Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley 's postgame media availability on August 28, 2026
The preseason is officially over. What did you take away from the entire experience?
Jeff Hafley: Oh, a lot. Just being in the locker room with those guys and you know it's the last time we'll have all those players together. I'm proud of how hard they fought, proud of how hard they worked. Really just all camp, it was hard. It was a hard camp. It was a physical camp. We pushed them trying to figure out who were the guys that we can count on as we get going for tomorrow and the cuts. We got a lot of tough guys in that locker room that love football that are going to be really, really strong pieces for our foundation as we go forward. I'm proud of them and I'm sad that tomorrow, there's going to be a lot of hard decisions to make.
What did you learn about yourself going through your first training camp as a head coach in the first preseason? How do you get ready for your first regular season game?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I learned a lot of things. I don't even know where to start with that. You probably learn every single day. After every week, when the players have a day off, you try to evaluate yourself, you try to evaluate the schedule, you try to think about what you would do different, what you liked. But you got to remain true to yourself when things get hard, when things don't come easy, you can't flinch and you can't veer off the plan. And you got to trust your staff. And you got to really communicate with your players. I like the camp that we had and I think it's a really, really good starting point.
Chris Bell made his preseason debut. Can you just talk about what you saw from him and how excited you were to see him in an actual game after all the injuries he's had to battle through?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah. I have to go back and really watch the film to really hone in on him. I know he had a bunch of opportunities to catch the ball. I know he made he made some of those catches. I just think the way he's worked, the way Kyle (Johnston) has worked with him and Todd (Hunt), our strength coach and obviously Kyle (Johnston), our trainer, how hard he's pushed himself to give him a chance to get back where he's at right now. I think a lot of people didn't give him a chance to get back until a lot later, which is why he probably was drafted where he is. He's attacked it and those guys did a great job with him. I think what you're seeing right now is he hasn't played a lot of football and he needs to do that. It's the muscle memory and it's the movement and it's the suddenness. But what a cool deal for him to come out and try to get some action tonight, which was really important for him because he hasn't done very much.
Was it very intentional to get Chris Bell that first play?
Jeff Hafley: It was intentional to get him involved early. The read and the coverage probably dictated that more, but we definitely wanted to try to get him involved early because he was going to be on a pitch count. So your answer is yes, sooner than later.
This might be a question for him – I think we're getting him later – but I think he took a hit on one of those targets. Just kind of gathered himself for a minute and bounced up. How important is it for him to take hits like that in preseason as he's working his way back?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah. I think anybody who's played the game, I think that's just as important. He's got to get hit again and he has not been for a long time. We didn't practice very much with him and he was in a non-contact jersey for a long time, so he probably shook that off and said, 'all right, I'm ready to go now.' I think you'll probably get a good answer from him on that.
It's going to be a process for a young team like this. Will it also be a process for you as a first year NFL head coach?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, for sure. I think for everybody it's going to be a process. But I think we have a very good process that has started, and I think we have a foundation that is laid. I think when we go out here, and even tonight, you want to win in everything that you do. Like everything. We obviously couldn't get that done tonight and I could list off why. But at the same time, this process has got to be strong, and there's going to be some ups and downs, and there's going to be some great moments, and there's going to be moments that we have to learn from. But the whole key to this year is doing everything we can to win football games, and making sure we do it right, so the foundation is right and the process is right. So win or lose, it's we're going like this, right? And again, I want to win in everything that we do, but I want to make sure that as we build this year, we're doing it the right way with no shortcuts, because the goal here is to sustain success and take no shortcuts. It is going to be hard and we're going to work hard, and our staff's going to work hard, and our players are going to work hard, and I am really, really excited to start honing in and game planning and getting ready for our first game.
Can you give us updates on two guys – Quinn Ewers and Jacob Rodriguez?
Jeff Hafley: Quinn, we tried to get back into practice this week, but never truly felt comfortable enough to move around to be able to go out and play in a really a live setting. And then Jacob, the same thing. Jacob didn't practice the last few days. Jacob will be day-to-day. But he was not able to play today.
Talk about how satisfied you were with Miami's defense early on, specifically forcing turnovers against what was the bulk of Atlanta's starting roster?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I told the guys today when we went out there, what an opportunity. Their starters (against) guys on our team trying to make the team. Guys on our team trying to make other teams to put on tape against their starters. I think we forced two fumbles and had an interception. And really, even on that first big play, if we just set the edge, we're off the field. Clearly we got to coach it better and play it better. But I just love how hard they played and how confident they played, and I think a lot of those guys took advantage of their opportunity against a lot of starters, so I am proud of them. I'm probably more proud in the second half. We challenged them and I thought our guys on defense and offense, I thought did a really nice job in the second half. And if you watch the sideline after big plays, it was like everybody was excited. The even cooler part was we had a chance, right? We missed a drop here, an overthrow here, a penalty here. And everybody was picking each other up. It was really cool. As I watched in that second half, to watch the team kind of come together, those are the things that are going to be really important to us this year.
What ultimately led to the decision to rest starters tonight and how comfortable are you having them play just the one series in the preseason?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, as I went into this thing, it wasn't the plan. But it's kind of like what we just talked about. As you go through, you just can't write out your plan and say, 'hey, I'm sticking to this no matter what.' We had a bunch of injuries and we became super thin in a lot of positions. We just felt with the injuries – and then the other thing is we still looked and we talked all week, Sully (Jon-Eric Sullivan) and I and the staff, that there was a lot of evaluation left. We felt what was best for our team right now was to give those guys the eval and to make sure that we get healthy, so we can really get those guys ready for next week and week one. We just felt that was the best decision for us and for our football team.
Kind of along those same lines, what, if anything, can we extrapolate from the extended run of Tyrel Dodson and Willie Gay? Was it evaluation? Injuries?
Jeff Hafley: Both. We had to have guys that could play in the game. We felt like we wanted to get them in. We really were down to, I think, two linebackers for the rest of the game because you got (Jordyn) Brooks out, you got (Jacob) Rodriguez out, you got Ronnie (Harrison Jr.) out. So you got to have people to play in the game. They were healthy and I thought they did a really nice job.
It felt like in the second half, Mark Gronowski was not afraid to air the ball out. Talk about his confidence and how it's grown ever since the team re-signed him.
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I thought him and Cam (Miller) both, I thought they were better today. I thought the ball came out on time. I thought the offensive line gave them better protection. They looked more in rhythm. And then you mentioned Gronk (Mark Gronowski), just the toughness of some of those pull-down runs that he had. It was unfortunate. You're going in to score and a high snap with a lot of heat on it, he kind of got bent backwards. I respect his toughness and I saw improvement from both of those guys today.
You have some guys who have not been here very long, including Jarquez Hunter just arriving. How does that figure into cut down day? How do you evaluate a guy?
Jeff Hafley: It's hard. I mean there's limited tape so you got to go on what you saw and what you saw in the past. And then you got to go on what we were able to do today, which is another reason we felt like we needed to play a lot of these guys. So we'll get together and we'll watch this tape. We'll watch it tonight. We'll evaluate it again in the morning and then there's going to be some hard decisions to make. But that's not easy. In the last two weeks we had a lot of new players show up, which is preseason in the NFL.
You went on with Stephen A. Smith a while ago but it just came out this past week. You had this quote where success this season can be measured not in wins and losses, but on development. As a competitor, though, how difficult is it to balance that – wanting to win and the desire to win – with knowing realistically where the team is at this stage and wanting to keep building something?
Jeff Hafley: Look, let me say this. We, and I, want to win everything that we do. But success is not just defined by winning. Winning, for sure, that's why we play the game. And I think every competitor wants to win in everything that we do. But it's kind of like what I was just talking about before. We are going to compete. I want to win everything that we do. I've said that over and over. But at the same time, we need to make sure that this foundation and the process is built the right way. I was saying that there's no shortcuts because it's bigger than that right now. Those are the things that are really important as we move this thing forward and we build and we find out who we have and what we have, because we want to get back on top. And to do that, you got to go through some hard stuff with competing in mind to win in everything that we do, but keeping the main thing our process and the detail and the toughness, and not taking any shortcuts and not flinching along the way, regardless of what happens, so at the end of the year, we can look back and say, this foundation is strong and we're not going away because look out, we're coming. I think that kind of got lost in my conversation. It's not just – there's a lot of things that are bigger than that. But I can look you in the eye and tell you, we are going to do everything we can to win every single game.
