Jeff Hafley<\/a> was hired just because he was with Sullivan on the Packers.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn fact, Aikman liked Hafley long before he was involved with the Dolphins\u2019 search.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur first production meeting with Jeff, I remember saying to our crew, \u2018This guy\u2019s going to be a head coach real soon.\u2019 And he already had been in college. I believe he checks all the boxes, I really do,\u201d Aikman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aikman was referring to a production meeting he had in 2024, which was almost certainly before the Packers\u2019 34-0 Monday night thrashing of the New Orleans Saints in Week 16.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sullivan might have been drawn to Hafley because of their connection to the Packers, but it\u2019s pretty clear Aikman was a fan long before that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aikman\u2019s High Praise For Hafley\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hall of Fame quarterback also compared Hafley to two of the NFL\u2019s best defensive coaches in his interview with Eisen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been coaches who, when I\u2019ve had production meetings with them, who I didn\u2019t know, and as soon as I meet them, I\u2019ve said, \u2018Wow, this guy\u2019s not going to be a coordinator long. He\u2019s going to be a head coach real soon!\u2019 ” Aikman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Mike Vrabel was that guy. I thought DeMeco Ryans was that guy. And I\u2019ll tell you, I felt that way about Jeff Hafley a year ago, back in \u201924, when we first did the Packers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Comparing Hafley to Ryans and Vrabel is high praise for obvious reasons. Vrabel is getting ready to coach the Super Bowl this weekend, and he\u2019s got a 68-48 regular season record, along with a 5-3 postseason record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ryans hasn\u2019t managed to get the Houston Texans to the Super Bowl, but he\u2019s 32-19 in three seasons \u2014 plus 3-3 in the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Houston has failed to get out of the divisional round, but the Dolphins have the league\u2019s longest playoff-win drought, so Hafley getting a 3-3 record in postseason games would be a huge improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to succeed as a defensive coach in today\u2019s NFL, but what\u2019s separated Vrabel and Ryans from their peers is hitting on the quarterback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drake Maye might win MVP in Year 2, and although C.J. Stroud\u2019s stock is down right now, he\u2019s still an above-average NFL starter with multiple playoff wins. Aikman mentioned this would be a challenge for Hafley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has the challenge of addressing the offensive side of the ball in an offense league,\u201d Aikman said. \u201cThose are the issues all defensive coaches have to concern themselves with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aikman didn\u2019t specifically mention the quarterback position, but it\u2019s not hard to read between the lines. Of course, the offensive coordinator is a part of that too, and ironically, Hafley hired Bobby Slowik for that job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Slowik, of course, was Ryans and Stroud\u2019s offensive coordinator for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see if Slowik and Hafley can re-create some of Houston\u2019s success. At the least, it\u2019s good to know one member of Miami\u2019s hiring committee didn\u2019t base their decision solely on Hafley\u2019s connection to Sullivan. <\/p>\n
More Miami Dolphins Coverage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Miami Dolphins began their search for a new general manager, a surprise name popped up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,216,251,2087,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-727645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-dolphins","12":"tag-miamidolphins","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116009828997409484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}