Dolphins hire Hafley as next head coach
Mike Florio and Devin McCourty react to the Dolphins hiring Jeff Hafley as the team's next head coach, discussing the former defensive coordinator's fit in Miami.
Video Transcript
I fully anticipate Hafley's gonna do a great job.
Um, on the interview, and I fully anticipate him getting, getting one of these.
And I would be so happy for him because he deserves it.
I mean, he's a great friend, He's a great man, he's a great coach.
I'd hate to see him leave us, but at the same time, That's what this business is all about, and he's earned it.
He's earned those opportunities.
Jeff Hafley, what was your most recent experience in football?
I blew a 21-3 lead in the playoffs.
Hire this man!
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
There goes, there goes the PFT spot on the Jeff Hafley media tour to commemorate His arrival in Miami as the new head coach.
Look, this guy made... And I love it when we talk about people betting on themselves.
And we celebrate it when they bet on themselves, and they win.
When they lose, we're like, "Well, that's a shame."
I want my money.
Good job.
Good job.
My guts, your blood."
But he left Boston College, 'cause the whole NIL thing, to be a defensive coordinator.
Head coach at Boston College takes a step down at a level up.
And after a couple of years, boom, NFL head coach, next Dolphins coach.
That was one of the decisions that came down yesterday.
We talked earlier about whether the Dolphins should've pressed pause and Looked at Sean McDermott, now that he's available.
But they got their guy in Jeff Hafley.
He's got head coaching experience at the College level.
Third head coach since 2021.
They had Brian Flores, fired him early '22.
Mike McDaniel was coach for four seasons.
And now Jeff Hafley takes over, and we go... And this is what, This is what we see: the pendulum.
We go offensive.
Oh, that didn't work.
Let's go defensive.
We go... And I don't know anything about Hafley's style at this point.
But I have a feeling he's closer to Flores than McDaniel.
I mean, that was as far apart as you could get, but these teams swing.
We've got to do something different than what we just did.
Let's get the exact opposite of the guy we just had.
So, I have a feeling that when you ask Jeff Hafley a question, Jeff Hafley a question, it's not gonna take him 15 minutes to answer it like Mike McDaniel, who I love, and I am just having fun when I say that...
But it is true.
When we would interview Mike McDaniel, I knew we only had to have three questions ready for 20 minutes.
If that many.
A- and Jeff Hafley is a...
I, I definitely would put him closer to Flo.
And I've never played for him, but he coached DBs at Rutgers back in 2011.
My second year in the NFL.
But he's a Jersey guy, grew up probably 20 minutes from where I grew up in New York.
Right on...
I was right on the border.
And I think what he was able to do in Green Bay, I think what you just said.
To leave somewhere you get to call the shots... And I remember talking to him, and he was like, "The problem is," you..." He was like, "I was like a CEO.
I was a general manager more than anything.
Boston College, and I kind of...
I want to coach ball.
I want to be in there talking to the players and executing a game plan.
Plan to go win a football game, more than, "How do I keep this guy happy?"
bring in next year's guy?"
Like, that's not what he signed up for.
So, I just think about when he got to Green Bay, and the ability to have all Looks, the X's and O's part of how he was drawing up defenses.
I think that's what caught everybody's attention last year.
They would be in these crazy third-down looks, disguising, jumping in all these looks as a defense, and I think now he's shown that, "Hey," I can do that part of it," and I'm sure in these interviews, He showed that he can lead men.
And I think it's an exciting time down in Miami, because I agree 100% with you.
You're in Miami.
You're in the area that, along with Las Vegas, it's one of the hardest places to get a Group of guys locked in and focused.
The NFL is all based on, "How do I Replace older guys with younger talent that is cheaper to win football games?
The problem is, when you're in Miami and you're doing that, Younger guys have a very hard time focusing on just football in Miami.
So, Brian Flores comes in there, and it's this kind of straightforward.
Hard approach, where, "I'm gonna whip this team into shape."
They have two seasons, but it's too hard for a lot of people.
It's too hard for players.
I'm sure other people around the organization didn't like his approach.
And McDaniel was...
He was a breath of fresh air.
He was upbeat.
He was... Everything was positivity.
It was, "Hey, let's be happy."
Let's go win," and that's what they did.
They went out there, And they won regular season games, tore through for a whole lot of yards.
And then that quickly turned around.
Now I think Hafley's somewhere in between.
Flo and Mike McDaniel.
I would say more towards the Flo side.
Of it.
And now you're hoping this works.
I think he's a heck of a football coach.
I actually think he's going to have success.
Down in Miami.
Now, the hard thing, he's gonna battle Buffalo and New England in that division.
But the key to me in all these hires is: Do these guys get enough time to actually instill and turn an organization around?
Lead it the way they want?
The first year or two years, Whether you have success or not, you're trying to figure out what you need.
Than anything.
But sometimes, after that second year, That third year is make or break, about halfway through the season, if you're gonna be.
There or not.
Well, this gets back to Aaron Rodgers.
Said after the playoff loss to the Texans last Monday night about this idea that Mike Tomlin and Matt LaFleur are on the hot seat.
And he blamed the media for it.
The reality is, It's the owners.
The owners feel they have to do something.
The owners aren't willing to just hold on and keep it going.
They feel compelled to, to... You know, because they can't fire themselves.
So, they've got to fire somebody.
"I've got to do something to get these renew their season tickets or pay for the PSLs," the phony.
Fictitious check that you write so you can buy the right to buy season tickets.
I mean, they have to do something, so they're going to give up quickly.
And I think you becomeand there's an irony to it, Devin.
Because coaches become desensitized to the fact that you have to cut players.
They cut players all the time.
It's just, That's the way the gig is.
Yep.
We got 90 guys, We're going to cut it down to 53.
As we go through the season.
There's going to be a churn at the bottom of the roster.
Hey, sorry, that's the job.
That's what we've got to do.
Come in, hey, bring your playbook.
Good luck to you.
Maybe we'll cross paths again.
See you later, I've got other work.
The owners will do that to the coaches, too.
I remember when they did All or Nothing.
It was on Amazon.
It was kind of an in-season Hard Knocks.
They called it "All or Nothing."
It was with the Rams.
Mm-hmm.
And it was the year Jeff Fisher got fired, And there was... Like, he's just there, and he's gone.
Why don't we get to see the meeting where the owner fires Jeff Fisher?
We always see the meeting where the coach fires the players.
Why don't we get to see the meeting where Stan Kroenke explains to Jeff Fisher going to be there anymore?
But the owners aren't.
Uh, bashful about doing it.
Stephen Ross isn't bashful.
Darren Waller was telling the story last week, I think.
To Johnny Manziel.
How, yeah, he's in with Mike McDaniel.
Having the end-of-season meeting, and Ross shows up.
And he's just kind of standing there.
And Waller's thinking, I guess that means I should leave.
And then five minutes later, On his phone, Mike McDaniel's fired.
But that's what the owners feel compelled to do.
But look at what the Steelers have done.
You know, you stick with a coach... And I know that's not good for my business.
Cause I thrive on turmoil and chaos, but if you want to be a functional organization, You've got to work through the rough spots, unless it's just a complete, total failure.
I mean, the Patriots knew it was a complete and total failure with Jerod Mayo.
For whatever reason, it wasn't going to work.
Mike Vrabel's out there.
Let's go.
But if you've got a guy that's done some good things, but he hasn't won enough.
Sometimes you wanna... You want to be smart about it and give him more of a chance.
I don't know that it would've mattered with Mike McDaniel.
But too many of these teams are too quick to get rid of one guy and try another.
And then the new guy comes in, and they're going to be too quick to get rid of him.
Yeah, I mean, you just keep getting the next hotshot coordinator that does a good job.
And that's the hard thing.
And now for Hafley, The goal will be: Who does he bring in as the offensive coordinator?
How does he get that going, the quarterback situation?
Like, That's gonna be the key because now, in today's climate in the NFL, If you're a defensive coach or you're a special teams coach, It's all about: How do you get the offensive side?
Who's your quarterback?
Who's your coordinator?
And then if they have success, everybody's going to say, How do you now find your next coordinator?
Because that guy who had success, He's leaving to be the next head coach somewhere else."
So that's the journey battle ahead for Hafley, and I'm sure in these meetings, he already has a guy that he's going to bring with him to go be that coordinator.
And I think the unique thing now is, until these head coaching jobs get filled, A lot of these former coordinators or current coordinators, Whatever you want to call them, I don't know how many are rushing to be coordinator.
Jobs when there are still so many head coaching vacancies out there.
So, I do wonder how that impacts some of these guys who have jobs.
Whether it's offensive or defensive coordinators.
How soon do they get Um, because of all the openings?
And then you've got to wait for the teams that are still playing.
There are four teams left, and you've got coaching candidates there that are thinking, Maybe it's a good thing if we lose this week.
Yep.
And it creates a warped sense of what you're truly wanting and what you're rooting for.
And you've got distractions that come from the interviews.
Mm-hmm.
... And we've seen so many different names get brought into the process this year.
Consider this fact Gary pointed out: Eight Coaches were hired in the 2024 cycle just two years ago.
Half of them are already gone, and the first one to go was Jerod Mayo.
Wow!
Actually... Yeah, it was Mayo and then Antonio Pierce.
Pierce made itAntonio, Yeah.
Pierce was the interim coach in '23, and then got the job in '24.
But the end result is, Mike Vrabel, who replaced Jerod Mayo on January 12 of last year, is now the elder statesman.
He's the dean, he's the... Longest-tenured AFC East coach because Aaron Glenn arrived 10 days later.
So the two guys hired in '25 are old.
Men in town.
Now you're gonna have Jeff Hafley, plus whoever the Bills hire.
It really is crazy, and I think the only division that hasn't been affected by a coaching change this year is the NFC North.
Oh, that, yeah, that makes sense.
And it's amazing because some of these Teams have had success; some have lost for a long time.
But it's so emotional, I think, these decisions.
It's... And I get it, because in the media, That's who writes the stories.
That's who, "Hey, There's a rumor here," or, "Hey, we gotta wait to see if they decide to move on."
But Only happens because they hear rumblings.
They know that it's going to happen.
And now, like, it... You can't not report on it.
You have to talk about these things.
It's amazing to look at the AFC East.
And, say, Buffalo, until this year, I think it was four or five times.
They had won the AFC East, and like, they just fired their head coach.
They get...
It just, it sounds crazy.
And you look at the Raiders.
Yes, it worked out for New England.
But you look at the Raiders, they move on from Antonio Pierce after one year coach, and they're doing the same thing.
Like, the, It's the same exact thing.
They're trying to finalize a deal to bring the next head coach in there.
As time continues to go on, It starts...
I truly believe these teams start to hire a guy.
That they didn't necessarily want.
Last year, The Raiders wanted Ben Johnson.
They didn't get Ben Johnson.
So you get Pete Carroll.
As time continues to go, It's like, okay, if you don't get somebody that's still playing, You don't get a Kubiak, maybe a Thomas Brown on the Patriots.
Like, I don't... Like, if you don't get one of those guys, Then we've got to start to believe, hey, you settled for somebody because Passed, you didn't get the guy you actually wanted.
Yeah, and the pressure is on the Raiders to finally turn it around.
Especially now that the spotlight is on Tom Brady, and his name is right there with John Spytek as the guys running the football operation.
That's one of the jobs that still needs to be filled.
