Jan. 16, 2026, 7:45 a.m. ET

The Miami Dolphins are casting a wide net in their hunt for a new head coach. While the dwindled eight general manager candidates down to one in just a few days, their list of interviewees for a new head coach has already reached double-digits.

John Harbaugh was reportedly among the coaches who received interest from the Dolphins, but an interview never happened between the two sides. Now Harbaugh is set to take over with the New York Giants.

Still, there’s a list of 10 coaches who have already interviewed with the Dolphins or are expected to interview with the team soon. Here are those candidates, ranked from best to worst:

Jesse Minter (Chargers defensive coordinator)

There’s a reason all nine teams with coaching vacancies this offseason had Minter on their interview requests list. It’s also why the Dolphins probably don’t have a great shot at landing the 42-year-old coach, even if he ends up being the one they covet most.

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Minter has been in the collegiate and pro coaching ranks for two decades, but rose to national prominence in just the last few years. During his two-year stint as the Michigan Wolverines’ defensive coordinator, Minter’s unit led the way for the eventual national champs, allowing only 10.4 points per game in 2023.

He followed Jim Harbaugh to the NFL and spent the last two years coaching a Chargers defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL in 2024 and fifth fewest yards in 2025.

It’d be a shock if Minter didn’t get a head coaching job this cycle and it’d be a home run for the Dolphins if they were the ones to land the coach.

Anthony Campanile (Jaguars defensive coordinator)

Dolphins fans who watched Hard Knocks in 2023 are already familiar with Campanile. He spent four years as a linebackers coach before leaving to join the Packers’ staff in 2024. His last stop was with the Jaguars in 2025 where he had his first defensive coordinator job.

While that means he comes without much experience, Campanile showed his worth when he took a Jacksonville defense with a mostly similar lineup from No. 27 in points allowed in 2024 to No. 8 a year later. Just as important, the Jaguars forced 31 turnovers, second most in the NFL.

Jeff Hafley (Packers defensive coordinator)

The drastic downturn for the Packers defense at the tail-end of the 2025 season takes a bit of the shine off his résumé, but Hafley makes a lot of sense for Miami.

Unlike the rest of the top four here, Hafley has head coaching experience and did pretty well with it at Boston College. Then he took over the Green Bay defense and it finished fifth in the NFL last year. That was before it added Micah Parsons and started really wreaking havoc in 2025 before injuries stacked up and the wheels fell off.

Klint Kubiak (Seahawks offensive coordinator)

With Sam Darnold at quarterback, Kubiak has done some pretty incredible work, leaning into a run-heavy approach and explosive plays on the way to the third most points in the regular season.

The Seahawks had an NFL-leading 12 passes that picked up at least 40 yards. Even when Kubiak was coaching a Saints offense without much at the quarterback position in 2024, it managed eight 40-plus pass plays.

Miami has overwhelmingly looked at defensive-minded coaches, but Kubiak’s earned a close look.

Robert Saleh (49ers defensive coordinator)

The first head coaching tenure of Saleh’s career didn’t go so well, but can you blame him? For the better part of his first three years with the Jets, his starting quarterback was Zach Wilson, who threw 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions with the team. New York tried to correct that issue in year three by adding Aaron Rodgers, but he tore his Achilles in his Jets debut and wasn’t the same player upon his return in 2023.

Meanwhile, New York’s defense finished top four in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons.

A retread with a 20-36 record as a head coach won’t have many fans doing backflips, but the Dolphins could do a lot worse than Saleh.

Chris Shula (Rams defensive coordinator)

The last name makes a job in Miami feel like kismet, but Shula isn’t just riding on his grandfather’s name. His work with the Rams has more teams than just the Dolphins interested in his services.

After working through the defensive ranks in LA, Shula took over as defensive coordinator in 2024 and has led a disruptive group. The Rams’ 26 takeaways ranked fifth in the NFL and only six teams had more sacks.

Ultimately, though, it may be a little early for a coach who has spent almost his entire career in one organization and led a good, but not great defense in the last two years.

Joe Brady (Bills offensive coordinator)

The question with any coach is how much credit they deserve for a team’s success and how much should be shouldered by the players on the field.

Brady’s a tough one to evaluate. At age 30, he earned the Broyles Award recognizing college football’s top assistant for his work as offensive coordinator for an LSU offense that had Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson, and Ja’Marr Chase. He then spent two years as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator, leading a severely talent deficient unit to No. 24 and No. 29 finishes in points scored before he was fired.

Now he’s leading a Bills offense that is putting up big points with Josh Allen at the helm. But Buffalo has finished six straight seasons top six in points scored, including the two years before Brady arrived.

Bills players love Brady’s “everybody eats” philosophy, but would it be a rerun of his Panthers days if he coached a team like the Dolphins that needs a lot of work?

Patrick Graham (Raiders defensive coordinator)

Graham has the respect of players and there’s something to be said about a defensive coordinator who manages to stick in a spot despite head coaching changes. He was hired in Las Vegas by Josh McDaniels, retained by Antonio Pierce when McDaniels was fired, and then retained by Pete Carroll when Pierce was fired. There’s a reason the Raiders don’t want to lose Graham.

But it’d be hard for the Dolphins to be that fired up about a defensive-minded coach who led Raiders defenses that finished No. 25 in points allowed in the last two years.

Kelvin Sheppard (Lions defensive coordinator)

There are a few inexperienced coaches on this list, but none are more green than Sheppard. The former Dolphins linebacker began his coaching career just five years ago as an outside linebackers coach with the Detroit Lions. While he made an impressive, quick rise to defensive coordinator, expecting him to be ready to manage a 53-man roster would be awfully risky.

There’s a reason he’s already generating head coaching interest. But the Lions’ late 2025 crumble on defense and that unit’s No. 22 finish leave some questions that more time in that job will help answer.

Kevin Stefanski (Browns head coach)

It feels wrong to put a two-time NFL Coach of the Year at the bottom of this list, but it’s a bit hard to see how Miami would yield a different result for Stefanski than his six years in Cleveland.

With the Browns, he had an elite defensive unit led by Jim Schwartz. But Stefanski, a coach with a lengthy history of working with quarterbacks, could never get that position right and cycled through 13 different starters. Even in Cleveland’s two trips to the playoffs during Stefanski’s tenure, the offense was No. 16 in the NFL.

Are the Dolphins, a team with a mess at quarterback and not many resources to fix that, going to be a better situation? And unlike Cleveland, the Dolphins don’t have a Myles Garrett leading the way for a top five defense.