MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins hired Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley as their next head coach, it was announced on Monday night.
“I believe great things are ahead for the Miami Dolphins with Jeff Hafley leading the way,” Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross said in a statement released by the team. “Jeff is an accomplished coach with a proven track record as a leader and motivator. He has tenacity and grit, while at the same time establishing trust with his players in order to get the most out of them.”
The Dolphins signed Hafley to a five-year contract, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Hafley, 46, interviewed with the Dolphins for a second time Monday.
He joins new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, whom the Dolphins hired to replace longtime GM Chris Grier this month. Sullivan and Hafley overlapped for the past two seasons together in Green Bay.
Hafley spent two seasons as the Packers’ defensive coordinator, during which Green Bay ranked ninth in yards allowed per game, sixth in yards per play and eighth in points allowed per game.
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Micah Parsons, the Packers’ star pass rusher, congratulated Hafley in a post to X, writing: “Genuinely happy for haf! Great guy great person! Gonna miss his energy!”
The Dolphins have not won a playoff game in 25 seasons, the longest such drought in the NFL, per ESPN Research. Miami last won a playoff game on Dec. 30, 2000, against the Indianapolis Colts, when Hafley was a senior at Siena.
Before his time in Green Bay, Hafley was the head coach at Boston College, where he went 22-26 in four seasons.
Hafley is the eighth straight head coach hired by the Dolphins who had no previous NFL head coaching experience, according to ESPN Research. The last Dolphins head coach with previous NFL experience was Dave Wannstedt (2000).
Hafley’s only other NFL coaching experience before his time with the Packers was as a defensive backs coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers from 2012 to 2018. His coaching career began in 2001 as Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s running backs coach, morphing into stops at Albany, Pittsburgh, Rutgers and Ohio State, where he was the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator in 2019.
Miami is headed toward a reset after firing Grier during the season and head coach Mike McDaniel days after the final game. In an interview with the team’s in-house media, Sullivan mentioned multiple players as building blocks moving forward, including Jaylen Waddle, Patrick Paul, Aaron Brewer and De’Von Achane.
The GM did not mention quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who was benched late this season and whose future with the team is unclear.
