A long rumored Dolphins coaching staff hire is now happening as dominoes across the league fall into place
Jeff Hafley’s got his right-hand man on defense.
One of the biggest things about Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley‘s strategy as the coach is to find someone he trusts to install the defense during the offseason months. It seems as though he believes he’s found it.
The last major domino in Hafley’s initial coaching staff with the Dolphins appears to be settling into place. One of the assistant coaches who has followed Hafley everywhere for the last half of a decade will be following him once again in 2026 — Sean Duggan is set to be Miami’s new defensive coordinator.
Dolphins finalizing defensive coordinator hire with Packers assistant Sean Duggan
Sean Duggan will come to Miami through Green Bay, where he was a defensive assistant in 2024 and the team’s linebackers coach in 2025. Before that, he overlapped with Hafley at Boston College as his linebackers coach and, later, his co-defensive coordinator from 2020-2023. Duggan’s first exposure to Hafley came at Ohio State in 2019, where Hafley was the co-defensive coordinator and Duggan was serving as a graduate assistant.
The pair clearly have chemistry, and the time on task together between Ohio State, Boston College, and Green Bay seems to affirm what Hafley is looking for — someone he trusts to, in his absence during the offseason, speak the same language that he will to install the defense while Hafley oversees the entire team before assuming play-calling duties during the regular season.
This is an important note for the role that Duggan is set to fill. The defensive players will rely on Duggan more heavily in the offseason before Hafley takes on a large presence during game-planning and game days. Hafley has likened this in interviews since taking the Miami job to the kind of role he’s seen Matt LaFleur and Kyle Shanahan take on with their respective teams in Green Bay and San Francisco.
How did we get here?
The dominos started on Sunday with the news that the Las Vegas Raiders were set to finalize terms with Klint Kubiak as their next head coach after Super Bowl LX. Shortly thereafter, the news came out that the Arizona Cardinals, the last team with a head coach opening, were tabbing Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur as their next man in charge. Now former Dolphins coordinator Anthony Weaver was in consideration for the Cardinals job, as was former Falcons head coach Raheem Morris.
After the head coaching dominoes fell, Miami’s decision with Duggan was reported, as was the San Francisco 49ers’ decision to replace Robert Saleh with Morris. Weaver’s destination is now one that will need to be sorted out in the days ahead. Now that all 10 head coach openings have been finalized, staffs should continue to come together quickly. Miami is, in that sense, ahead of the game. Duggan is likely one of the final pieces to set into place.