The Miami Dolphins have begun their search to identify the team's next head coach.
This page will serve as the home for all the latest news throughout the search process, including updates following each interview and information on the candidates.
Patrick Graham
Current Position: Defense Coordinator
Current Team: Las Vegas Raiders
Patrick Graham has been an NFL defensive coordinator in each of the last seven seasons with stops in Miami (2019), the New York Giants, where he also served as the assistant head coach (2020-21), and his current position with the Las Vegas Raiders (2022-pres.). He guided the 2020 Giants to the ninth-ranked scoring defense (357 points allowed) and the Raiders to the same ranking in 2023 (331 points allowed). Previously, Graham spent one year with the Green Bay Packers as the inside linebackers coach and defensive run game coordinator in 2018 after a two-year stint as the defensive line coach with the Giants (2016-17). Prior to that, Graham was with the New England Patriots for seven years where he worked with the linebackers (2011 and 2014-15), the defensive line (2012-13), and as a defensive assistant (2010) and a coaching assistant (2009). He won Super Bowl XLIX with the Patriots. Graham got his start in the college ranks as a graduate assistant at Wagner (2002-03). He was at Richmond for three years as an assistant defensive line coach (2004) and tight ends coach (2005-06) before taking a graduate assistant job at Notre Dame (2007-08). Prior to his coaching career, Graham was a defensive lineman at Yale.
Kelvin Sheppard
Current Position: Defense Coordinator
Current Team: Detroit Lions
Kelvin Sheppard was promoted to Detroit's defensive coordinator in 2025 after Aaron Glenn left to be the head coach of the New York Jets. Following an eight-year playing career, Sheppard quickly ascended the coaching ranks. He started in 2021 as an outside linebackers coach with Detroit. He then coached the inside linebackers, his playing position, from 2022 to 2024 before assuming his current role. Sheppard played for the Dolphins in 2014 and 2015 logging a career-high 102 tackles in 2015. The Lions defense season finished the 2025 season with five starters on injured reserve, including Pro Bowl safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph. As a result, they finished 22nd in scoring (413 points) and 18th in total defense (5,642 yards allowed). However, Detroit finished the season with the third-fewest missed tackles in the NFL (76) and ranked ninth in third down defense, allowing a 36.9 percent conversion rate.
Joe Brady
Current Position: Offensive Coordinator
Current Team: Buffalo Bills
Joe Brady was named interim offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills in November 2023 and helped the team win seven of the next eight games, including a wildcard playoff game, while averaging 25.8 points per game. In 2024, Brady's first full season as offensive coordinator, Buffalo finished second in scoring (29.5 points per game), first in rushing touchdowns (32) and committed the fewest turnovers (eight) in the NFL, all while producing that year's league MVP in quarterback Josh Allen. Buffalo finished the 2025 season ranked third in scoring (27.1 points per game) and fourth in total offense (376.3 yards per game). Brady served as the quarterbacks coach in Buffalo from 2022 to 2023 and was the offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2020 to 2021. He was the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach for the 2019 LSU National Championship team, which set a new NCAA record for points scored in a single season (726). Brady grew up down the road from Hard Rock Stadium in Pembroke Pines. He was a four-year letterman at Everglades High School in Miramar before a collegiate career at William & Mary. After his playing career, Brady stayed on with the Tribe as a linebackers coach from 2013 to 2014. He was a graduate assistant at Penn State from 2015 to 2016 before getting his first job in the NFL as an offensive assistant with the New Orleans Saints (2017-18).
Chris Shula
Current Position: Defensive Coordinator
Current Team: Los Angeles Rams
The Rams reached the divisional round of the NFC playoffs for the second consecutive year thanks in large part to a brilliantly-constructed defense directed by Chris Shula. The Rams finished the 2025 regular season ranked 10th in points allowed per game (20.4) and tied for fifth in takeaways (25). Shula has been with the Rams since 2017 in various defensive roles, helping the team win Super Bowl LVI, two NFC Championships and four NFC West titles while making seven postseason appearances. Shula, who has spent two seasons in the defensive coordinator role (2024-25), got his start with the Rams as an assistant linebackers coach in 2017. He then served as outside linebackers coach (2019-20), linebackers coach (2021), passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach (2022), and pass rush coordinator and linebackers coach (2023). He coached at the collegiate level from 2010 to 2014 before taking a job with the Chargers as a defensive quality control coach (2015-16). Shula is the grandson of the winningest coach in NFL history, and two-time Super Bowl winner with the Miami Dolphins, Don Shula.
Anthony Campanile
Current Position: Defense Coordinator
Current Team: Jacksonville Jaguars
The 2025 Jacksonville Jaguars won their third AFC South title in franchise history thanks in large part to a defense led by Anthony Campanile that finished second in takeaways (31), eighth in points allowed (19.8 points per game) and 11th in total defense (303.6 yards per game). It was Campanile's first year as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. Prior to that, he was the linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Green Bay Packers in 2024 and the Miami Dolphins linebackers coach from 2020 to 2023. Campanile's coaching career started as a student assistant at Rutgers in 2005, where he also played safety and linebacker from 2001 to 2004. He then spent the next six seasons at the high school level. He coached linebackers at his New Jersey alma mater, Fair Lawn High School, in 2006 and spent three years (2007-09) in the same role at Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) before becoming the offensive coordinator (2010-11). Campanile returned to Rutgers and spent the next four season as a defensive assistant (2012), tight ends coach (2013-2014) and wide receivers coach (2015). He then served as the defensive backs coach at Boston College from 2016 to 2017 and added co-defensive coordinator duties for his final season in 2018. Campanile coached linebackers at Michigan for one year (2019) before making his jump to the NFL.
Robert Saleh
Current Position: Defensive Coordinator
Current Team: San Francisco 49ers
Robert Saleh was the head coach of the New York Jets from 2021 to 2024. His Jets defense ranked fourth in both scoring (18.6 points allowed per game) and total defense (311.1 yards allowed per game) in 2022 while allowing the third-fewest yards per game in the NFL in 2023 (292.3). He returned to the San Francisco 49ers in 2025 as the defensive coordinator of the 13th-ranked defense in the NFL despite losing two All-Pros (defensive end Nick Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner) to season-ending injuries. In his first stint as San Francisco's defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2020, Saleh led the 49ers defense to rank second in yards allowed per game (281.8) in 2019 en route to a Super Bowl appearance and fifth (314.4) in 2020. Previously, Saleh served as linebackers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2014-16), defensive quality control coach for the Seattle Seahawks (2011-13) and worked with the Houston Texans from 2005 to 2010 as a defensive intern (2005), defensive quality control coach (2006-08) and assistant linebackers coach (2009-10). Saleh started his coaching career at the collegiate ranks. He was a defensive assistant at Georgia (2005), Central Michigan (2004), Michigan State (2003) and an offensive assistant at Michigan State in 2002.
Jesse Minter
Current Position: Defensive Coordinator
Current Team: Los Angeles Chargers
Jesse Minter joined the Chargers coaching staff as the team's defensive coordinator in 2024 and helped the team make back-to-back postseason runs for the first time since 2008-09. The Chargers have won 22 games the past two seasons, featuring the NFL's top scoring defense in 2024 (17.7 points allowed per game) and the ninth-best unit in 2025 (20.0 points allowed per game). The Chargers were atop the league's leaderboard in every major category in 2025, including fifth in total defense (285.2 yards per game), tied for seventh in takeaways (23), tied for second in first downs allowed per game (16.8), fifth in pass defense (179.9 yards per game) and passing touchdowns (16), and eighth in rushing yards allowed per game (105.4). Previously, Minter was the defensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines from 2022 to 2023. Those defenses finished seventh (16.1) and first (10.4) in the nation in points allowed per game, respectively, leading the Blue and Maize to consecutive Big Ten titles and its first national championship since 1997. Prior to Michigan, Minter was the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Vanderbilt in 2021 after a four-year run with the Baltimore Ravens, where he served as a defensive backs coach (2020), assistant defensive backs coach (2019) and defensive assistant (2017-2018). He was the defensive coordinator at Georgia State from 2013 to 2016 and held the same position at Indiana State from 2011 to 2012 after serving as the Sycamores linebackers coach the previous two seasons (2009-2010). He started his coaching career at Notre Dame as a defensive intern in 2006 and served as a graduate assistant at Cincinnati from 2007 to 2008.
Jeff Hafley
Current Position: Defense Coordinator
Current Team: Green Bay Packers
With a wealth of coaching experience at both the NFL and college levels, Jeff Hafley's recent run in the NFL coincided with a Packers defensive turnaround and postseason berths each of the last two seasons. In his first year as Green Bay's defensive coordinator, Hafley led the Packers defense to improve from 17th in yards allowed per game (335.1) in 2023 to fifth (314.5) in 2024. His unit ranked sixth in points allowed per game (19.9) in 2024 and 11th in 2025 (21.2) and is in the top 10 in takeaways (45) since 2024. Hafley was the head coach at Boston College from 2020 to 2023, leading the Golden Eagles to bowl eligibility in three of his four seasons (didn't play a bowl game in 2020 due to COVID restrictions). Previously, Hafley was the co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Ohio State (2019) and the defensive backs coach for the San Francisco 49ers (2016-18), the Cleveland Browns (2014-15) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2013). He spent the 2012 season as an assistant defensive backs coach with the Bucs after holding the defensive backs coach position at Rutgers in 2011 and at the University of Pittsburgh from 2008 to 2010. He worked in various defensive coaching roles for Albany (2002-05) after starting his coaching career on the offensive side of the ball at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2001 as a running backs coach.
Kevin Stefanski
Previous Position: Head Coach
Previous Team: Cleveland Browns
Two-time NFL Coach of the Year (2020, 2023) Kevin Stefanski served as Cleveland's head coach from 2020 to 2025, guiding the Browns to their first playoff win in 26 years when they defeated the Steelers 48-37 in the 2020 NFL Wildcard Round. Three years later, Stefanski did something no Browns coach had done since Marty Schottenheimer in 1986 when he qualified for the playoffs for a second time in his Cleveland tenure. Those 2023 Browns made the postseason with backup quarterback Joe Flacco winning four of his five starts to close the season. The 2023 Browns ranked 10th in points per game (22.1) despite starting five different quarterbacks (Flacco, Deshaun Watson, P.J. Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Jeff Driskel). Previously, Stefanski was the offensive coordinator of the 2019 Minnesota Vikings, who finished seventh in points per game (24.4). Originally the quarterbacks coach for Minnesota (2017-18), Stefanski was named interim offensive coordinator in 2018 before earning the job full-time in 2019. Prior to his promotion to coordinator, Stefanski held various positions on the Vikings staff, including running backs coach (2016), tight ends coach (2014-15), assistant quarterbacks coach (2009-13) and assistant to the head coach (2006-08). Stefanski got his start at Penn in 2005 as the assistant director of football operations, the same school where he was a First-Team All-Ivy League defensive back in 2004.
Klint Kubiak
Current Position: Offensive Coordinator
Current Team: Seattle Seahawks
In his first season as the Seahawks offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak led Seattle – the NFC's No. 1 seed in the 2025 NFL Playoffs – to the third-ranked scoring attack with 483 points. The Seahawks finished eighth in passing (5,974 yards), 10th in rushing (2,096 yards) and sixth in percentage of drives ending in scores (46%). Kubiak directed one of the most innovative offensive attacks in the NFL incorporating west coast principles, multi-faceted personnel groupings, and a power run game. No team in football achieved the same balance as Seattle, who had 507 rush attempts and 508 passing attempts this season. Prior to Seattle, Kubiak served as the offensive coordinator for the Saints in 2024, where his offense posted 47 and 44 points in his first two games ever calling plays. Previously, Kubiak was the passing game coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers (2023) and the offensive passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the Denver Broncos (2022), after coaching three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings (2019-21) – the first two seasons as quarterbacks coach and one year as offensive coordinator. He got his start in the NFL with the Broncos in 2016 and also has experience coaching at the collegiate level with Texas A&M and Kansas. Kubiak is the son of Gary Kubiak, longtime head coach with the Houston Texas (2006-13) and Denver Broncos (2015-2016), whom he led to a Super Bowl 50 Championship.
