The Miami Dolphins‘ head coaching search is surging towards a finish in the coming days. Miami is reportedly in the process of finalizing scheduling for second interviews and in-person connections with prospective coaches — and the reporting on Saturday has indicated that there may be a potential front-runner separating from the pack in South Florida.

Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has been tabbed as a candidate leading the pack by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero as the in-person interviews open on Monday, making it worth putting his resume under further inspection. Who is Jeff Hafley? What about his resume has the Dolphins (and many other teams seeking a new head coach) so interested? What kind of league connections does he have? Here some some things to know about potential Miami Dolphins head coach candidate Jeff Hafley.

Three things to know about rumored leader for Miami Dolphins head coach, Jeff Hafley

Extensive league-wide connections and outlook for an assistant staff

Hafley is currently being described by two roles: the current role he holds as the Packers’ defensive coordinator or his prior post as the head coach at Boston College from 2020 to 2023. But his roots run much deeper, even in the NFL. Beyond the two years as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator, Hafley was an assistant defensive backs coach in Tampa Bay in 2012 before getting a promotion with the Bucs to serve as their defensive backs coach in 2013. He then coached defensive backs in Cleveland from 2014-2015 before transitioning to San Francisco — he was the defensive backs coach with the 49ers from 2016-2018 before leaving to co-coordinate the Ohio State Buckeyes defense.

What kind of connections could that bring? Well, he’s worked for or with eight current for former NFL head coaches, not including his first head coach Greg Schiano. That many staff connections can create plenty of avenues to pursue assistants. For example, Rob Chudzinski once had an intern named Aubrey Pleasant on his staff — he’s currently the defensive backs and pass game coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. Mike LaFleur is the offensive coordinator in Los Angeles — but he doesn’t actually call the plays. Could he be receptive to a new opportunity as a play caller and reunite with Hafley in Miami after they shared a staff in San Francisco together?

Steve Shimko is the quarterbacks coach in Dallas; Dak Prescott was sensational this season. Is he in line for a bump to offensive coordinator? Could a connection to Anthony Weaver pave the way for a potential return there if Weaver doesn’t get a call elsewhere? The same roadblock Mike LaFleur deals with in Los Angeles applies to Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich in Green Bay. Would he want a “parallel” move that actually offers more responsibility?

Hafley will have plenty of options and ample connections. I can’t guarantee a staff he assembles will be successful. But it wouldn’t be for a lack of options.

Not a Micah Parsons merchant!

You’ve probably heard that the Packers defense struggled down the stretch and was a contributing factor in the late-season collapse that marred the end of the Packers’ season. Yes, that’s true! But let’s get real. Green Bay’s defense lost both Parsons and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt after Thanksgiving for the rest of the season — a pretty catastrophic pair of losses to a team’s defensive front.

It’d be like, say, oh…I dunno…like if you lost a pair of pass rushers in Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb in the back half of a season and then the defense gives up 56 points to the Ravens while playing for the No. 1 seed, collapses to give up a 3-game lead in the AFC East over the final 5 weeks of the regular season and gave up more than 400 yards of offense in each of the team’s final three games of the season (plus a combined 103 points in those three games). Oh, right. All that happened and it happened to Vic Fangio, who left the Dolphins after that ugly 2023 finish, landed in Philadelphia and promptly helped coach the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory last year. That’s right. I knew that sounded familiar!

I’m not going to lie to you and say that Hafley is on Fangio’s level, either. But context matters. Here’s the other thing about the Hafley defense. It was sensational in 2024 without Parsons on the roster. Hafley arrived in Green Bay in 2024 and the Packers finished the 2024 season ranked:

• 4th in defensive EPA/game
• 3rd in yards per rush allowed
• 5th in yards per game allowed
• 10th in sacks per opponent dropback
• 4th in takeaways

Hafley’s success in Green Bay isn’t tethered exclusively to Micah Parsons. But the performance of his defense down the stretch is an inevitability when a unit loses the two engines of their front — that’s exactly what Parsons and Wyatt were for how the Packers were assembled in 2025. You can try your best to coach around it. Hafley and the Packers did their best but it wasn’t good enough. It doesn’t excuse the performance down the stretch — but that performance down the stretch can’t define a coach. Just ask Fangio.

Philosophical alignment likely helping his argument for the job

New Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan didn’t just work with Jeff Hafley for the last two years. It helps build the trust that any executive wants in the face of building a team from scratch. Make no mistake about it — that’s what lies ahead for the Miami Dolphins. Trust will be big. Working together and knowing more about how the other person thinks inevitably does garner more trust. But Sullivan has spoken at length in the past — and, apparently, in the future — about the need to draft and develop talent, steadily develop a team culture from within, and create buy-in from players from within the franchise.

Culture is everything.

Exclusive sit down interview with GM Jon-Eric Sullivan dropping tomorrow ? pic.twitter.com/jslPORrhHZ

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) January 17, 2026

Contrast that to this quote from Hafley during a sit-down interview with Adam Breneman ahead of his leap from Boston College to the NFL:

“When I got here, my vision when I took this job before the (transfer) portal and NIL hit was: I wanted to bring in guys and develop them, and hopefully keep them (at Boston College) for the fifth-year. So by the time my guys are the fifth-year, those fifth-year guys are developed, they know the scheme, there’s culture. I believe in the power of the team,” said Hafley.

Does that not sound like it falls right in line with Sullivan? If that’s the case, it isn’t hard to see why there’s momentum for Hafley. COVID, the transfer portal, and NIL all did happen however; Hafley’s plans changed. He jumped back to the NFL for the authentic coaching experience. His own vision of his optimized team never had a chance to come to life.

The final word

Jeff Hafley isn’t my favorite candidate to fill Miami’s head coaching vacancy. But there should be no debate on whether or not he has his merits for the position. A Packers executive coming to town and hiring a Packers assistant as a head coach in the face of a massive rebuild should not be considered a demerit for this build, which is less than two weeks old.

He can clearly coach. He’s clearly connected. He is, in fact, not a Micah Parsons merchant. And he appears to be aligned in the right way to assemble and develop a roster. If he’s the choice, so be it. Great. His successes and failures will be determined by the same things that determine every regime’s fate: their ability to consistently stay connected on what players internally and externally to commit to as a means of bringing a winning image of football to life, their ability to properly manage their assets and the game itself, and, of course, finding the right quarterback to tie yourself to.

That’s all open ended. The next step starts with a head coach hire. Hafley or otherwise, expect Miami to be thorough in bringing this search to an end soon. There’s plenty of work to be done.