The Dolphins caught the wave early on one of the NFL’s fastest-spreading coaching trends this offseason

Hafley was ahead of the curve.

Kyle Crabbs — NFL National Writer

Feb 6, 2026 9:05 AM EST

Jeff Hafley‘s reported Miami Dolphins coaching staff has no shortage of interesting hires.

There are long in the tooth veterans like special teams coordinator Chris Tabor and wide receiver coach Tyke Tolbert. There’s a retread play caller in Bobby Slowik, who returns to the offensive coordinator role after two years of play calling duties in Houston. There are Packers transplants, such as defensive coordinator Sean Duggan and defensive backs coach Ryan Downard. And then there’s some reported hires from the college ranks, such as Al Washington from Notre Dame and Darius Eubanks from Georgia Tech.

It turns out those hires may be inspired, thanks to the hiring trend we’re seeing across the league.

Jeff Hafley’s Dolphins aren’t missing the boat on the latest NFL coaching trend

There are a slew of college coaches who are making the leap to the NFL right now. Jeff Hafley was obviously a high profile switch in his own right back in 2024 when he left his gig as the head coach at Boston College in favor of the defensive coordinator role in Green Bay. With his own hiring as an NFL head coach, he’s tabbed his own assistants from the college ranks — and now the rest of the league is following suit. In just this past week, as outlined by CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, we’ve seen Michigan’s defensive line coach head to Baltimore, Penn State’s wide receiver coach head to Green Bay, Miami’s running backs coach leave for Arizona, Georgia’s OLB coach leave for Pittsburgh, Texas Tech’s OLB coach leave for Pittsburgh, Indiana’s co-offensive coordinator leave for Tampa Bay, Vanderbilt’s nickel coach leave for Los Angeles (Chargers), USC’s defensive line coach head to Washignton, Michigan’s offensive line coach join New York (Giants), and more.

Miami’s hiring of Al Washington as the team’s linebackers coach raised eyebrows when it was first reported. But as it turns out, the whole league is getting in on college assistants during this hiring period. And no one knows better about the power of that transition than Hafley — who was the poster child of the NIL-driven switch several years ago.

Does this exodus say more about the state of affairs in college football or coaching staffs in the NFL? It’s probably a bit of both. But what was recently viewed as a quirky, off the wall hire by Hafley is suddenly seeming like a buzzy league-wide trend.