The Miami Dolphins are not done adding candidates to their coaching search, as an eighth and ninth name emerged Tuesday.
The Dolphins have requested to interview Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, according to a league source.
Minter is a hot name this coach hiring cycle, requested for an interview by all eight teams with an opening before the Pittsburgh Steelers and coach Mike Tomlin parted ways Tuesday afternoon. His Chargers, where he leads the team’s defense under coach Jim Harbaugh, just had their season end Sunday night in a wild-card round playoff loss against the New England Patriots.
Minter, 42, has held his role as defensive coordinator in Los Angeles for two seasons. He had his unit finish in the top 10 in both total defense (fifth) and scoring defense (ninth) in the 2025 season. The previous year, the Chargers had the top scoring defense and 11th total defense.
As the Dolphins have close ties to the Harbaughs, with Jim’s brother, John Harbaugh, also a candidate, Minter followed Jim Harbaugh to the Chargers after being his defensive coordinator at Michigan in 2022 and 2023, which included the Wolverines’ national championship-winning team.
He was also defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt in 2021, was Baltimore Ravens defensive backs coach in 2020 and a defensive assistant the three seasons prior to that under John Harbaugh.
Graham has previously been with the Dolphins, as defensive coordinator under former coach Brian Flores in 2019.
He also has previous ties to new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, as Graham came to Miami that season from Green Bay, where Sullivan was vice president of player personnel. Graham was linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Packers in 2018.
After his lone season with the Dolphins, the next year Graham was defensive coordinator and assistant head coach of the New York Giants in 2020 and 2021 before landing with the Raiders in 2022, where he held that role under three different head coaches in Josh McDaniels, Antonio Pierce and Pete Carroll.
Graham has Patriots roots, in the organization in different defensive assistant roles from 2009 through 2015 before having two seasons in his first stint with the Giants as defensive line coach in 2016 and 2017.
As the new names surfaced, the Dolphins also conducted an interview Tuesday with one of the first five candidates to be revealed Saturday in former Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, according to NFL Network.
The search and interview process for Miami is being led by Sullivan, and the same group of six who settled on him for the GM job: Steve Ross, Daniel Silman, Tom Garfinkel, Brandon Shore, Dan Marino and Troy Aikman.
Minter, Graham, Harbaugh, Stefanski, San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, who played two seasons with the Dolphins, are the known candidates for the job.
Miami has a head coaching vacancy after firing former coach Mike McDaniel last week following his four seasons at the helm.
This story will be updated.