Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley 's postgame media availability on August 29, 2026

Jeff Hafley: Just to start, obviously we all know what today and tomorrow are, so those are pretty tough days. We're going through the process right now and I'm sure there's a lot of questions on cuts and everything that is going to happen. I will respectfully defer those to Sully who will be speaking to you I think within the next few days. I think that's important that we let him handle those questions, but anything else regarding the players and the game, I'd be happy to answer as always.

Teams have, beginning two years ago, those two extra roster spots to play with by putting players on IR concurrently with cuts tomorrow. Trey Moore would seem logical for one. Is Kenneth Grant's injury such that you think he's a logical option for the other? Just let him heal for four weeks and then bring him back?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I mean those are discussions that we're having, and I think that will clear up within the next few days here as we get closer, getting down to 53 and then talking about who we feel good about truthfully getting ready for the first game. So those are questions as we make these decisions today, tomorrow, and then talk to Kyle and have a good plan. But Barry, there's certainly, that is one that we've had the conversation about.

Will Kacmarek, can you tell us how serious his issue is?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he'll be week to week. He will be out this week.

At the moment, do you believe the team is likely to keep two quarterbacks?

Jeff Hafley: I do.

And at the moment, do you think the team is likely to keep four tailbacks?

Jeff Hafley: That's a good question. I think those are still some of the discussions going on, and I think that will clear up between today and tomorrow.

I have a question about the starters and how much playing time they got in the preseason. By my calculations, they got two joint practices and one quarter. I don't think that that's too far out of line with the rest of the NFL, but my question to you is two questions. No. 1, what was your preseason plan as far as the starters and did injuries alter that, especially in Game 3? And No. 2, your approach and the amount of time the starters have gotten, do you think it puts you at a disadvantage in, say, Weeks 1 and 2 of the regular season?

Jeff Hafley: To your first question, I thought I alluded to this and my thought going in, very detailed plan. I said it last night, in a perfect world, I would have loved to have seen the starters play 20, 25 plays, maybe into the second quarter and see how the game goes. But that just wasn't best for where we're at right now as a team. That's not best for the Dolphins. That's not best for trying to get guys ready to go play in that first game. Those are the decisions that we have to make. So whether or not that's going to limit certain guys, that's going to prepare our team to be most ready to play week one. And I strongly believe that. And I know everyone in the organization does as well.

And as far as the rest of the league, do you think the amount of time that your starters got, it seems like in the 17-game schedule, that's kind of the way it goes in the preseason. Is that a correct read on the situation?

Jeff Hafley: I mean, I think every team's different. There's some teams that did one joint practice, like the Falcons had one joint practice, so they played their starters yesterday for however many plays. We had two joint practices where a lot of our ones got 40 or close to 40 plus reps in real football, which is probably more than you would play your starters in a preseason game. I mean, we're not going to get those guys out there for 80 plays. We feel like the work that they got will be sufficient enough with these next two weeks to get them ready to play. But there's a fine line like I talked about, we got to make sure that the guys who we deem as starters are going to be healthy enough to play in Vegas, and that's more important than a preseason game.

I've always enjoyed hearing you talk about your plans and kind of the evolving nature of what you've portrayed for the next month or so and I wanted to ask you what the next two weeks look like in terms of conditioning, game planning. How do you want to attack the 14 days that you have before Vegas?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, we'll have really three-and-a-half good practices this week. We'll loosen them up a little bit Monday, get some individual work in. Guys who haven't done a lot, we'll have the practice squad guys hopefully by later in the afternoon on Monday. And then we'll kind of go through a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday kind of rehearsal of what an in-season three days will look like. Coaches will start game planning. We'll start introducing some of the Raiders scheme this week and start doing some scout work and some carded work, but I think this week is still really important for us to go good-on-good to continue to get ready to play, because I think as much as you can go speed-on-speed, I do think that's very important. I also – we got to make sure we're careful because we have a bunch of guys right now that are still not ready to practice, so we got to do some jog-through periods where they'll be able to go and continue to get work, because we got to make sure we're healthy going into the first game. So again, there's a fine line between I want to go full speed ahead and do all the things that I love to do, but at the same time, I got to make sure that we're healthy.

In listening to you over the last month talk about how you guys have gone about camp and preseason, feeling that conviction that you have about staying basic and focusing on player evaluation instead of winning calls, I'm just kind of curious what your influences are that have led to that conviction in you. Is that Jeff Hafley, the program builder at BC? Is that coaching influences that you've had from coaches you've worked under? Just kind of curious where all that conviction comes from about why this was right for your team.

Jeff Hafley: I think it's a collaboration of our whole entire staff and our organization and where we are as a team. I mean, we're young and we have a lot of guys who don't have a lot of experience in the NFL. And then I think you have to look at we have three new systems on offense, defense and special teams, so this is the infancy stages whereas, I mean I look back to my first year in Green Bay in the preseason. I think in preseason games, we ran two or three defenses in the preseason games. And then last year, probably a little bit more, but it's always been about fundamentals and technique and getting guys ready to play. I just believe in all my heart that you've got to learn how to do the little things first. And then in those practices, we've been a lot more scheme oriented. It's just in those settings when you're looking to evaluate, you want to get a pure evaluation of players and I believe the best way to do that is let them go out and play the game, clear mind, fast feet, not overcomplicate it and just try to win on a call. I mean, that doesn't make much sense to me – probably an influence with some of the guys that have been around too, in the last few years in the NFL. But that is certainly what we as a staff believed we needed to do with where we're at, one with the youth and two, with three new schemes. And now we really have these two weeks to continue to ramp it up and get ready to play our first game.

In a preseason finale, there are always those moments for fringe roster players where the average observer may watch and say, oh, they just cost themselves their spot. Not to get specific on any such moments from last game, but you probably know what I'm talking about. How do you balance evaluating the body of work over an entire camp with that last impression left before having to make a decision? Is that difficult?

Jeff Hafley: No, I mean you can't judge anybody off of one play, whether it's good or bad. It's got to be the full body of work. That's not fair I don't think to anybody; if a guy's got a great camp and we think he's going to make the team and he has one bad play, the body of work's got to trump one play. So I don't think that would be fair to anybody. At the same time, it's like if a guy hasn't been doing well all camp and then he goes out and has one great play, it's just the body of work is still greater than one play. It kind of goes back to the process being the most important thing.

And if I could follow up, could you give us an idea of just the collaboration that takes place this weekend as you move off that last preseason game, you and Sully, and how you guys feed off each other on feedback for these key decisions?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, it's been constant communication every single week. Every single week, usually when the players had the day off, him and I would sit down and kind of bounce ideas off each other, talk about the roster. I get his thoughts. He get my thoughts. We ask the coaches their thoughts, scouts their thoughts. Him and I have been in lockstep every step of the way, and I think he's such a good communicator. He's such a good listener. Ultimately, it's his decision with the 53, and I'm going to do everything that I can to help him, but I think he's done a really nice job.

I wanted to ask you, you've seen this team now for about a month. Obviously two joint practices, three exhibition games. Where would you assess you are from a depth standpoint with this roster? I know injuries have impacted some of the starters and some of the key backups, but where do you feel like you guys are from a depth standpoint?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, fair question. You know, I think we're thin still, and I think we got to develop the depth of the team and we'll do that as the season goes. We got to keep working with these guys. We got to coach them better. We got to develop these players to create more depth as we go.

How do you do that from a coaching standpoint? Is it just fundamentals and technique work? Or is it getting guys opportunities and reps?

Jeff Hafley: It's all of the above, right? It's in the meeting room. It's in individual, it's in practice, it's in walkthroughs. I think anytime you have a young team, you got to continue to work. I do believe this is still a developmental league. I mean, there's a lot of these players that, look, they might not start off and everybody's talking about them, but all of a sudden Year 2 or Year 3, they have a breakout year. So we need to coach and we need to develop, and we can't give up on the guys that we have here. We got to play this and make sure that they're better, six weeks from now than they are today. That's our assistant coaches jobs to coach their positions and to work with them and believe in them and to help them get better and develop them. I think that has to be a key to this game.