The mold of a Dolphins coach under Jeff Hafley has never been more obvious after Miami’s latest hire
The method to the madness is becoming obvious.
The Miami Dolphins‘ 2026 coaching staff roster is slowly but surely filling out.
The collection of coaches that Miami has pooled together offers a blend of overlap with new head coach Jeff Hafley — but it also offers another common thread that would seem to reinforce Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan’s vision for building a team. The latest hire, Notre Dame defensive assistant Al Washington, is expected to coach linebackers. With his reported addition, the mold for a “Hafley coach” has never been more obvious.
Dolphins add yet another tenured college coach to their ranks under Jeff Hafley
“A former Boston College player, Al Washington is set to join a Dolphins franchise now transitioning under new head coach Jeff Hafley — the former Boston College head coach — and Sean Duggan, a former Boston College player who was coached by Washington with the Eagles. Duggan is expected to have a top defensive assistant role in Hafley’s first-year Dolphins regime; Washington is expected to coach the Fins linebackers.”
— John Brice, Football Scoop
The hire is not just a reunion for Hafley with a familiar face from their time together at Ohio State in 2019. That season, Hafley was the Buckeyes’ co-defensive coordinator, while Washington served as the team’s linebackers coach.
There’s a common thread with Hafley and many of the hires on his staff that extends beyond notable experience of coaching college. These coaches are educators. They’re teachers. That’s what Hafley has preached with his desire for a team — to teach techniques and build the program via player development. What better way to achieve that with a “draft and develop” mindset other than to target coaches who are well exposed to connecting to, coaching, and teaching young players?
There’s no guarantee that this strategy will pay the dividends Miami is looking for. But there’s no question that there’s a common thread for coaches like Hafley himself, offensive line coach Zach Yenser (5 years of NFL experience & over a decade of college experience), Washington (a well-respected college coach with nearly two decades of experience in college), Jahmile Addae (more than a decade of college experience & two years of NFL experience), and the reported looming hire of Sean Duggan (nearly a decade of college experience & two years of NFL experience).
The hope is presumably that coaches who have educated and worked with young players in college can pool together to do the same with young players making the transition to the NFL. And with a handful of well-tenured coaches like special teams coordinator Chris Tabor and now quarterbacks coach Nathaniel Hackett, there’s at least a few coaches who will be on staff to offer significant league experience, to boot. The effort is logical in process. The result? Well, we’ll just need to wait and see.
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