MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jeff Hafley wants to see the mistakes.<\/p>\n
Of course the Miami Dolphins first-year head coach does not want his players missing assignments, lining up offsides or running the wrong routes on game days. But he has stressed to his young team the importance of pushing beyond their comfort zones during training camp, even if that means getting things wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome guys get so comfortable, right?\u201d Hafley said Monday. \u201cAnd they\u2019re so scared to make a mistake that they play things safe. How do you grow if you\u2019re going to play things safe? That doesn\u2019t make any sense to me because you\u2019re comfortable or you don\u2019t want to look bad? It\u2019s not about looking bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hafley has taken that approach himself, testing out different snap counts for quarterbacks and living with pre-snap penalties if they come early on. Similarly, the former defensive coordinator wants players to test different techniques and learn what works for them. During a recent practice, that meant encouraging a cornerback to use his hands and length more during team drills.<\/p>\n
“Like step out of your comfort zone. Don\u2019t worry about the results,” Hafley said. “That\u2019s what practice is for. That\u2019s why I get mad in practice. I think bad coaching is when a guy gets beat and you just go up and you yell at him. No, ask him, \u2018What did you do? What did you see? What did you try? Did it work? Let\u2019s go back and watch it on film.\u2019 If a guy\u2019s not running to the ball or he\u2019s (showing) lack of effort or physicality then yeah, yell at him. But this is where these guys get paralyzed in their minds, and I just don\u2019t want that to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when I see a long corner and I get a flashback, \u2018You\u2019re not using your length. Step and punch and try something different.\u2019 I think that\u2019s huge for everybody on our team, and it\u2019s just how we need to coach these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
That approach will be tested this week as the Dolphins prepare for Wednesday’s joint practice against Washington ahead of Friday’s preseason opener.<\/p>\n
Hafley hasn’t said whether starters like quarterback Malik Willis or running back De’Von Achane will suit up, but the coach said Monday everyone on the team \u201cneeds to be ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never know what to expect, but you kind of just go out there, and it\u2019s like a regular practice. You just start,\u201d said tackle Patrick Paul, whose brother, Chris, is an offensive lineman for the Commanders. \u201cThere\u2019s no like pre-anything. It\u2019s just from the jump you\u2019re going. It\u2019s going to bring the best out of a lot of people because you\u2019re going against new competition. These aren\u2019t your teammates. These are people you\u2019re about to play, so you need to go out there and compete.”<\/p>\n
The Dolphins agreed to acquire offensive tackle Caedan Wallace and a 2029 seventh-round pick from the New England Patriots on Monday in exchange for a 2028 sixth-rounder. That deal is pending a physical.<\/p>\n
Wallace, a third-round pick out of Penn State by the Patriots in 2024, has played in 10 games with two starts over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
Also Monday, the Dolphins placed kicker Zane Gonzalez on injured reserve and signed cornerback Nick McCloud as they deal with injuries in their secondary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jeff Hafley wants to see the mistakes. Of course the Miami Dolphins first-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":969999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[7890,17047,4935,217,127476,7,8628,4097,216,251,2087,6,29348,83966,27878,7564,27876,115635,93579,83965,6433],"class_list":["post-969998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-caedan-wallace","tag-devon-achane","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-dolphins","tag-dolphins-training-camp-hafley","tag-football","tag-jeff-hafley","tag-malik-willis","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-nfl","tag-nick-mccloud","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-patrick-paul","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32000-ap-online-football-news","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-zane-gonzalez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969998","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=969998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}