Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on May 27, 2026.
De'Von Achane did not work last week or last OTA, he was on the side working with trainers. Will he be a full participant today?
Jeff Hafley: No, he's still recovering, and he will not be a full participant today.
And can you tell us what he's recovering from?
Jeff Hafley: Last year, if you remember, he missed the last game of the season. He had something in his shoulder that he had to get cleaned up and he did that. HAnd you know, he's rehabbing right now. He's doing well. You'll see him out there doing some drills and doing some running around. You just will not see him in full team drills.
Austin Jackson, he's another one who we saw out there, he didn't participate. Will he participate today?
Jeff Hafley: No, he'll be doing the same thing. He's still working. You got to give Austin a lot of credit. Last year, he hurt his foot and a lot of guys in that situation would have opted to have surgery and got something done during it, but he battled through it. Even through the end there, he fought through it, and I give him a lot of credit for that. He obviously had that fixed and now he's on his way to getting better as well.
Chris Bell, is he close or where is he at in his progress?
Jeff Hafley: I'm not sure how you would define close. I mean, he's running around. He's with the strength and conditioning guys. He's with our trainers and he's doing his rehab. When he'll be ready, I'm not sure if there's a timetable for that yet coming off of that surgery. He'll be out there. You guys will get a chance to see him out there as well.
You guys have been pretty judicious in some cases about the way you brought players on, not overloading them. Kadyn Proctor, you're going to keep them on the left side. Chris Johnson, Sean Duggan was saying he could play inside or outside, but you'll do what's best for the Dolphins, you don't want to overload him, and I think it's the same case with Jonah Savaiinaea, moving him back to his comfort spot on the right side. Is there a method behind this? Like, you don't want to overload young players or is it a case-by-case basis? How does that work?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think it's case-by-case. I mean Chris (Johnson) is going to play inside and outside. We got to be careful overloading any young player, but we also have to get a feel for the players and see how much that they can handle. Quickly we've seen that Chris is capable of handling multiple positions, so you'll see him on the inside, you'll see him on the outside. He'll be doing both. (Kadyn) Proctor, you'll see on one side right now, Jonah (Savaiinaea), you'll see on one side right now, and we'll just keep him on those sides and let them get comfortable. So it's case by case, and I think that's our job as coaches is to figure that out. Some guys, we're still not sure yet. Practice has been limited. Team reps have been limited, and we'll figure that out in training camp.
When it comes to Jonah Savaiinaea, how much do you think a move back to the right side can help him in his second season? Did you guys identify that as a place where he can gain something?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he seems more comfortable there. Talking to Zach (Yenser) and to Matt (Applebaum), they seem to believe that he's more comfortable there, but it's also Year 2 for him, so he's going to be more comfortable, period. Whether he played on the left side, whether he played on the right side, he's got more cumulative reps and muscle memory on the one side. Is it a mental thing? Is it a physical thing? If you ask Jonah, he feels good on the right side. So whether it's mental, whether it's physical, whether it's confidence, whether it's Year 2, our job is to make sure he has a better year than he did last year, which you would expect going from Year 1 to Year 2.
De'Von Achane said when you guys spoke, you had kind of asked him to be more of a vocal leader. First of all, how did that conversation go and is there something specifically you see in him that makes you believe that it's possible for him?
Jeff Hafley: Our conversation went great. Our first conversation that we had, I thought went great. I just got to know him. I had a good conversation, just talked about a lot of different things. I don't recall how I told him I needed him to be a leader, whether it was vocal, whether it was one way or the other. I think everybody leads different, and we need our best players to lead whatever way that they can. Whether it's how he practices, whether it's how he grabs a guy one on one, whether he is loud out on the field, we need our best players to lead and I'm excited for him to do that.
Getting back to the inside role, I'm curious, what do you look for in a nickelback?
Jeff Hafley: There's a couple things. On early downs right now in the NFL – early downs, first-and-10, second-and-1 to -6, which are typically more of your run pass downs where it's not just leaning heavy pass, so you got to be able to play the run and the pass. In certain personnel groups like 11, you got to have a guy that can play the run and fit in the box. So what does that mean? A lot of the nickels have to have some size to them so they can hold up and be durable, whether that's playing inside gap, if your B gaps open to the bubble side or whether it's to play the edge, whether it's to blitz off the edge. There are certain times now where what teams are going to do, they're going to come out in certain formations and get your nickel on one side, then they're going to motion you fast, so now the nickel is in the box, and it might look like the nickel is a linebacker. Sometimes there's nothing we can do about that, right? They got you in a bad position, so that guy's got to have some size to him and he's got to be physical and he's got to be tough. Chris (Johnson) has some of that, if you want to talk about Chris. Then there are certain situations that are, second-and-7-plus, third-down situations where there's more pass and you have to have a guy that can play in coverage. If you want to play man coverage, he's got to be a guy that can cover slot defenders. If you're playing certain teams that their best players are slot, now you've got to get a guy that can play the run and cover potentially one of the best receivers. If you don't, then you have to have a variety of that and call it different things, whether it's an early down nickel, whether it's a big nickel, whether it's a third down package where you're bringing in another corner. You're asking for a very versatile player in the NFL right now to be able to do all those different things. We're trying to figure out which of those he can hold up and do and handle.
So you want to have multiple players I guess in the nickel – I'm saying this just like in covering the last couple of years, like it's been one guy. I know you talked a little bit about before, like having your defense kind of look multiple, so does having multiple nickels kind of fit into that philosophy?
Jeff Hafley: I'd love to have one guy who can do all those things. If we could get a player that can do all those things and then you never have to take him off the field and just play him in that one spot, that'd be awesome. I had a guy for years, K'Waun Williams, who I felt could do all that and he didn't have to come off the field on first, second or third down. You would basically call him like an every down nickel. Just like people will take the Will off the field and put a dime on the field on passing downs. You'd love for your Will to be able to do things on third down so now you have a backer that can play on all three downs. If you cannot, say we get a nickel who we feel really good about on early downs, but maybe on certain downs, we want to kick him on the outside and on third down, bring in a third quarter, play more man, play more coverage, less blitzing, less opportunity, he has to play the run and get inside on a gap, then you call it something different. So maybe we have three different packages, three different names and it's still that same spot on the field, but it's a different letter and he has a different skill set. I think in the NFL right now, you're starting to see that position is a highly sought after position and it's important. But if we got to play multiple guys at it, we'll play multiple guys.
I wanted to ask you a question about Kadyn Proctor in regards to, yes, it's important for him to settle into the left guard spot but you guys ideally, ultimately, I think envision him as a tackle. Why not use that opportunity now with Austin Jackson sidelined for him to get those tackle reps at this point.
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, there's things we can do in individual and do that, so he's working the fundamentals and the technique, whether it's pass protection, whether it's in the run game. But when we're just talking about schematically learning the playbook, we believe that it's his best bet not to overload him, like we were just talking about to try to learn too much, and then when it comes down to actually having to play it, you're not ready to play anything. I've been a part of and I've even made the mistake in my past, of you take one player and you say, all right, I'm going to teach him this position, this position. Then you start playing him and it's like, man, that's not fair what we just did to that guy. He's not ready to play. He didn't get all those reps over and over again. We're really limited in what we can do right now. OTAs is not training camp. I mean, you guys saw practice. It is what it is. I respect the rules and we're going to follow the rules of OTAs, but this isn't like let's go run the ball and be physical and get all those reps. So the minimal reps that we get, we just believe it's best to get them comfortable playing football again, and then we can certainly do that. I respect the question. I think it's a good question, but we got to be mindful of how much to throw on these guys right now.
We didn't see Storm Duck last week, he ended last season on IR with a knee injury. Is he in the same boat as Austin Jackson?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he had to get some stuff cleaned up, and he's in the same boat rehabbing and hopefully we'll get him back soon. I thought he did a good job watching the tape, so I'm excited. Another young player who we need to get healthy and hopefully when it comes time for training camp, you're looking and not seeing anybody out there.
I know it's early, but how has Dante Trader Jr. kind of adjusted to the new scheme and kind of shown a little bit of growth from what you saw on tape last year?
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, Dante loves football. He's always here. He's always in the building. He's always asking questions. He practices so hard. He's so intentional. He's a smart football player who loves the game, and he's been a lot of fun to coach. Again, right now we're playing in shorts and t-shirts, and there's no contact and there's no tackling. When it comes to taking what he's learning in the classroom and applying it on the field and being in the right spot and communicating and grasping the scheme and showing good leadership back there and being a great teammate and giving great effort and having a great attitude, I can go on about him. I think he's doing a really, really good job. But when anyone asks me right now, anyone being truthful to you, being truthful to anyone in our building, being truthful to my wife – who really doesn't ask me a lot of these questions but maybe she could – how are the guys doing? I mean, yeah, I think they're doing a good job in the setting that we're putting them in, but eventually when the helmet and shoulder pads come on, we'll find out who can make those plays, which ultimately the game is about. But for passing the test of what he's been given right now, I think he's doing a great job.
How big is that communication piece considering that you told us that you'd like to run your defense?
Jeff Hafley: For the safeties? Communication is everything. Communication on defense is everything. You want it to be loud. Like if you hear a loud defense, you'll get a confident defense. That's the thing that we have to strive for but communication is going to be the key. Whether it's the Mike backer, the linebackers, the d-ends talking to the tackles, but for the safeties, yeah, that's a big deal because they get everything set back there.
Chop Robinson has 10.0 sacks in his first two seasons. Do you view his skill set as aligning with this scheme relative to high sack production? Do you see that in his future?
Jeff Hafley: I hope so, that'd be great. I see Chop right now as a guy who's driven to learn and improve his fundamentals, his technique. I think Austin has done a really good job with him, but that's got to be in the run game and rushing. This is not you're just going to rush, I'm not going to do that. He's got to play the run well, which I've been really proud of him the way he's playing in individual and even in the walkthroughs, how deliberate has been and using his hands and getting his eyes in the right place and taking a good first step. You earn the right to rush by playing the run well, and that's one thing I continually talk to him about and I think we'll see him do really well. We're counting on him and that sack production we need. That's a skill set that he has and needs to be developed still, and that's our job to put him in those situations to have the production and figure that out.
Would you rather have two third-down sacks or six third-down pressures? Like one or the other?
Jeff Hafley: Depends. What did the pressures cause and what are the sacks cause? Did the pressure cause an interception? Because then I'd rather have the pressure than the sack depending on when it happened. Did the pressure force the quarterback to throw the ball away and now they're punting? Same with the sack, did the pressure lead to a big play and didn't mean anything? So it just depends on what happened on the play.
Regarding your kicking competition, will every single kick be tracked, which I assume it is, and what matters in the final analysis? Is that every single kick or only kicks in certain situations?
Jeff Hafley: I think it's both. I think it's looking at the big picture over time, the consistency. Then in the situations where there is pressure, who's coming through and making those kicks? But everything has to be evaluated. The only thing that we have to base it off of right now is practice. And then obviously, once we get into training camp and joint practices and preseason games, we'll have to make a decision.
I wanted to ask you about leadership on this team. Obviously, you're new, you're trying to figure out people, you're trying to figure out personalities, and you're also trying to lay your own foundation. How do you kind of evaluate where you are from a leadership standpoint on this team with the veteran players? I've always had this belief that the young players not only learn from the coaches, but they also learn from the older veterans in their units, and you have no veterans in some of these units.
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, then it's going to come from the coaches where we don't have those veterans, but there are some veterans that I think we have some really good leaders. I don't want to go through names right now and leave anybody out, but we have some key guys that have played that are leaders. Then we have some second-year guys that you can see are more comfortable and they're starting to lead in their way. I think that's really important for everybody to understand that there's so many different ways to lead. Like I said, it could be pulling a guy aside, it could be how you talk to a guy in your room, it could be behind closed doors bringing a guy along with you, it could be on the weekend bringing a group of the young guys out and doing something or inviting them over to a house for dinner, which we've had a lot of guys do. Then there are rooms – I can't look you in the eye and tell you there's an older leader in every room that's been there before and done it because we're young and that's just the reality of who we are. I said to the coaches today, there are some instances where I need the staff to step up and lead, and then I need the staff to develop leaders, and I have to develop leaders. Because I've been in too many places where a coach comes in and says we don't have any leaders around here. I think that's a bunch of BS, right? You can develop leaders; you can teach leadership. I can teach leadership to the staff. The staff can teach leadership to the players. We have to do that. I think that's key for this team to grow. But to say you need X amount of guys in each room, right now we have who we have, so what can we do about it to make it better? That's why I said to you, right now the biggest thing I'm doing is I'm really observing and watching everything. I'm watching every guy, I'm watching every clip of film and then in the team room, I'm trying to show them what's good, what's not good enough, what can be better and which won't be tolerated. The beautiful part right now is the guys have bought in and they're following. It's so much fun to coach these guys right now because they're giving everything that they have and everything that we ask to do. It's fun to come to work every day, so we'll keep working through that.
