NY or that McDermott will raise, I don't know, Arizona to some new height.

Ross brought in a guy that came highly recommended in almost every NFL circle for GM, and that guy brought in a coach he thinks will succeed. Nothing but time will tell us if they make it or not.

 

Dolphins fans when Harbaugh gets sacked, closely followed by McDaniel.


The same Dolphins fans a week later when Hafley is announced.

 

I care more about the coordinators with this hire. Not sure if that is a good sign or bad. I feel like this is for a head coach instead of bringing in a scheme, so likely good. At least it seems like a new approach.

 

He was actually the OC in New Orleans when they had Ricky, before they traded him to us. They had an offense that ranked #10 or #11 three seasons out of five. He then was the OC in SF for one season when Alex Smith and Frank Gore were rookies. Then he got the HC job in GB and the offense revolved around Favre, Ahman Green and Donald Driver for two years before pivoting to Rodgers.

 

Well in fairness to Hafley’s record at BC, look at the records of his predecessor and successor. In this day and age of NIL, it’s difficult to get GOOD players when other big universities are shelling out millions for players.

As for his defenses in Green Bay, he has significantly improved the defense which has helped in Green Bay’s success.

I just want a head coach who can LEAD, TEACH and COMMUNICATE effectively. This man is a sponge when it comes to absorbing information. Will it translate to being an effective head coach with a team in rebuild mode? Only time will tell.

If anyone is expecting Miami to vie for any shot at the playoffs next season, you’re going to be disappointed. We have a quarterback problem, a salary cap problem and holes in the offense that seriously need to be addressed.

What everyone should be hoping and cheering for is Weaver getting a head coaching job. That will give Sullivan and Hafley and extra two 3rd round draft picks.

 

I could give two hoots about what "NFL circles" recommend. We've all heard that before with the likes of gase and Flores and McDaniel. They are generally as clueless as anybody about who will actually be good.

Only thing I like so far is that Sullivan seems to have a pretty good drafting record and his philosophy is to build through the draft. That's the way to do it. I'm just not thrilled about his first move in hiring Hafley.

 

I trust our new GM, who knows the proper way to build a team, also knows his new HC is a quality person who can elevate the organization on the field.

We all know that without a QB it doesn't matter anyway

 

I was thinking about this when I saw Weaver was being interviewed. It certainly would be amazing if he were hired. We'll need the bodies in 2026 to offset the dead cap space.

 

As much as I'm against "blowing it up", I'm glad we hired an OC and a HC that have a working relationship. That already puts us ahead of Grier and Flores, perhaps the worst combo of all time. My worry now shifts to Ross and hoping he's not going to try to pay anyone to lose all over again. There's no reason to tank for anybody and we have the proof of that in the building with another $100M or so left on his contract.

Our best bet short term- Tua becomes our QB1 or gets traded on a contract that doesn't eat us alive. I caught an interview with a teammate (think it was Waller?) who said Tua is fantastic in practice but once he hits the field, it's like a deer in the headlights. He thinks there's still trauma there from the concussions and he recommended Tua see a professional to help overcome the mental side of injuries. The explanation made sense anyway and gave me a tinge of hope that maybe he's not 100% done.

That's not me being a Tua fanboy, mind you, but it's the best possible outcome for the franchise short term. If Tua returns to form, we can trade him next season and it becomes a favorable position for us.

For Tyreek and the other big contracts, I think they have to be cut because I saw we have 30+ free agents going into next year. So this team is getting massively overhauled no matter what, likely through the draft and undrafted free agents. Hopefully we don't pursue any splash signings and focus on playing fundamentally solid football once again.

With all the expected turnover, I have no idea where we stand- is the line that finally worked after all these years going to be dismantled? Will we keep Waddle and other young stars? There's going to be so much to figure out but like I said at the start, at least our HC and GM are largely on the same page working together. It's the one plus we haven't had in quite a while.

 

Exactly. We have no clue how this will pan out, but for anyone to say it ""seems" this is nothing more than a "**** the bed" hire is prematurely ridiculous. Of course this hire isn't a proven success but hes not a proven failure either.
Every NFL HC was once an unproven hire. Some work out, some dont.
If you ask me it "seems" we better wait and see before we lable this hire a failure.

 

We're in relatively uncharted waters here. The last time the Dolphins went THIS far outside of the organization for a rebuild was the hiring of Bill Parcells, but even that proved to be an abject failure when Parcells hired and offensive line coach as the head coach, Tony Sparano.

The thing I like about the Sullivan hire is he comes from undoubtedly one of the most stable organizations in the league. He brings with him the Ron Wolfe mindset of building through the draft and keeping our own. He wants a team that is drafted and built up rather than hired mercenaries which was Grier's philosophy.

While the hire of Hafley may not be a barnstorming big name hire, he comes from the same organization where the philosophy of stability and building through the draft for longevity still prevails in Green Bay. If Sullivan and Hafley can bring that same mindset here, then perhaps the Dolphins can once again return to the days of glory past.

 

My memory might be off, but didn't Parcells come in under Robbie the year before he sold? Then the next year Huzienga largely ignored his advice and minimized his role?

I was a late teen at the time so I don't trust my own memory, LOL. I did sell lemonade at Super Bowl 23 though with our high school baseball team.

 

A game The Bengals should have won.

 

Tenuous link. When I played for Sheffield Cyclones in the British League, early to mid 90's, James Brooks, the Bengals back who played in that game, came over to be our player/coach. He only stayed one season though. I think the management promised him the earth and delivered not much. Then he became a pundit on Sky Sports over here. I remember injuring my groin one scrimmage, when I wrapped him up in a tackle and he ended up dragging me along for another 5 or 6 yards. Really nice guy.

 

Wayne Huizenga was the owner. The Robbie’s sold their controlling interest in the Dolphins in 1994. The tax laws just made the Robbies keeping the team untenable after Joe Robbie died in 1990 and left the team to his children.

 

Sounds like McDaniel has landed ... as the offensive coordinator of the LA Chargers. No head coach this go around. Whether that was from a general lack of interest or his own disinterest in the situations of a team like Cleveland, who knows.

Should be an interesting landing spot for him. A good year from Justin Herbert and a playoff win (or more) and he probably boosts himself to a top candidate next year.

 

Going through my feelings of the post-Shuka coaches.
1) Jimmy Johnson - cautiously optimistic. Was worried his heart wasn’t in it.
2) Dave Wannstedt - pessimistic. His tenure with the bears had me fearing he didn’t have a feel for the offense.
3) Jim Bates (interim) - thought he deserved a shot
4) Nick Saban - not sold on the idea that a college coach could make the jump to the pros considering how the different the NFL and college had become.
5) Cam Cameron - optimistic. I though he was clearly the best available new star. I was clearly very wrong on this one.
6) Tony Sparano - This was truly an “are you f*&#ing kidding me?” hire.
7) Todd Bowles (interim) - thought he had earned a shot and was at least as good as any of the available coaches on the market.
8) Joe Philbin - meh
9) Dan Campbell (interim) - loved his enthusiasm and how he got his players up, but thought he needed more experience.
10) Adam Gase - Thought he was a bit of a reach and was hired more on FOMO than an accomplishment.
11) Brian Flores - Solid capable DC, very worried about how well Belichek coaches performed without Tom Brady as their QB. I thought it was a very good idea to wait until after the Superbowl to hire the best co-ordinator available,
12) Mike McDaniel - Was impressed by how well regarded he was by former players. A little worried he didn’t have enough depth of resume.

13th time is the charm. Jeff Hafley. I like what I saw he did with the GB defense. Not sure he was the best available DC (Chris Shula for my money). I don’t think any of the candidates we “missed out on” were that great, so worth a roll of the dice.

 

After Tom O'Brien, they never had sustained success. Even before NIL, they didn't put much financial support into football (hell, other sports too). Small fan base, smaller school, limited TV deals. In fairness, he was competitive outside of one year there. With that, I wouldn't put much stock into his time at BC.

I'm not sure what to think of this hire. It's not sexy, but who knows? I'm not pissed like with Adam Gase and Tony Saprano so there's that, I guess. New GM, new coach, new culture. We'll see.

edited to say, I mean nothing against BC. I'm a Wolfpacker, and though we may support a little better financially, it isn't all that much more. We're still that plain Jane you see at the bar that looks good after a few jack and cokes, but you wake up and ... meh.

 

At first glance, it sounds great! But once you really dig into the meaning, he basically said 'fast guys are slow up north, big guys stay big, and we're going to get fast big guys everywhere.' Umm...how, LOL?

I love that he's focused on building through the trenches, that's always the path for consistent teams, but every GM and head coach ever has said that. Hopefully we see him actually do it.

 

Not thrilled with this hire. Seems like a bit of cronyism going on here. I guess that can be good in that the GM knows him and knows what he can bring to the table, but it's most likely bad because it shows he doesn't necessarily know or wasn't able to bring in the best candidate, just one with whom he is comfortable. I don't know if a defensive minded, coordinator, first time coach was the best way to go.

It really seems like just another Ross ---- up. He again didn't get the guy he wanted, Harbaugh and now he's s just settled for whomever.

It's really just a bad situation there with all of the lousy contracts, especially Tua's. It was going to be extremely difficult getting any of the top candidates. Aside from Ewers, they have no QB.

Unless he surprises. he will probably be a lame duck coach or at best a bridge type coach until they can get the players and guys they want to really turn things around.

Yes, hope, wait and see.....again.

 

If Tua (or our rookie QB) are any good next year, we might be a playoff team. Why? Because a new scheme all around tends to have an advantage the first year since teams have to adapt.

Think about it; we have mountains of film on Buffalo and NE. They have zero on us. So it takes more to prepare to play a new team and it often means you can start fast.

I agree though, wait and see. I just hope we continue the power run game since it's the purest form of football and the hardest to shut down.