{"id":122257,"date":"2026-01-17T20:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/122257\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T20:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T20:47:26","slug":"miami-dolphins-head-coach-search-frontrunner-emerges-as-jeff-hafley-scheduled-for-in-person-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/122257\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Dolphins head coach search: Frontrunner emerges as Jeff Hafley scheduled for in-person interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Miami Dolphins may have an early favorite to fill their vacant head coaching position. While the team is still scheduling virtual and in-person interviews for this weekend and into next week, it is beginning to sound like Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has an early lead in landing the job.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">According to NFL Network\u2019s Tom Pelissero, the first round of virtual interviews appears to have pushed Hafley into the favored position. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapSheet\/status\/2012595152997454300\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sources say Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has emerged as a frontrunner for the Dolphins head coaching job<\/a>,\u201d Pelissero said on an appearance on NFL GameDay Morning on Sunday. \u201cNo final decisions have yet been made, they have an interview scheduled on Sunday with Bills [offensive coordinator] Joe Brady, [and] multiple in-person interviews scheduled as well this coming week. But I\u2019m told Hafley blew everyone away in his initial, vitrual interview with the Dolphins. He worked with their new [general manager] Jon-Eric Sullivan in Green Bay, has head coaching experience at Boston College. At this point, Hafley appears to be the leading candidate in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Hafley has been the defensive coordinator for the Packers the last two seasons, following a four-year stint as the head coach at Boston College. He has also worked for the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a coaching career that also includes 12 years as an assistant coach at the college level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pelissero added, \u201cThe Dolphins are not alone here. The Titans, Falcons, Raiders, and Cardinals have also asked Hafley to come in for a second interview. He is also interviewing for the Steelers head coaching job today.\u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Mike Garafolo then added, \u201cThe Packers are not going to be caught off guard, by the way. They have already done some work on possible DC replacements, expecting to lose Hafley there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Teams can begin holding in-person interviews with coaches under contract with another team on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Dolphins may have an early favorite to fill their vacant head coaching position. While the team&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,56528,2797,14149,125,124],"class_list":["post-122257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins-coaching-staff","tag-miami-dolphins-news","tag-miami-dolphins-rumors","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}