Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley 's media availability on August 20, 2026

There's obviously good young talent at safety and cornerback, but I think you guys are the only team in the league without an established starter from the last couple of years at either position. How much have you and Sully talked about that over the last few months? Have you been tempted to add someone and why haven't you ultimately?

Jeff Hafley: You've asked me like three questions there. (laughter) No, we've talked about it, but at this point we're coaching the guys that we have, and I appreciate all the hard work and everything that the guys who are here have done. I trust the guys we put out there. I think there's still a healthy competition at that position and actually in both positions, some we've been hurt at. Trader is going to work back more in today so hopefully we'll get a better evaluation of him, but for us it's about who's here, how can we get them better and then how can we maximize their abilities within the scheme and then go play ball. But I've enjoyed those guys and I have a lot of respect for how hard they've worked and what they've done.

What's the message to your team today so that it doesn't turn into a melee?

Jeff Hafley: With fighting? It's the same thing that I say every day to the team. I mean, that's not tough. Like anybody who's been around me and watched us play, I want to toe the line and I want to play physical and I want to be tough, but fighting is not tough. And I told them, if you're frustrated with a guy and you get pushed or shoved, tell him I'll see you next play. And then go play the next play and do it again. That's tough. That's mentally tough, right? Because in a game, what's going to happen when you get frustrated? You're going to get thrown out of a game? If you throw a punch, you're gone. Especially now with the new rules that are going to be able to see it. I mean, it's not part of the game. So I'll be really disappointed. If a guy throws a punch, he's out. We haven't had that happen in our practice much and the other thing is I told them, I think there's a brotherhood in the NFL that you got to respect that all these guys right now, these one 180 players, they're all trying to earn a job. And there should be a mutual respect about the guys in this league on how hard they're working to get a job. You're being evaluated by both staffs today, right? And you want to try to fight and hurt a guy on the other team? I've seen it. I get it, I get it gets chippy. It's going to be hot out there. But if you want to find out who's really tough, find the guy who walks back to the huddle, lines up and goes at it next play. I will be really, really disappointed. Could it happen? Sure, I will be very, very disappointed and it will be addressed immediately if it happens.

With Jason Marshall Jr. I want to know what you've seen from him and has he kind of been on an island considering JuJu Brents hasn't been there at times, Chris Johnson hasn't been there for a couple of days and Dante Trader hasn't been there for a couple of days?

Jeff Hafley: One, he's been available every day and he's been very, very consistent. Every single day just his technique, his coverage, the way he's coming up and thudding on tackles, I just think he's a guy who, when we talk about consistency over time, he is a very, very good example of that, which is why he's improving. So I'm excited to see him today against some good wide receivers.

If the NFL said that they were going to get rid of the preseason and all you could have would be joint practices. Do you think that would be enough to get your team ready for a season?

Jeff Hafley: That's a good question. We'd have to. So I mean, whatever they say we need to do, we need to do. I still think there's something about getting off the bus, going into the stadium, being in the locker room for whether it's an hour or two hours, depending on when you get there, walking out, going through your pregame routine. I think especially for the young guys, like for example, we have a lot of young guys, and I think right now it's really important for them to go through their routine in these three preseason games. What is their routine? What bus do they want to get on? In college, you just all get on one bus, you go together, you kick off and you play. It's different, right? So they got to feel comfortable, and I think a lot of them get the anxiety out that way because no matter if you call it a preseason game or a real game, there's a certain level of anxiety just like today that will start to creep up, just like when we go in the stadium on Saturday and I think they need to go through that. I think they are important still. I think you get a lot out of the joint practices, but I think you still can get a lot out of the preseason games as well.

The Giants have a lot of talent at the edge. What do you want to see out of the tackles and tight ends?

Jeff Hafley: They got great talent. They got multiple edge players that can rush. I think that is an awesome opportunity. I'm excited to watch those 1-on-1. I think it's iron sharpens iron. It's going to be fun to see. And then I want to see how we get in the team settings. We're not going to do 7-on-7. I know you all will be disappointed in that. (laughter) We want to play real football and I want to see if we can block them, if we can pick up the pressures and our protections, if the quarterback can get rid of the ball on time, if the receivers can run the right routes or the ball can get out on time. So it's going to have to be a team thing, but they've got great edge rushers. I'm excited to see the o-line against them today.

On the housekeeping standpoint, JuJu Brents has been practicing. Is he going to be participating in 11-on-11s and how much has his setback prevented you guys from evaluating him?

Jeff Hafley: Just like any other player, it's hard to evaluate anybody that's not out there. He will not be out there today in 11-on-11. He's getting closer. He's been doing individual. Hopefully this is more day to day now as we get closer than it would be long term. Certainly we'd like to get a good evaluation on him and we still have time to do so.

Jordyn Brooks, where does he stand right now?

Jeff Hafley: Jordyn will be out today.

How do you see the competition between Tyrel Dodson and Jacob Rodriguez at linebacker?

Jeff Hafley: I think it's a great competition. You got a guy who's had success in the league and has played in a lot of games, has a lot of experience and is a really smart football player; and you have a good up and coming young guy who's extremely instinctive, violent, and I think it's a very healthy competition right now.

Have you or Bush Hamdan or Bobby Slowik talked to Cam Miller about the opportunity in front of him? Do you need to do that with Quinn Ewers sidelined?

Jeff Hafley: I'm sure he sees it. He got more reps in practice yesterday so there's opportunity every single day, and I'm sure him and Bobby have had those conversations.

We get Malik Willis today. Just want to ask you what you've seen here in camp to validate what you liked about him in Green Bay and why you brought him here?

Jeff Hafley: Kind of what you saw during the game. He's become very confident, more consistent. He's taking care of the football. He's getting rid of the ball on time. He's playing in the pocket. But now what he's starting to do is as it gets closer, he's starting to use his legs not just to run the ball but to kind of step up, escape, make some throws down the field or take off or extend plays. We sent a pressure at him yesterday and I thought we had him or the day before, because yesterday was a walk through. We sent him pressure at him yesterday in a situation and I was like, all right, we got him. They're not going to block him. And it was really cool. For the first time I saw him, he kind of baited it because it was to his blind side. He kind of baited him, saw him and then spun out and ran and threw a touchdown. And I was angry because I'm the one who made the call. (laughter) But I was really happy because I looked at him and kind of smirked. I was like, I got no answer for that. So he's starting to play the game a little bit more rather than just practice, and hopefully we'll see some of that today, like we said, against a good group and determining whether or not what we do with them in the stadium on Saturday and going forward.

Are you cool with him doing that and using his legs more when pressure's on him? Or would you rather him take advantage of throwing it short to Achane, which Achane was really good at doing?

Jeff Hafley: Well, it depends. Is Achane involved in the protection? Where does his read start, where's his checkdown? If he's getting pressured real fast and he's about to get sacked, I sure want him to get the hell out of there. So I'm really cool with him doing that. I want him to feel free to be himself and that's what I keep telling him. Don't want to coach him like a robot. I want him to go through his progression, but at the same time, he's got a talent and he has the ability to see things move and keep his eyes down the field and he's very, very accurate when he does so. And I want him to start doing that as we play football, because that's real.

What have seen from Jaxson Dart?

Jeff Hafley: We played him – really it's more from my study last year because all I had was a few preseason clips from him from this season. So just getting ready for him last year in Green Bay, not knowing if he was going to play or not. I see a talented young player who's extremely athletic. He can run, he can make plays kind of like Malik with his feet, but he's got a strong arm. There's a bunch of times I watched his tape last year thinking back where it's like, you know, one, I respect the way he plays because he seems like a tough guy that you'd love to have in your locker room. And he's very talented.

What do you know you're getting when you go against a John Harbaugh team?

Jeff Hafley: Discipline, they're going to play really hard. Pre-snap, post-snap, very detailed. I think he's one of the best coaches in the NFL over a long period of time. He's proven that. I have a ton of respect for him. I always have. One of the reasons – because we kind of set up these joint practices as coaches – it's kind of like I said about Dan Quinn last week. Dan's a guy I have a ton of respect for and the way he does things. I want to practice against teams like that with leaders like that. I have so much respect for Coach Harbaugh that this is a team that I felt like we could get a lot of really good work with because of him. I can't say enough about him and what he's done, and I think he'll be great for the Giants.

When you're building a new team like this, how do you get buy-in from players on the new culture? Like you're saying, no 7-on-7. I'm sure those guys want to run that. How do you get buy in from the guys early on and how you guys want to practice and approach them?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think one, it's who you bring in. I think the draft was really important. You're bringing guys that you see on tape that love ball, that are physically tough, then when you talk to them, they kind of you figure out they love football or not, or the way you watch their tape, you get guys that really love ball. And I think it's easy. And then you look at the key guys that we re-signed here, right. Brewer is one of the toughest, hardest working guys I've been around. Brooks the same thing. I mean, those guys want to tackle and they want to go live. Achane's been the same way. It's been awesome. And then a vet like Zach Sieler. So the buy in has not been hard. It's been very honest with them. I've been very transparent with them. I've told them what I want to do but why I want to do it. And then we have a really good group of guys in the locker room. We have a lot of guys here who are fighting for their lives because they're on one-year deals. I think when you get in a situation, I think we have over 40 of those guys. I think they're fighting for their jobs. I think they're going to do anything that you ask them to do. I just believe in this way as we build this thing over time, if we're going to have a foundation, it needs to be built the right way. And these are the things that I believe in, and those are the guys that we're going to play.

As you go through preseason games, are there certain situations that you think you absolutely need to see to get ready for regular season, like two-minute offense, four-minute offense, red flag challenge, things like that?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, unfortunately, I can't control all those in a preseason game, but I can control them in practice. So one of the reasons I didn't want to have a third joint practice is because I want to use next week, as we've kind of built a scheme, we kind of get closer to see who we have, what we have, where they're going to play; next week will be huge situationally, and we do have to get into all those. I think there's times in a preseason game where I might have to call a timeout or do something I normally wouldn't do to try to generate that situation where people might say, what is he doing? And it's, no, I want to get this quarterback extra reps, or I want to get this ball carrier a certain amount of touches. I mean, there might be an instance where you're down in a game, but you're going to see us run the ball 15 times just to say we got these two backs and we're trying to figure out who the guy is. So certainly you got to try to figure that out. Throwing a red flag, I don't know. I mean, I'll throw it if you want, but... (laughter)

Just a chain of command thing to make sure that the operation is smooth.

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, we'll see. I got it in my pocket.

We know Quinn is dealing with a couple injuries, an injury or two. Does that ultimately affect how you evaluate him or do you take it at face value?

Jeff Hafley: I mean, just get him back, get him healthy and we'll continue to evaluate him. I mean, that's what we need to see. He threw yesterday. I think he felt better and we'll see how he is tomorrow and the next day. And we still have time, but we have a bunch of film already on him to evaluate him. And I want him healthy so we can continue to do so and he can put his best foot forward.

Two of the best offensive linemen in this past draft will be on the field today, both top 11 picks. Do you think back, would you and Sully have been happy with either guy, the one you got or Mauigoa, and how has Proctor done?

Jeff Hafley: Proctor's been outstanding. I mean, I just can't say enough about him. It's just the guy loves ball. The guy is tough. He's physical. The buy-in has been outstanding. He's fun to be around. He loves coming to work every single day. He's a rookie, so he's going to see some stuff he's never seen before. He's going to see stuff at practice he's never seen before because it's not our defense and we didn't game plan against him. So there's going to be moments where maybe he's late coming back on a game or maybe they stem and he combos to the wrong guy, and you got to take a deep breath and really watch him grow. And that's what I'm excited most about him.

I wanted to ask two questions about the last practice that we saw. I think that was Tuesday. One, it seemed like Malik was like airing the ball out a lot. And specifically, it seemed like you were double teaming Caleb Douglas a lot. I wanted to ask about why did you throw the double team at Douglas, and then with how Willis responded at the end of practice in the final situation period? What did that kind of show you about quarterback that you have?

Jeff Hafley: We don't have any doubles in yet, so I don't have a call right now where we're doubling a player. It might look on the backside of a coverage if there's a certain coverage called where if a guy's rerouting the safeties over the top, but I don't even have a double in right now in the defense. Eventually I will. And that's not to disrespect what you saw your question because it very well it might look like that. Just the way he ended practice, like I said it was, we got him on the play before so I sent something different at him. And I just think it was a cool moment because we should have got him again, and he used his talent and said, 'You know what? I'm not just going to sit back here. I'm going to be a little creative, set somebody up, run around him and go score.' And kind of looked back at me and it was a cool moment.

What do you think of building that foundation and just kind of getting that culture settled? A lot of the outside noise surrounding this team, it's a one-win team, a two-win team. Is that extra motivating for you guys, especially when you're saying these are guys that are fighting for those roster spots, fighting for their spots on teams?

Jeff Hafley: We haven't mentioned it right now. We can't control that. We're never going to control that. I just believe that if that's what we're using to motivate, we're worried about the wrong things right now. That stuff wears off after a while. There's only so much you can use it and there's only so much you can care about it. I want the motivation to come from within. I want the motivation to come because the players want to be great and the coaches want them to be great. I want the motivation to come because they don't want to let their teammates down and they want to improve and they want to become a great football team; because I think if you do that, it will last. And I think just like everything we're trying to do in this foundation, it's to last and it's to sustain when things get tough and not have these, I can get the guys fired up in an air conditioned room. That's easy. I mean, I could do that, but when you go out, it's 110 degrees and you can't breathe, it's going to wear off. But if you got something real that you're fighting for and you're pulling together, that's what I want to motivate this team.

Do you know whether you'll run the starters out there for Preseason Week 2?

Jeff Hafley: I kind of know which way I'm leaning, so I'm not going to BS you. Everybody should be ready to play. I think it's really important for me and for us to see how many reps our guys get today, and then am I willing to put certain guys out who might get 40, 45 reps, you know, two days later? So I got to be careful on that. But I have a certain idea. We'll meet this afternoon and I'll finalize it, and then I'll have an answer for you – do I talk to you guys again before the game? Gosh. So you're not even going to get to know. Sorry. (laughter)

Chop Robinson has been really good out here against Dolphins and I think he was productive against Washington. What do you want to see from him out here today?

Jeff Hafley: I want to see continuation of that. Yeah, in the Washington practice I thought he was one of the brightest spots. Pass rush but then even more so the physicality in the run game. There was a couple times when he set the edge and it just closed right down. There was a couple times, the end man on the line went down and he came and he hit a puller real hard. The physicality is what I want to see. The physicality, the pass rush. And then the other thing I'm starting to really like about him is we did a two minute the other day, and we kept him in for like seven straight plays. That's real. Because what happens in a two minute is you can't sub. There's no more time to sub, right? So I told him it's like two-minute end of game. I mean, you got to put your hand down and rush. And then you can't breathe, you got to find a way to put your hand down and rush again. You got to just keep doing it over and over and over. And he's starting to do that and he's starting to really mature. And I hope that continues today. Not the end of the world, right, but he's really, really grown and he's been a fun guy to coach.