Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on August 4, 2026.

We didn't see Austin Jackson finish practice yesterday. Was he sick, injured or some other reason?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, Austin missed – I do not see that being long term. I see that being day to day, so he will not practice today, but hopefully that will not be very long, which I do not anticipate that being for very long.

And we haven't seen Jamaree Salyer and Greg Dulcich the past couple days. Can you give us an update on them?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, the same thing with them. I don't see it long term. I see them day to day. I would say for Dulcich just being truthful with you, probably back in that Washington timeline. And for Salyer more day to day.

With the depth that you have at right tackle, obviously they had some struggles yesterday. Is this a good opportunity to evaluate what's there or how comfortable do you feel practicing without Austin?

Jeff Hafley: Well, I think it forces us to answer your question. It forces us to evaluate what's there, right? You have no other choice at this point. Your roster is your roster, and it's a great time when he's not practicing to evaluate those other guys.

Do you notice a different type of energy and excitement with the pads on the fans out there?

Jeff Hafley: I could sense the first day on a Sunday. There was some cool excitement. I think it was cool for those guys to see. It was cool for me to run out and see the fans. It brought a little extra excitement and pretty cool that they could see, and it was a great day. There was a ton of people here. I mean, I thought that was awesome. Even yesterday there was a bunch of kids on the left side of the bleachers that were cheering, and what a cool opportunity for them. As far as the pads go on, truthfully, I think any time you put the pads on and you change the stimulus a little bit, they were a little quieter in stretch and you can see they were probably all thinking, I mean, it's going to be a physical practice. They were trying to get their minds right. Some of them are young and they have some anxiety and they're anxious about it. So it was quiet when we first went out there, and then I think usually when you play after you take that first shot, it kind of, all right, I'm back. And now this is what we do and how we do it and it feels normal. So I think it took a little bit of time to get going. A typical first day of pads. Pad level is usually really high. Things are pretty sloppy. Just carrying your pads again, being in full pads. They got thigh pads on, knee pads on, and they're just getting used to carrying that weight. But certainly the biggest thing that I noticed is the pad level usually goes up because you really got to bend and play with great leverage, but we'll get used to it. I think that's why it's important you practice in front of fans. It's as close to a preseason game as you could possibly get, and then practicing with your pads on, it's how you actually have to go and play the game, so you better get used to it.

Yesterday, it seemed like we saw a lot of blitzes and stunts and twists and things like that. Is that the case? And what does that tell us about how you look at the game? Were you worried about overwhelming your offensive line and pass protection, that kind of thing?

Jeff Hafley: No, yesterday in the periods, it was a bunch of second-and-7-plus and third down situations, and those are usually more downs where you will notice more pressure, more stunts because usually they're more passing downs and usually you get more exotic on passing downs than you do in run downs. When you try to do those exotics against run downs, you usually get creased, so you try to pick and choose. And then we were in a two-minute setting where in certain situations with the clock stopped or even clock running, and you got to knock them out of field goal range where more pressure will show up. So that's probably why you saw that. As far as early down football goes and we need to be able to play base downs, we need to be able to move and play technique; and I think the biggest thing for us right now is we need to figure out what works and what we can handle. So I'm trying to throw a lot at these guys.

You've talked about coverage at all three levels for cornerbacks that you like. I'm curious, are there other non-negotiable qualities for a Jeff Hafley cornerback before that even starts?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I don't ever want to stay blocked. If you ever show me a corner who's engaged with the receiver and he's letting that receiver block him and he stays blocked, that's not okay with me. Like that drives me absolutely crazy because all that is, is toughness and a mentality that there's no way a receiver is going to stay on me and block me. So you need to learn how to block release and leverage the ball and get to the ball. I think when you look at a football team in general, the way I view a defense is when I turn on the tape, whether it's our team or another team, if the corners are physical and they're tackling, it's usually a pretty tough team. It's like when I watch wide receivers, if I'm watching a tape and wide receivers are blocking down the field and they're getting after DBs and linebackers and defensive ends, it's usually a sign that's a pretty tough team. So corners who stay on blocks, that's not okay with me.

You mentioned early downs. Last couple years we've seen 12 and 13 personnel kind of trending up as far as early downs usage, but also the passing rate there has been going up. I know Chicago was I think over 50 percent last year. How hard is it to gauge when a trend like that is going to keep going versus when maybe it's capped out? And then do those conversations kind of come up when you're working with Sully, talking about personnel or scheme, like how hard is it to thread that needle?

Jeff Hafley: Well, you just asked me like a lot of questions. So no, that's okay. But I want to make sure I try to answer them for you. So going back with the trend, did we see more – you know, you look at Chicago, for example, I think one of the things Ben (Johnson) does is he self-scouts himself and he stays extremely balanced, which I think a lot of the good coordinators do. Any time I look at first-and-10, second-and-1 to 6 in a certain personnel grouping, if it's 50-50, I have to play it balanced, right. If I know 12 personnel on P-and-10 or 12 personnel on second-and-3 is heavy, heavy run or boot, for example; then there are certain blitzes that I circle and like and it kind of gives me the advantage there. So you got to be careful. Just like I got to self-scout myself; if they look at me and in early downs, I'm more base coverage and don't blitz or stunt then, they're probably looking at it as these guys aren't a threat to blitz or stunt and we're going to take advantage of them. So I think there's a lot of self-scouting there, okay. I think based on the personnel you have, like who do you have? Do you have three really good tight ends? Maybe you have three really good receivers. Who do you want to get on the field? Certainly there seems to be more 12 and even 22 that's being run again, kind of going back to how football used to be played. And then if you look a couple years ago, people were spreading it out more getting into four open. So when that changes, I'm not sure, but even for us right now, I mean, Bobby (Slowik) does a great job of balancing it and mixing it up, and ultimately it's going to come down to who we have. But I can't predict. I can't predict what it's going to look like three years from now. I think offensive guys get bored and just want to keep changing it up and having fun.

I have one more injury question for you. What can you share about Lonnie Johnson Jr.?

Jeff Hafley: Day to day. He won't be out there today, but I don't think that will be long term either. The one I'll just get ahead of you and just be honest with you is (Rene) Konga, which I'm sure one of you guys was going to jump in and ask me anyway. He's the one that will be long term. He'll be out for the season. But all those other guys, I can look you in the eye and tell you it's day to day. But Konga will be done for the year, and that's unfortunate because he's a young guy who was working really hard and he'll have to view this as a redshirt year.

With Kadyn Proctor, obviously you guys have thought a lot about him. Athletically, has anything surprised you because yesterday on that Tyrel Dodson interception, to see a guy that big go all the way down there, has anything surprised you on the field with him?

Jeff Hafley: No, nothing surprises me. It's exactly what we thought we'd get. No, I haven't seen many offensive linemen run that fast and chase a ball carrier, and I was fearful of the defensive player who had the ball, because if it was live, it would have been a very interesting hit. But I think that if you really watch that play closely, him and Brewer both took off for the ball, and I think that says a lot about the buy in of these players right now and the mentality that these players have, where a lot of times, even early on when I'm showing the film to the whole team and we're going to throw an interception, right? It's going to happen. And what do you do after the interception? How do you react on defense? How do you react on offense? On defense, you better catch the ball and every single guy better go get a block. And if you pause the film and a guy's not getting a block, why? You don't care about that guy that just intercepted the ball? You don't want to score a touchdown? Don't celebrate. Go block somebody and try to help him score a touchdown. On the other side of the ball on offense, I get it. Don't sulk. Don't just sit there and watch it. Go after the ball and try to get it back. Because if you notice, yesterday there was one play we fumbled and Omar (Brown) picked it off, and then the running back Hank (Anthony Hankerson) came in and Peanut Punched it and he got the ball back. That sends a huge message. He was waiting for him to get off the ground like we're talking about, and he threw a punch. The other one, when we threw the pick and he returned it for a touchdown, Brewer and Proctor took off and I was almost like, 'Oh my gosh, one, this is awesome. Two, let's make sure they don't really hit anybody.' I think it sends a really loud message that, you know, I see better than I hear that these players have bought in and they're giving everything that they have.

What have you liked from Malik Willis the last two practices?

Jeff Hafley: Just more consistent, the confidence and he's just getting more comfortable. The ball's coming out quicker. He's throwing more on his first hitch than being late on his throws. He's starting to have a better relationship with the guys. We're only through a handful of practices, but he's already grabbing guys on the side talking to him. If a guy drops the ball, he's encouraging him. You can see him and Malik (Washington) are on the sideline talking about routes, how to do this, how to do that, what the defense is playing. I just think he's getting more comfortable. Still really early. And we all have a long way to go.

A week into camp, what's one thing you've been happy with holistically and one thing that needs improvement?

Jeff Hafley: I think the overall effort and how hard they're practicing. I think the improvement – you know, the little details, the false starts, the pre-snap penalties that are going to make us go backward. And then just like every other coach right now, it's the overall execution and the mentals. And that's going to happen early in camp. What can't happen early in camp is the things that you can control as a player, right? And that's your attitude, that's your effort. That's how you show up every day. It's how you run to the ball. It's how hard you pay attention. It's what you're like in the meeting room. I mean, that's been outstanding. And a lot of the other stuff, we got a long way to go, but that's totally okay because it's early in camp and we got a coach. We got to coach hard, we got to coach better, and we need to execute better.

What has impressed you so far about Malik Washington?

Jeff Hafley: Just his overall route running. I think a lot of people might think of him as a bubble guy, a catch and run guy, a quick screen guy, a get him the ball on a hitch and let him run. Just him at the top of the routes and I think him really trying to master the route tree and the techniques that are being asked to do, and just his overall consistency of how he approaches every day.

Regarding Zach Sieler, this is a guy who had back-to-back 10-sack seasons, 5.5 last year. How important is that sack total to you from Zach Sieler, and how important is it to determining whether he had a good season or not?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think you got to look at this two ways. When I first just watched Zach's film, you know, I thought one thing. And then when you get to know Zach and what you see what Zach does throughout the course of the plays, especially when you get into those passing downs – here, I'll give you a good analogy: I've used Zach like a point guard, okay, where a lot of people, all they look for is how many points did they score? And a lot of people might say, how many sacks did Zach get? One, Zach's sacks are going to come so I certainly want that number up. But what Zach does is Zach sets up so many games and so many rushers for his teammates, and he takes so much pride in that where if he knows the slide side or the man's side, he can call out those games and really – selfish rushers just want to rush. Zach's perfectly okay with running a game, picking a guy, grabbing a guy and having his teammate come through and you can see how excited he gets about that. So I've used Zach one, certainly I like his numbers to be up, but at the same time, I think if we counted assists, I think he'd be one of the assist leaders in the NFL.

Did you ever watch his film with Christian Wilkins?

Jeff Hafley: Oh, I've watched it. Clark has showed it to me and those two did a great job together, and I'm sure Christian really appreciated having Zach because he did the same thing. Unselfish player. I think that's the coolest thing that you don't know about Zach when you first watch the film, but when you get to know him and watch him, that's really cool to see.

So the other day, Jacob Rodriguez was talking about measuring when to go for the punch opportunities or third down short of the sticks, maybe hold back and make a tackle. How can you tell when you're in the scouting process on tape that a player is sharp with those instincts? And how do you go about facilitating that once you get into the building?

Jeff Hafley: Some guys are just natural at it. I mean, I think it's really important one, when you look at any player in the draft, I think production is very important, right? Guys that have a ton of tackles, guys that have a ton of sacks, guys that have made plays. I think often people look at traits and not production. Well, you want both, right? I mean, a guy could be extremely athletic, extremely fast and long but has made no plays so he's got no instincts. The instincts show up, right, when you watch Jacob and Jacob's got a certain timing, which you even saw in college. He knows when to throw it. He's precise with it, he's detailed with it, and he's caused forced fumbles. So ball production, as you look at players is important. Like if you're scouting a safety, for me, one of the questions I always ask is how many interceptions does he have in his career? That's important because if he has none and you watch the tape, is it because he's had no opportunities? But then you watch the guy who's got eight to 10 and it's like, I mean, a guy who gets the ball, gets the ball. And that's important because in our game we need guys who can take away the football.

You not only retained Bobby Slowik but made him the OC. How much of that was continuity and what is he showing you in terms of getting the offense in gear for the season?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think continuity just kind of was coincidence. When I went through the process, Bobby was really high. Whenever you get a chance to interview for a head job, you got to go in with a depth chart of coordinators. And it can't just be one. It's got to be thought out and you got to be detailed. And there have to be guys that are – there's also a 'getability' factor, right? I can't like, 'this Kyle Shanahan is the guy I'm going to hire to be my offensive coordinator' because there's no way Kyle's going to be my offensive coordinator. So you start to lose guys you think you can get. Bobby's a guy I had for the past two years on my list. One, I was with him. He worked on defense very closely with me in San Francisco, so I knew how smart he is. I knew how he is around players. More importantly, I know him as a person and he's the type of guy that I want. If any of you spend any time with Bobby, he's one of the best human beings that there is. He has a great way to relate to players, be demanding and he's a great teacher, and I think he's been trained by one of the best guys to call plays in a long time. That's important to me because he does things the right way and I have complete trust in him to do what he thinks. Will I jump in from time to time and give him my thoughts and ideas? Of course, I think that's important, too, but I got total confidence in Bobby.

I'm curious, how do you evaluate the interceptions in practice? Like with Malik, it seems like a lot of his came from tipped passes, right, and so how do you coach that?

Jeff Hafley: I think you got to look at everyone individually. Did he throw a ball down the middle of the field where there was a middle safety and just make a bad decision? Well, you know, that's on him. Did he throw a ball on time and it hit the receiver's hands and it bounced up and counts as an interception, and five weeks from now, you're not going to remember it, you're just going to count it as an interception. But next play, man, it happened. We got to catch the ball better. Did the protection break down and as he was releasing the ball, did his arm get hit? And was that the reason that the ball got tipped or is that the reason – so there's so many reasons. Was the ball supposed to be on time? On his first hitch, was he supposed to throw the ball right there and the receiver broke the wrong way and now the DB's sitting right there? But if the receiver broke the right way, he would have been in front of the guy. So it's just hard. It's hard. When I watch a game live, it's hard when you guys watch a game live. And what's our first reaction? The quarterback threw another interception, but that's not always the case, right? So you got to look really hard at it. And I think Bobby and those guys do a great job, and Malik understands that, too. So in the moment in the game, in the practice, whatever it may be, you got to just let it go. And then you got to go look at the iPad, figure out why it happened and correct it to make sure it doesn't happen again. Or did the DB just – like let's give the defense credit, too, sometimes – did the DB just make an incredible play and you got to live through it and go. But there's a whole lot of reasons.

What about the running backs room keeps drawing you in? Is it the personality, the versatility of the position, or is it just because that's where you're looking?

Jeff Hafley: What do you mean the running backs or the DBs?

Running backs.

Jeff Hafley: Well, I'm a DB guy, so I spend a lot of time with the DBs. What draws me to the running backs when you see me around them, is I just one, I want to be around everybody, and two, with Achane there, I think we have one of the best in the game and I like to be around those guys and support them. And then the other guys are all battling, so it's been a really fun group to watch so far.