MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins are hiring Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to become their next head coach, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
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 9th in yards allowed per game, 6th in yards per play and 8th in points allowed per game.
Before his time in Green Bay, Hafley was the head coach at Boston College, where he went 22-26 in four seasons.
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.