Former player says the quiet part out loud about why Jeff Hafley’s approach is vital to defining his tenure with the Dolphins

Miami is a unique place to coach for better or for worse.

Kyle Crabbs — NFL National Writer

Jan 20, 2026 12:27 PM EST

The Miami Dolphins‘ new era is upon us. It will take months before we get our first sniff of just how good the Jon-Eric Sullivan/Jeff Hafley led Dolphins can be. But in the meantime, there’s hope to be found in something different. The Dolphins, per the statements of both owner Stephen Ross and Sullivan, indicated that Miami cared about a leader and culture-setter at the position first and foremost.

We can only hope they’ve chose wisely. But a focus on this is probably long overdue, as former NFL player Devin McCourty dove into on Tuesday morning while on his weekly appearance on Pro Football Talk with Mike Florio. Winning anywhere in the NFL is hard. Winning with a young group in South Florida can be exceptionally tough. There’s plenty of distractions to go around.

Devin McCourty says the quiet part out loud about the challenge Jeff Hafley faces in building up the Dolphins

“I think it’s an exciting time down in Miami because. . . 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 go 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,” explained McCourty.

“So Brian Flores comes in there and it’s this straight-forward, hard approach where ‘I’m going to whip this team into shape’, they have two winning football seasons, but it’s too hard to a lot of people. It’s too hard to a lot of players. . . and (Mike) McDaniel was a breath of fresh air. He was upbeat, everything was positivity. . . I think Hafley’s somewhere in between Flores and Mike McDaniel, I would say more towards the Flores side of it. And now you’re hoping this works. I actually think he’s a heck of a football coach, I actually think he’s going to have some success down in Miami.”

There’s no shortage of distractions if you look hard enough in any city. They aren’t hard to find in Miami. And that’s what makes the focus on what kinds of football character that Sullivan and Hafley pursue to add onto their roster so vital to the puzzle that awaits this build of the Miami Dolphins.

The guys can’t just be talented. They’ve got to be wired the right way. But they need talent and not just effort — it is a delicate tightrope to walk to find the proper balance. None of the recent coaches to pass through South Florida has been able to figure it out. Hafley and Sullivan will get the next crack to figure it out. But it is a very real challenge to consider in how this group goes about to try to build a championship team.