New York Giants head coaching search: Jeff Hafley on Big Blue's short list?

The 2025 NFL season is almost over. For some, that is. For the New York Giants, it ended around Halloween.

And it’s gotten scarier every week since. The 2-13 Giants’ last win came three weeks before that. They are on a nine-game losing streak and are 0-5 under interim head coach Mike Kafka.

Kafka will get an interview for the long-term head coaching gig, but he’s not expected to be a serious candidate any longer.

One name that has been jetting up the charts on the NFL coaching carousel this fall has been Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, a 46-year-old New Jersey native with an impressive resume.

Hafley, who was born in Montvale and attended Pascack Hills High School, where he was a wide receiver, grew up a Giants fan. The Packers visited the Giants at MetLife Stadium earlier this season (a 27-20 Green Bay victory in Week 11).

“I have a lot of memories of Giants Stadium growing up as a kid. It will be a cool experience to coach there,” Hafley said before the Packers’ trip to MetLife.

Hafley attended Siena College in the New York Capital Region and earned a Master’s degree from SUNY Albany in 2003. The Giants held their training camp there from 1996 through 2010. He then coached defensive tackles at Albany from 2002-03 and served as defensive backs coach/recruiting coordinator from 2004-05.

He went on to coach the secondary at Rutgers in 2011.

Hafley also served as a defensive assistant at Pitt and Ohio State and was the head coach at Boston College from 2020-2023.

On the pro level, Hafley served as the defensive backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers (2016-18) and the secondary coach for the Cleveland Browns (2014-15), the assistant defensive backs coach (2012) and secondary/safeties coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2013).

Hafley has served as the Packers’ defensive coordinator since the start of the 2024 season.

Hafley will likely get an interview from the Giants, and they will take a long look at him. So will other teams, so they may have to act fast.

That has gotten them in trouble in the past. Their last four full-time head coach hires all had no prior experience as a head coach. The ‘hot coordinator’ is not always the best hire.

Hafley is a bit different. has head coaching experience, is familiar with the landscape, and appears to be a serious candidate league-wide.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Giants head coaching search: Jeff Hafley on Big Blue’s short list?

New York Giants head coaching search: Jeff Hafley on Big Blue’s short list?

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