- Miami Dolphins get their guy: In a league where it can be difficult for coordinators to find their footing right away, Jeff Hafley took a Packers defense that ranked 22nd in yards per play allowed before his arrival and turned them into a top-five unit in virtually every meaningful metric.
- Minka Fitzpatrick should thrive under Jeff Hafley: He’s exactly the kind of versatile chess piece Hafley loves. Expect to see him fill a variety of roles for the Dolphins next season.
- The 2026 NFL Draft season is here: Try the best in class PFF Mock Draft Simulator and learn about the top prospects of 2026 as you trade and sign for your favorite NFL team.
Estimated reading time: 13 minutes
Following the firing of head coach Mike McDaniel following a second straight losing season, the Miami Dolphins have once again turned to a defensive head coach, just as they did in 2019 when they hired Brian Flores.
Jeff Hafley was a sought-after name in the current coaching cycle after two impressive seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. While his defense may not have finished this season as strong as they started, there were simply too many openings in the league to leave Hafley unwanted.
Hiring defensive-minded head coaches is undoubtedly a risky business decision these days. It will require the Dolphins to make their offensive coaching hires to keep up with the two MVP-caliber quarterbacks within their division.
The problem with this is that patience in the NFL is at an all-time low and any kind of promising offensive play-caller is snapped up almost immediately. A record 10 NFL head coaches will be replaced in this coaching cycle alone. If you find a good offensive coordinator, you can be sure he won’t be around much longer.
However, the Dolphins should still feel good about bringing Jeff Hafley into the building. In a league where it can be difficult for coordinators to find their footing right away, Hafley took a Packers defense that ranked 22nd in yards per play allowed before his arrival and turned them into a top-five unit in virtually every meaningful metric.
Hafley accomplished this without overhauling the roster — his only major acquisition before calling a play was free agent safety Xavier McKinney — so the Dolphins brass will be hopeful he can once again do more with less in Miami, as their offense already requires plenty of offseason attention.
The most impressive thing about Hafley’s tenure with the Packers was how sophisticated his plan immediately seemed. While many coordinators tend to strip away all the complexity and focus on the fundamentals before making changes in Year 2 and beyond, Hafley was eager to implement some of his most advanced looks from Day 1.
In his first year as a defensive coordinator in the NFL, Hafley increased the Packers’ total number of safeties, increased simulated pressure more than tenfold from previous seasons and nearly tripled Green Bay’s use of Cover-0 blitzes.
Hafley’s immediate adjustments
| Metric | 2023 Packers | 2024 Packers |
| Cover-0 usage | 1.7% (30th) | 4.5% (17th) |
| Cover-2 Use | 6.9% (25th) | 19.4% (5th) |
| Simulated printing speed | 2.4% | 32.5% |
| Disguise percentage security coverage | 30.2% | 36.9% |
Every defensive player emphasizes their desire to play aggressive football, but Hafley’s plans truly embody what it means to take risks in search of big rewards.
Despite his all-or-nothing approach, Hafley still managed to deter opponents from attempting to deliver knockout blows to his defense. His Packers faced the third-lowest percentage of deep (20-plus yardw) pass attempts downfield during his two seasons.
Full-pro caliber safety Xavier McKinney certainly did some of the heavy lifting here, but Hafley’s defense overall does a great job of keeping everything in front of them without completely sacrificing easy completions in shallow areas.
Hafley’s most unique identifier is how and when he uses blitzes. During his two seasons in Green Bay, the Packers have beaten the third-fewest of any team on early downs, and the third-fewest on late downs.
Packers passing blitz speed under Jeff Hafley
| Down | Pass Blitz Speed | NFL Rank |
| 1st and 2nd down | 21.1% | 30th |
| 3rd and 4th down | 43.2% | 3rd |
Hafley’s defense is taught to feel blood in the water when fouls are felt. That’s why Micah Parsons looked like such a difference-maker for this unit in 2025, and why his impact was so missed once he got hurt.
There will be no Micah Parsons for Jeff Hafley in Miami. The Dolphins did not have a defensive lineman with a PFF grade north of 70.0 this season. The free agent options at the position aren’t too attractive and a draft at 11th overall likely keeps the Dolphins out of the Rueben Bain Jr. sweepstakes barring a trade up.
However, Hafley will have free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and linebacker Jordyn Brooks at his disposal. Fitzpatrick in particular is exactly the kind of versatile chess piece Hafley loves. Expect to see him fill a variety of roles for the Dolphins next season.
An elite run defender, Brooks will remain the top dog at linebacker for Hafley; however, he can try to upgrade his running mate. Quay Walker, who posted more than 1,750 snaps with the green dot under Hafley, makes sense if the Packers decide to move on.
Perhaps most importantly from a fundamental coaching perspective, the Dolphins will be optimistic that Jeff Hafley can vastly improve Miami’s tackling quality, as he has already accomplished this in Green Bay.
Over the past two regular seasons, the Dolphins have missed the second-most tackles of any defense (only the Arizona Cardinals have missed more); Meanwhile, Hafley’s Packers missed the fourth fewest.
Improving a team’s ability to get ball carriers to the ground is as much about culture as it is about technique. Fortunately, Jeff Hafley is about as good of a culture builder as you’ll find in a coach under 50 years old.
In addition to his defensive skills, Hafley brings the natural presence of a head coach. Anyone who listened to his interviews over the past two seasons in Green Bay could easily understand why front offices were enamored with the idea of bringing him in as head coach.
He has several years of experience as a head coach at the collegiate level Boston Collegewhere the role is arguably even more all-encompassing than in the NFL. College head coaches are not only charged with player development, but until recently, they also typically bear the brunt of player recruitment.
Hafley has to invest less time in finding the right players for his team. Instead, that job will go to new Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. Sullivan, another former Packers employee who spent the last 24 years in Green Bay, was one of the most sought-after general managers on the market.
His first assignment in Miami will be figuring out the quarterback position. One name that deserves a lot of attention right now is Malik Willis – another member of the Green Bay Packers who is looking for a promotion.
Willis has looked excellent in a limited sample size over the past two seasons in Green Bay and has rightfully earned a second chance as a starting NFL quarterback.
Willis had the highest PFF grade of any quarterback in the league this season (92.3), albeit only on 97 offensive snaps.
Willis finished the season with the highest adjusted completion percentage of any quarterback and threw more than five passes (94.1%), while also leading the league in passer rating (145.5) and not recording a single turnover-worthy play on his 47 dropbacks.
The biggest concern surrounding Willis remains his brutally long throw time, which exceeded 3.5 seconds during his time with the Tennessee Titans, and his process shows no major signs of accelerating (3.32 seconds this past season).
The Dolphins built an offense around Tua Tagovailoa that was focused on getting the ball out quickly. The move to Willis could require major transitions elsewhere.
It’s a new era in Miami Dolphins football and the task of keeping pace in the AFC East is tougher than ever before. In a division forever dominated by one of two teams, both the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills are now at the height of their respective powers simultaneously.
Jeff Hafley absolutely has the tools to turn the AFC East into a three-way arms race and even make the Dolphins the premier defense of the quartet.
Miami’s success will still depend on getting the quarterback position right, but if they find the right signal caller, they can quickly become one of the most complete teams in the AFC.
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