Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on August 10, 2026.

I have a couple (injury questions). Zane Gonzalez, JuJu Brents?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I would say Zane will be week to week. JuJu, I don't think JuJu will practice this week, but I don't think it's going to be anything long term. But if I wanted to play it cautious, I would say JuJu will be out this week. Anyone else?

Clelin Ferrell?

Jeff Hafley: He'll be a few weeks. He will not be practicing today. He'll be a few weeks. Anybody else?

Anything on any of the guys who have been out? Kevin Coleman Jr., Dante Trader, Ben Sims?

Jeff Hafley: For Coleman, I don't expect him this week. Sims getting close. I don't think he'll practice this week. Dante I don't think we'll practice this week either. They're getting close. Hopefully next week.

Since this is the only time we're talking to you here before the game on Friday night, what did you plan as far as playing the starters or not playing?

Jeff Hafley: Everybody who is on our team right now needs to be ready to play. That's how I see it. Like, truthfully, what I'd like to see is, how many reps each guy gets in the Washington practice, right, and who comes out of the Washington practice healthy. The Washington practice is really important to me. I think it's a really good time with where we're at in the competition, not really to evaluate the team, okay, but to evaluate the individuals. Now, I think you always want to evaluate everything so I say that loosely, but I think it's an important time to go against a different color jersey, different stimulus, change of environment. I think that's a really, really good opportunity to see where some of our guys are at in these competitions that we have. So I want to maximize the reps in that practice. So for example, if a player were to get 40-plus reps in practice, which might be a little bit high with only a day in between, how much can we really play him in a preseason game two days later? We got to be safe there, right? So what I'd like to do so we can kind of end those questions of who's playing, is let me see where we're at after the practice. I'd like for everybody to be available to play and then if I have to pull certain guys or dial down certain guys based on the reps that they got in that Washington practice, then we'll do so. Make sense? So I'll probably have a better answer to that Wednesday night at some point when we figure all that out and that's just me being honest.

Do you have a different, I guess, evaluation scale for rookies versus veterans in the joint practices?

Jeff Hafley: No, not at all. I don't look at anything different between the rookies and the veterans and the competition scale at all right now. I want to see where our guys are at against different players and who can go up against a different colored jersey and elevate themselves, and I'm very, very excited to see that.

De'Von Achane led the NFL in yards per rush last year. Does that provide some level of encouragement relative to what the team might be able to accomplish in the run game this year?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, for sure. I think Achane is a dynamic player. I think he's one of the best at his position in the game, whether it's in the backfield or catching the ball from the backfield, lining up as a wide receiver, wherever we put him, so I'm excited about that.

And sticking with Achane, what kind of little things has he done away from the practice field or even on the practice field since signing his contract, that just make you feel even more confident in giving him that extension?

Jeff Hafley: I think when you watch him in the backfield, I think it's his vision, it's his acceleration. I think what's underlooked with Achane is how smart of a player he is and I've said that before. You can have some really awesome conversations with him about protection, about what he sees, about what the defense is doing. Not just a really, really good football player, but a really smart football player. He's fun to be around. He's had a great attitude on the field. There's times when him and I joke around, but then we have serious conversations when we go back and forth on what the defense was called, what the offense was called and what would have worked, what I don't think would have worked. Fun guy to be around and then just I watch him, how he'll in his own way, go from player to player and help him out and push him and lead him. I think he's growing as a leader and we need him to do so.

Do you remember the first time you were kind of exposed to his play, like when he was in college, or when do you remember first watching?

Jeff Hafley: I remember it really well. It was two years ago when we were getting ready to play the Dolphins, when I was in Green Bay and I had not been exposed to him. And I said, this is a guy that's not talked enough about in the NFL, and I don't understand why and he's making me lose sleep, and I think he's the most dynamic player on the team. So it was the first time and just in my opinion, and I think I said it, if you go back and listen to my media and I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I even made a statement like this guy should be talked about a lot more than he is because he's that good and he should be considered right now along with the best backs in the NFL.

You had a mic'd up that went out on our social channels the other day. You talked to a lot of guys about taking chances and practicing being aggressive, using your length, and pressing for cornerbacks on the outside. How do you develop the trust within players to allow them to maybe go outside their comfort zone, to maybe put bad tape out there? And also, how does that change the way you evaluate when guys are trying new things in practice?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I mean, that's everything that I believe in. I mean, that's like when I talk about process over result, and that's all part of the process of practice. When we go out and practice, to me, that's the time. Like I made the example for the corner, like some guys get so comfortable, right? And they're just, they're so scared to make a mistake that they play things safe. How do you grow if you're going to play things safe? That doesn't make any sense to me because you're comfortable or you don't want to look bad? It's not about looking bad. It's about like, I really want you to try this technique because of who you are, because for that example, because you have length. Like try the technique, sit in there and if it doesn't work, that's okay. Try it again, all right? And then let's see if you can get better at it. Let's see what you can get away with in practice and don't worry about the result. Like worry about the process of getting better to be the best player you can be and not just being stuck like this, because if you just go through anything in life, just nice and comfortable and I know it's okay, maybe not great, maybe not bad; you're not going to get any better. Like step out of your comfort zone. Don't worry about the results. That's what practice is for. That's why I get mad in practice. Like I think bad coaching is when a guy gets beat and you just go up and you yell at him. Like, no, like ask him, what did you do? What did you see? What did you try? Did it work? Let's go back and watch it on film. Like if a guy's not running to the ball or he's lack of effort or physicality then yeah, yell at him. But like, this is where these guys get paralyzed in their minds and I just don't want that to happen. So when I see a long corner and I get a flashback, you're not using your length, like step and punch and try something different. I think that's huge for everybody on our team, and it's just how we need to coach these guys.

How is Ethan Bonner doing?

Jeff Hafley: Bonner is doing good. Very consistent. Very, very quiet. Very professional. And you guys have seen it. He's made a lot of plays, and it's not just like here or there. He's just really consistent right now so he's a guy that I can't wait to see like line up in a one-on-one against another colored jersey and third down cover another guy. I'm very pleased with Bonner right now.

Your defense is without two top defensive backs such as JuJu Brents and Dante Trader. Do you expect the offense to take advantage and exploit that? Do you expect Malik Willis to do that and have you seen that? Did you see that on Saturday?

Jeff Hafley: I'm not really worried about that in practice right now. There are so many things that are more important to me. In a game, for sure. If somebody has a weakness, I think we need to attack it. And if we have a weakness, then what do we need to do? We need to figure out how to protect it, whether we have to change, scheme, do something different; but in practice right now, it's just the little things and the details and the next guy needs to step up and be able to see if he can compete and take over. Those things are way more important to me.

Now, circling back to, I think it was your second answer. How eager is this team to kind of – I know you have practice today – but get out to D.C. and get ready to maybe get chippy on the field?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think any time you're in camp this long and you keep going against the same guys and it kind of, like let's be real, it kind of gets a little old and it starts to get a little chippy within itself because it's just day after day hitting the same guy and going up... I think there's probably a huge level of excitement. And I think for some of these young guys, there's probably some anxiety. And I think that's really important to get out of the way. Like as much as you can put them in different situations where there is some anxiety and they get they get anxious to see how they can handle that. It's even when we went in the stadium the other day, I mean, we put them in the locker room for an hour just to kind of give that pregame feel and you can see as I walk around, it felt like we were back in the season, back in a game. Then we went out in the stadium and there's some fans there, new environment. Then I said we're going to tackle and some guys got a little bit more... So you got to keep ramping that up so we get ready for the first game. But I'm excited for it. I think that's a great question you should ask them today.

What have you learned from Jalen Tolbert over the last few weeks or so?

Jeff Hafley: Again, really good pro. I think he's had some really good moments and I kind of gave you guys the same answer the other day. Everybody just – it's the consistency over time. Can they get all that done? But the one thing I know, he's going to go out, he's going to work really hard every single day. I love the way he's blocking on the perimeter. I think he has a great attitude. I think he's really good with the young players and he's becoming dependable.

How many periods did y'all tackle Saturday and did you get the desired result?

Jeff Hafley: We had two periods that we tackled. Yeah, we got the desired results that we wanted. I got to see a different level of physicality. I think it cranked up, whether it was the d-line, whether it was the wideouts blocking, the offensive line blocking. I got to see some guys tackle. We got to correct some guys in tackling situation. I think it's really important to understand that there's a lot that goes into it. I think being a physical football team is huge to us. Like we want to be a physical team. So I think you got to practice physical – not all the time because I think there's a fine line, right? You need to balance, stay healthy, keep guys up. But then there's a safety (aspect). You have to tackle in our game, right? And we need to teach how to tackle safely. There were some instances on film when guys were dropping their head and those are great coachable moments where we have to tackle in a safe way. You got to keep your head up, you got to see what you hit. So there were some really cool moments there. What I love in live periods is everybody thinks it's about like the running back and the o-line and the d-line. We got to see some wideouts like on a third-and-7. Can you catch the ball and get the first down? And then if you're a corner, like in practice, if it's third-and-5 and a guy tags a guy at four yards, everybody thinks it's fourth down. All right, can you really make the tackle? Like who can make those tackles? And then I think it's important, you mentioned live, and I think all of a sudden the players are kind of like, their hearts start racing a little bit more. We got to do that on Friday. In my opinion, to make them do that the first time Friday is not fair to the players. I don't think that's good coaching for me. For other teams, I get it, I totally respect it, but just not for us right now.

Speaking of your coaching, before training camp started, you kind of were saying you were going through checkpoints of where you want to be during certain times of training camp. Has that evolved as you get deeper and you're starting to see how the guys are kind of stepping up, building that confidence and that chemistry?

Jeff Hafley: For sure. I think right now we have how we want to practice, how we run to the football, how we're being physical, all that stuff I'm seeing. And now the next step is, it's the details. It's the details within the scheme, right, because we also need to be a team that does not have a lot of pre-snap penalties, does not have post-snap penalties. That does not go backward. We need to be a disciplined football team. And that's the next step that we really need to clean up as we go through these next three weeks of football.

Pre-snap penalties have long been an issue with the Dolphins, it seems. How do you clean that up? Is it rerunning a play if a guy jumps or what do you do?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think it's an issue, and I don't think it's just an issue with the Miami Dolphins. I think it's an issue around the league. I mean pre-snap penalties, all right, it's this early on in practice, right. So I had this conversation with Bobby (Slowik). Do you want to change the count? Do you just want to have the quarterback go to the line and go on the first hut every single time? Because if you do that, you're not going to have many penalties. But do you want to change the count? Yeah, I want to change the count because if you don't change the count, the defense is going to tee off and get off the ball and it's going to be easy for the defense. Okay, so then we want to change the count early in camp. Guess what? You're going to get the defense to jump or you're going to get your offensive tackle to jump, so you're going to see a lot of them. So there's risk-reward. And I'm okay with that right now. And that's what I told Bobby. If we're going to change the count and go on two, three, on the first sound; we have to be willing early on to deal with some of those. But to your point, now, as we get going, we have to clean those up. You need to bring awareness to it. So you've seen we've had officials at just about every practice, right? In my past experiences, when you don't do that and you might miss some as a coach or a player, you got to bring awareness to it. So they're throwing flags. And then at night, it's consistently talking about it and showing them third-and-5 just went to third-and-10. We had a red zone play the other day that would have been a touchdown, but we were lined up and covered up with a tight end. Called the guy out in the meeting and said, 'look, man, I love you, but you can't... This was a touchdown. This is seven-point penalty.' So you got to bring awareness to it. And then if they continue, you got to take them out. And if that continues and you have those penalties where you're costing yourself big plays, you got to find a different way to coach them, you got to find a different player, too. So it's constantly just coaching it and preaching it and showing it, but there's risk-reward to what we want to do.

I was looking at the Commanders' defense and it looks a little bit better on paper at least than people are giving you credit for. I guess what do you want to see out of Malik Willis, De'Von Achane versus this defense?

Jeff Hafley: I have a ton of respect for Dan Quinn as a defensive coach and as a head coach. Dan Quinn's teams are going to play great defense. I don't know all the names on it, but I'd be willing to bet with Dan they're going to play good defense. Whether it's the Giants, the Falcons; I don't care what team we play right now. It's, again, more process than result, and I know none of you guys want to hear that. I think you gave a great example of it. I want to see us go out and compete. I want to see us execute and be detailed, and I want to see us be extremely physical and run and hit and play the game clean. And I want to see us better against the Giants than we were against Washington. And I want to see us better against Atlanta than we were against the Giants, because I just think we have to keep building this thing. So when it's all said and done, we're way better than we were when we started. That's the most important thing to me right now.

What you said about penalties, I was curious to know, how do you walk that line and how long does it take you to make that determination? We need to coach them better or he's not the guy and get rid of a guy? How do you kind of go through that process?

Jeff Hafley: Put it more on the coaching and teaching and hopefully it never gets to that point. Very rarely will I ever say it's the guy and he can't learn and he can't do this. I'm not big on that. I just, I think we need to bring him along and bring him along and coach it better, find a new way to coach them or a new way to teach them; so hopefully it doesn't get to that point. I mean, if a guy is going to continuously make us go backward, we need to do whatever we can to fix that. But hopefully it does not get to that point. I think that's our job as coaches – to teach, to walk through, to show on video, to be demanding, to let them understand the importance of it and hopefully we'll get to that point. That's like the last resort right there.

Will you guys bring in a fourth quarterback?

Jeff Hafley: Better question for Sully. Do you want a fourth quarterback?

I don't think you need one.

Jeff Hafley: Okay, well, you and Sully can have that conversation. Happy birthday Sully. (laughter)