Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has emerged as a strong candidate for Miami’s head coaching job. The Dolphins are setting up a second interview with Hafley, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports. It’ll be the first in-person meeting between the two sides.
Hafley has an important connection in new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, a longtime Packers employee. 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 11th in scoring and 12th 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 beginning of a ruinous skid for the Packers. After starting 9-3-1, they lost four in a row to finish the regular season 9-7-1. The Packers nonetheless clinched a playoff berth and jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead in 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 around the league. Along with the Dolphins, Hafley has interviewed with the Cardinals, Falcons, Raiders, Steelers and Titans. The Dolphins are the first 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 selected anyone with prior head coaching experience in the league since Dave Wannstedt took the reins in 2000. Hafley’s lone stint as a head coach came with Boston College from 2020-23, a four-year span in which the Eagles went 22-26 and played in two bowl games.