The Miami Dolphins continued to bring Green Bay to the Southeast with the hiring of former Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
It’s gotten a little easier for the Miami Dolphins to be cheesier.
The Dolphins announced Monday that former Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley would be installed as head coach, succeeding the fired Mike McDaniel. Hafley is the latest yield of a de facto Packers purge, as the Dolphins previously hired their vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan to take over as general manager.
“Jeff is a man of integrity, intellect and great passion who players will buy into and play for,” Sullivan said in a team statement. “He has a vision for the kind of team we will be and the ability to motivate them to move in one direction on the path towards that goal. I’m thrilled to go on this journey with him and together we will build a winner that this organization deserves.”
Hafley, 46, spent the last two seasons as Green Bay’s defensive overseer, which followed a four-year tenure at the helm of Boston College. He amassed a 22-26 record in that span, closing things out with a 7-6 tour that ended with a win in the 2023 Fenway Bowl.
We have agreed to terms with Jeff Hafley to become our head coach. pic.twitter.com/boqhQH9jxK
— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) January 20, 2026
He resigned from BC to take the Green Bay job and placed the Packers fifth in defense during the 2024 season, producing their second top-five ranking since 2017. Production somewhat dropped this time around after star pass rusher Micah Parsons missed the final month of the season due to an injury, but his extensive experience likely stood out among the current candidates.
Hafley’s Path To Miami
Hafley has been a sideline staple in major football affairs over the last two decades, repping Pittsburgh, Rutgers, and Ohio State at the collegiate level, as well as Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and San Francisco in the pros.
“There’s a lot of coaches that understand Xs and Os, but it’s not what you know on a chalkboard,” former Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt, who worked with Hafley at the University of Pittsburgh, said in a November interview with Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. “It’s about what your players know — can they execute? Jeff was an innovator coming up with new ideas to make our defensive guys better.”
Hafley now takes his talents to South Beach, which has been bereft of professional gridiron success in the new century. The Dolphins have not won a playoff game since the opening round of the 2000-01 playoffs, the longest active drought on the current NFL ledgers.
Hafley becomes the 10th man to assume head coaching duties in that span, joining a list that also features McDaniel, Wannstedt, Nick Saban, Adam Gase, and Brian Flores. Miami went 7-10 in McDaniel’s final tour, one that ended with franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on the bench in favor of seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers. The Dolphins won five of their final eight games after firing Sullivan’s predecessor Chris Grier and hold the 11th pick in the upcoming NFL draft.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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