Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on August 15, 2026.

I know obviously Quinn had some very good moments here last year before your arrival. He's talented and there aren't a lot of great quarterbacks out there who don't have jobs. That being said, have you and Jon-Eric decided if you want to bring in more competition to compete with Quinn and Cam Miller?

Jeff Hafley: Honestly, we just got through with the team. I have not sat down and watched it with Jon-Eric yet, other than a hello, how are you doing, good morning and maybe a few quick questions. Haven't discussed it yet. That answer is no right now, if I'm just telling you the truth. Easy question to answer.

And Quinn's play overall, what do you think watching the tape last night?

Jeff Hafley: I think if you just watch the game and you're just watching as a fan or watching in general, certainly there was some missed throws, some missed opportunities. The interception that he threw clearly wasn't a great decision, especially in that point of the field. And I pointed it out in the team meeting today. When you're back there on third-and-7, you got to protect the football and if we punt it, it's okay. We can't make those mistakes. At the same time, I showed the team in the team meeting today, there were two examples where Quinn was playing quarterback where play pass on his first hitch, he threw a great ball that would have been about a 25-, 30-yard explosive, maybe more. And the receiver broke out and he should have hooked up, and that's an example of now the ball is moving forward, now Quinn's got some confidence and here we go. I showed another example that I think is important to note. We ran a keeper to the offensive left, the defensive right. And if you recall, you know the one when he scrambled out of bounds and he took a pretty big hit? I mean again, it was a mistake, an error where the receiver should have blocked down, popped out on the boot and there was nobody there in the flat. And that would have been a quick, bang 5-yard throw down the sideline and now there's two catches for fifty yards. So while clearly there's some throws he wants back and there's some mistakes there, the process was right on those two, it's just the result wasn't good right. So the quarterback position as you know for years, it's the protection of the offensive line, it's the routes that are going to be run and then it's the execution of the quarterback position. So kind of all the above.

A couple of things about physicality, which I know is a big thing with you. How was the physicality over both days? The joint practice and the game? And then specifically with your two guards, Jonah Savaiinaea and Kadyn Proctor and then Chop Robinson, what did you see from them physically?

Jeff Hafley: I love your question. It was awesome. The one thing I am so proud of is even starting in the practice, our run defense, it was physical. I thought that our ones versus their ones, they had a tough time running the ball and our run defense showed up. The interior guys, they were squeezing. We were setting edges. Chop was violent. I thought the linebackers did a good job. I thought the safeties showed up. And now all that being said, that wasn't live. So take all that practice and it is what it is. We didn't have to tackle anybody to the ground. We got to the game, and I thought the same. While there were mistakes and we have got to be more detailed and we got to clean up some of the penalties, we played physical from the start to the end. You mentioned two names, Proctor and Jonah, I got to give it up for Jonah. I thought Jonah took a step. He was physical, and I showed some clips in front of the entire team this morning of him just coming off the ball and driving people back of him knocking guys on the ground. And same thing for Proctor, there were a couple where on some of the gap scheme plays where the whole side of the line was caved down. I thought Dulcich was a guy who showed up physically. The wide receivers were blocking hard down the field. I think you look at a lot of guys who had some nice catches, but I think you need to look at them blocking down the field. Will Kacmarek had some plays where he was just driving people back. Pat Paul on one just stayed on a guy down the field. Linemen were covering, the pile was going backward, so it was really encouraging. And defensively, I mean, same thing. Was it pretty all the time? No. But for where we are in camp, if we can continue to build on the play style with the DBs were getting off blocks and running to the ball, the safeties were throwing it in there, Taaffe was throwing it in there. Zayne had a big hit, Lonnie had a couple. Major Burns I thought tackled really well. We had a good couple hits on the quarterback. The physicality is getting closer to what I want. It just needs, can we do it again? Can we do it when we get tired? Can we do it later in camp? Can we do it in the second preseason game? Sorry for rambling, I just I love your question and that's very important to me. And I was really proud of how hard and physical we played.

I wanted to ask you, you drafted 13 players this spring and I know it's hard to kind of lump them all together, but did you have any major takeaways for how the draftees performed last night? How they handled the spotlight? All of those kind of things?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think it was kind of all of the above. I thought there were some really good moments and really good plays made. I thought some of the guys, it wasn't too big for them. They were able to lock in and execute the calls and be detailed while maintaining the play style. And then I think there were some others that it was the first time in an NFL stadium and the first time playing in a game and their eyes were in the wrong place and they struggled to line up and they were peeking. They kind of got out of their training and just were freelancing a little bit, and I mean, that's okay. They're young and they're going to make mistakes. It's not an easy league to play in as a rookie and especially in a first game as a player, and that's why we do these things. And that's why the practices are really important and then the games are important and we're going to practice against the Giants and then play against the Giants. And I think all those steps are really, really important. So by the time we get into a real game, they're more ready to play and focus on their job and kind of just take a deep breath. And so I would say it's all of the above.

If I could, I'd like to kind of change gears real quick and ask you about one other thing. You had mentioned last week about how it's easy for a coach to jump on a player if he makes a mistake, and last night there was an example where Ollie Gordon II had that penalty that he drew and you went up to him right away. It looked like he had a good teaching moment. Can you tell us a little bit about what was going on between the two of you there?

Jeff Hafley: We had an opportunity to continue a drive, and it's important to me – I'm not a big fan of pre-snap penalties and post-snap penalties like that, those are not acceptable to me. It's disrespectful to the team, it's selfish, and it's how you lose games. And you know, I'm not going to play players that can't control themselves and get us 15-yard penalties and have us go backwards and put our team in a bad position, put our coaches in a bad position. And that's a big learning lesson. I went over it with the team today. Ollie and I had a great conversation again this morning and you know, hopefully he'll learn from that and our team will learn from it, but those are the quickest way to lose football games and there's no place for that. And when I pulled him out, I'm not going to tell you exactly what I said to him, but it was a chance for me to look him in the eye and let him know that that was not okay and that I had to take him out and he had to learn his lesson, because if you're going to have a standard, there has to be consequences, or then your standard is just a bunch of BS if not. So our standard is we're not going to do things to put our team in jeopardy and have post-snap fouls where we throw a ball at a guy or toss a ball at a guy. Had a good talk with him immediately, pulled him out of the game and eventually let him go back in, but as far as the conversation goes, I'll just keep it between us, but it was a great time to teach him a lesson, to teach our team a lesson and move on, and move forward with Ollie and the rest of the guys.

De'Von Achane had a couple of successful short yardage runs last night and I was curious what challenges you think a shifty runner like him, a shifty runner with good vision, can create for the defense compared to the conventional thought of, you got to deploy a bigger back in goal line and short yardage?

Jeff Hafley: I think they're all different. I think some little guys aren't good in short yardage. Sometimes a bigger guy who can get downhill and just push the pile, but you bring up Achane, I don't view him in those situations as such a little back. I mean, I think if you look back over last year, I think he had more yards after contact and broke as many tackles as most backs did in the NFL. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know it's pretty good. He's got a low center of gravity. He's got incredible vision. He can seem to find very small creases and he's got good leverage. He's got a big, strong lower body so when you watch him, he does a really good job of pushing the pile. So I think it's his vision, I think it's his strength in his legs, and I think it's his ability to see small space and get in there that makes him a good short yardage back. You know, where sometimes people think you just put a 245-pound guy back there and he just runs forward, that's not always the case. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the little backs aren't good in short yardage. I think Achane happens to be, so I have no issue giving him the ball in those situations.

Did you guys come out of the game escaping any significant injuries that you can tell us?

Jeff Hafley: From the game? I mean, we had some injuries. Who would you like to know about?

I'm just (asking) if there are any significant injuries. I didn't notice anybody that looked like a significant injury so I'm wondering.

Jeff Hafley: No, there was nothing significant in the game.

Since we also haven't asked you about him for a bit and he's been out for a bit, what can you provide us in terms of an update on Jamaree Salyer?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he'll still be out. I see him being out for the near future and we'll see how that goes.

Lastly, if I may, what was your thoughts on the performance of the backup offensive linemen, and is there a level of concern there that some guys are not stepping up?

Jeff Hafley: I think you got to look at it individually. I thought some of the guys did a nice job. And then again, I thought some of the younger guys that hadn't played that position or new to the position, there's some inconsistencies, some missed assignments. But I don't think it was for lack of effort. I think they need to continue to be put in those situations, and hopefully we'll see them improve.

I wanted to ask about the rookies. I know I'm looking a little bit ahead, but just in a perfect scenario, what do you want to see from them? I know you're going to rely on a lot of them this year, so what do you want to see out of it throughout this season?

Jeff Hafley: Growth, I think that's the biggest thing. If you painted a picture for me – you're right, playing as a rookie's hard and some positions it's harder than others and whether you look around the league and you see some of the top, top picks right now, like even on their team, there were some top draft picks that they had. People are so quick to judge, even someone might make a comment say, 'oh, I thought he'd be better.' It's like, what do you mean? It's his first game. Like, what are we talking about? It's the first time the guy's playing in the NFL, in a real game, in a real stadium and a real scheme, like let's give him some time. I mean, there's been some guys who struggle their first year as rookies and they go on to be All-Pros, that happens all the time. So what's important for me is a lot of these guys are going to play, I want to see growth. I want to see them become more consistent and I want to see them become confident. And hopefully we'll look back and we'll turn on the tape, and as we get into the latter part of the season, you're going to see him taking big steps. I think that's really, really important. We've got to keep coaching them. We've got to keep believing in them and just not be so quick to judge. I get it – everybody wants them to be Pro Bowlers this year. I do, too. That's just not the reality of playing football in this league. You're going to see guys have some great games, so you're going to see some rookies make some unbelievable plays. You saw a rookie last night make a highlight reel catch, right? But this is a long season for those guys. They're going to have ups and they're going to have downs. So right now everybody's way up here, let's just stay right in the middle as coaches and let's just keep coaching these guys. So when they go down, we pick them back up, and when they get really high, we bring them back down. And at the end of the year, they need to be better than they are right now. That's the most important thing for me.

If I can make a quick follow-up, you brought up Caleb Douglas. Obviously I'm sure he's at a very high right now. I guess, what were some of the messages to him just after such a spectacular play?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah I mean, unbelievable catch. You can't overlook it. When I showed it in the team meeting today, I showed the clip from the video and then I was about to show it on TV, but I was like, you guys have seen this on Twitter a million times, and I just skipped it and kept going because I'm sure they've all seen it a million times, and I'm sure he's seen angles that we don't even think exist with all the cameras out there. But I think then the important piece is to get in the film room and say, 'hey, you need to flatten out this route more and this would have been an explosive play, too,' or 'you need to stay on this block longer,' or 'you MA'd here, here's why,' and we got to clean some stuff up. So there's a ton of praise, right? Awesome job. I mean, go enjoy it. You should. It was a pretty impressive catch, but we got to get to work, man. Like, put it to bed after today. It's done. It doesn't mean anything, and let's go get better tomorrow and the next day and the next day and keep challenging them.

There's been a lot of spotlight on who your starters in the defensive secondary are going to be, who your starting edge rushers are going to be, but what did you see from your depth players at both spots last night – corner and defensive end?

Jeff Hafley: Played a lot of guys. I'm trying to think because we really had Chop and Uche for the first not so many plays. I thought Chop did a good job again, I thought Uche made some plays. Then we played a bunch of guys. I mean I think there were some flashes, there were some inconsistencies. What we're looking for is someone to kind of take over. Line up the right way, play the right technique, set edges, have some good pass rushes, and I think we're still looking for that consistency. I mean, it's just hard for me right now to go over every single one of those guys and talk about them all, but just big picture wise, I think just like we keep saying and you're going to get bored of it, it's just who can consistently do the job over and over again. We're looking for that to add some depth and we need it. In the corner room, with JuJu being out, I think Chris played some outside, Chris played some inside. Marshall played outside. Bonner played outside. Marco played outside. I thought Green did a nice job. (Alex) Austin played inside, Austin played outside. I thought he did a nice job. I mean, Marco obviously had the pick. I think Bonner's been consistent, consistently showing up. I think if you're looking for what I'm talking about, a guy like Bonner, he's just been really consistent, and I think he showed that again last night. Shoot, we got a lot of corners in and out of there.

So very much still in a position right now trying to find out where guys fit?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, for sure. I think that's the case with our defensive ends, if I'm just being completely honest with you. I think that's a situation for the corners, if I'm being honest with you. I think that's the situation for the safety position right now. There's still battles at the linebacker position right now. It's who we are and that's okay. It's so much about right now getting the play style down, getting the details down, who can execute. We have a lot of preseason left to go, and hopefully that will start sorting itself out a little bit, but we've got three practices this week. Go against the Giants, play against the Giants. Three practices next week, play against the Falcons. So there's going to be a ton of opportunity for this to sort out.

I want to ask you about receiver. We saw Jalen Reagor enter as your third, after obviously Malik Washington and Caleb Douglas started. Has Reagor shown you something to earn that opportunity as first in as your third essentially?

Jeff Hafley: I think every day we can maybe say there's a different guy that could go there because they're all fighting that way. I think he had earned the right through practices to put himself in that situation. I like the way he's strained. He's catching the ball well. The run after the catch has been good. He's blocking well, but I think you could probably – last week at this time, it might have been someone else and we'll see where it is the following. I think that's another one of those spots where there's a ton of competition right now. That's our team right now. We're going to compete and figure it out and put who we believe the best guys out there to play when we get closer.