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Jeff Hafley was certainly transparent with the Dolphins\u2019 fan base when he made an admission seldom heard from an NFL head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccess is not going to be measured in wins and losses this year — and I know nobody wants to hear that,\u201d the Dolphins\u2019 first-year coach told Stephen A. Smith in a recent interview that was released Friday, speaking with an unusual candor for the public face of a pro sports franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see where we end and how far we can take this thing, and how much we develop these players … Success for me is going to be: We go on that field and we play so hard that even you turn it on and say, \u2018Man, those guys are flying around.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think this year\u2019s so much about developing who we are as a football team, finding the right guys and by the end of the year saying, \u2018We\u2019ve got something real powerful moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably best that they\u2019re not measuring success by wins and losses, because this roster needs a lot of help.<\/p>\n
Most Dolphins starters barely played in a winless preseason with ended with a 17-12 loss to Atlanta at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Hafley expanded, and in some ways clarified, his earlier comments:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe and I want to win in everything that we do. But success is not just defined by winning. Winning, for sure. That\u2019s why you play the game… But at the same time, we need to make sure this process is built the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole key to this year is do everything we can to win football games but making sure we do it right, so the foundation is right and the process is right. I want to make sure we\u2019re doing it the right way with no shortcuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that we move this thing forward and build… because we want to get back on top. To do that, you got to go through some hard stuff, with competing in mind to win in everything we do, but keeping the main thing our process and the detail and the toughness and not taking shortcuts and not flinching along the way, so at the end of the year, we can look back and say, \u2018Our foundation is strong. We\u2019re not going away. Look out, \u2018We\u2019re coming.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat kind of got lost in our conversation [with Stephen A. Smith]. I can look you in the eye and say: We are going to do everything we can to try to win every single game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI like the camp that we had. I think it\u2019s a really good starting point. It was a hard camp, a physical camp. We pushed them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hafley addressed other issues:<\/p>\n
\u25aa Even though quarterback Quinn Ewers practiced this week, Hafley said he \u201cnever truly felt comfortable enough to move [him] around to be able to go out and play in a live setting\u201d because of his groin injury.<\/p>\n
\u25aa He said rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, who did not play in the game, \u201cwill be day to day\u201d with an undisclosed injury that sidelined him in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u25aa On receiver Chris Bell, who had two catches (in four targets) for 22 yards in his first game since a November knee injury at Louisville:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he\u2019s worked… how hard he\u2019s pushed himself to give him a chance to get back where he\u2019s at right now. A lot of people didn\u2019t give him a chance to get back a lot later, which is probably why he was drafted where he was. He attacked it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you\u2019re seeing right now is he hasn\u2019t played a lot of football. And he needs to do that. It\u2019s the muscle memory, the movement, the suddenness…<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely wanted to try to get him involved early because he was going to be on a pitch count.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bell got up quickly after a hard hit, which was encouraging. \u201cHe\u2019s got to get hit again,\u201d Hafley said. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t been in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa He said most starters didn\u2019t play in part because of injuries and in part because the front office and coaches wanted to evaluate others.<\/p>\n
Dolphins offensive starters played only one series in three preseason games. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the plan,\u201d Hafley said. \u201cWe had a bunch of injuries and became super thin at a lot of positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u25aa Hafley said linebackers Tyrel Dodson and Willie Gay Jr. played a lot because they didn\u2019t have many healthy players at the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were down to two linebackers for the rest of the game,\u201d Hafley said, noting that Rodriguez, Jordyn Brooks and Ronnie Harrison are injured.<\/p>\n
\u25aa He said he saw improvement from quarterbacks Cam Miller and Mark Gronowski.<\/p>\n
Gronowski continued playing after taking a hard hit: \u201cI respect his toughness,\u201d Hafley said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published August 28, 2026 at 10:28 PM.<\/p>\n