The Miami Dolphins will hire Jeff Hafley as their new head coach.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hafley is the chosen candidate to replace Mike McDaniel after he was fired at the end of the regular season.
Hafley has impressed in his two seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers and was wanted by a number of NFL teams this offseason. He was previously the head coach at Boston College.
The 46-year-old interviewed with the Dolphins for the second time on Monday and he will now be tasked with rejuvenating a franchise that has not won a playoff game since December 2000.
That means three vacancies in the NFL have now been filled after the New York Giants hired John Harbuagh and Kevin Stefanski got the Atlanta Falcons job.
But seven positions are still vacant and the Dolphins have acted swiftly to take one of the hottest candidates off the market.
The Miami Dolphins will hire Jeff Hafley as their new head coach to replace Mike McDaniel
The Dolphins began a rebuild after going 7-10 this past season under the fired Mike McDaniel
It is not the first time the Dolphins have hired from the Packers this offseason after they took Jon-Eric Sullivan as their general manager. Hafley and Sullivan spent the last two years together in Green Bay.
Packers defensive superstar Micah Parsons paid tribute to his coach on social media, writing: ‘Genuinely happy for haf! Great guy great persona! Gonna miss his energy!’
Last week, the Dolphins interviewed four defensive coordinators for the job: the Los Angeles Rams’ Chris Shula, Jacksonville’s Anthony Campanile, San Francisco’s Robert Saleh and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jesse Minter.
The Dolphins began an organizational rebuild after going 7-10 this past season.
It was their second consecutive losing season, and they missed the playoffs for a second straight year. Longtime GM Chris Grier was fired in October, and McDaniel was dismissed earlier this month after four seasons.
