Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on November 2, 2026.

A couple quick things. Proctor, is he still in protocol?

Jeff Hafley: He is still in the protocol.

I know it's hard when a guy's in protocol to give updates, but any further details?

Jeff Hafley: No, I mean, he's progressing through it and will continue to follow the steps, but he's currently still in the protocol.

Your thoughts from watching the tape on how Willis played yesterday?

Jeff Hafley: Some good. I thought there were some drives where the ball came out well, made really clean decisions, made some big throws, a touchdown pass, some third down conversions. And then just like any other game, there's room for improvement, the things that we watch on the tape on what he can do to continue to improve and get better, whether it's throwing the ball, whether it's with his legs, whether it's decision making. There's always some good and there's always some room to improve.

And then Jarrett Kingston, what did he do well?

Jeff Hafley: I thought he started off a little slow and then I thought as he got comfortable, I thought he picked it up and he played well. I thought he was physical. His assignments were good. I know he had the one false start fairly early in the game, but I thought he finished well. I thought he played well for his first start, and I was proud of him. And whether or not he goes again next week, I know that he'll be ready and that we'll be able to count on him.

Is there any chance this week for Darrell Baker or Ronnie Harrison Jr. or Trey Moore?

Jeff Hafley: I would say Baker probably has the best chance out of all three that you mentioned. If today is Monday, I would say Baker's got the best chance, but I couldn't tell you yes or no.

How is Trey doing just overall?

Jeff Hafley: Trey's doing good. Do I think he's going to be back this week or next week? I don't. But we'll see how he progresses and still hopeful that we'll get him for some part of the season to get another young guy out of the field and see what he can do.

A question about situational football versus big picture regarding the defense. New England had good success second half running and passing, but there are snapshots of the defense doing well situationally. The first down from the 21-yard line and you guys forced the field goal. I think it's the incomplete pass in front of Willie Gay, JuJu has the tackle and then the coverage. He can't even go up the middle. He's got to throw it away. Is it all about the big picture? You didn't get the victory, or do you see progress in the situational success?

Jeff Hafley: I thought our defense yesterday situationally did play better, yeah. I thought the third downs were better. I thought the second-and-longs were better. We had some key stops in the game. We had the three-and-out to start the second half, which was huge. We talked about starting a half, they went on the boot, they threw into a cloud, and then I think we had the sack or we stopped them on that third down. We had the stop in the two-minute even though it was eight seconds, what they did in Chicago prior scoring points, all those situations are very important, so I appreciate you noticing those. I thought in the first half, it was very solid and there's a lot of good moments.  Just like I said last night, there were just a few missed opportunities where I think he threw for 180 yards, which if you usually hold a quarterback like that to 180 yards, you're having a pretty good day. But I think 130 of those came on four plays where we had opportunities on all but one to make a play and they made the play. We got to help our guys make those plays, and then when our name is called, we got to make them. But credit to them too. They made some good plays, which they're going to. They ran the ball 36 times. I think they averaged three-point whatever it was, so overall, that was pretty good. There were a few runs that broke out that we needed to do a better job on our run fits, but I thought we were physical. I thought we tackled fairly well. Just another stop here, another stop there on the fourth – talking about situational football, on the fourth-and-2 stop, I mean, that was a huge play of the game. Chris did a great job knocking him back and unfortunately, it went to New York after the ref spotted it. New York wanted to look at it and they reviewed it and overturned it. But that was a huge play of the game that obviously led to points. But we got better situationally for sure and in a lot of areas took a step against a really good team.

Were you able to talk to Chris about what happened on the missed sack if you're able to share and then how did you feel he responded after that?

Jeff Hafley: I'll just keep the conversation with Chris on that one. I thought he responded really well. I mean, that's life in this league. You're going to make some plays, especially at his position. You're going to give up some deep passes playing corner and you got to have a short memory, and we can coach him on how to finish in those positions. He knows he's more than capable of making those plays, it was a one-time thing, and he'll make the play the next time. Those are the ones you just got to move on. You can't get them back. It's not like, oh, we have to correct – he'll make the play. It happened. I got his back. We'll move on. I love the guy. He's going to be a really, really good player. We move on, play the next play, and live the next day.

Coaches, they love players who play with passion and players who have emotion. With Ollie, is there a line you have to work with him on? And do you, when he comes in, are you upset? Are you like, okay, that was just a moment of emotion and passion? How do you handle it?

Jeff Hafley: I teach, and I have conversations. I tell people the truth and I don't sugarcoat stuff. I don't need to yell and scream, I need to be honest and I need to educate him. He's young. We had a great conversation right after it happened. We had a conversation post-game because he cares so much. We texted last night. He came to my office this morning. The thing that I would say is for those who have been around Ollie, Ollie's an awesome guy. Ollie's got unbelievable energy. The problem that occurs if you keep doing that, you're letting people hold the pen and create a narrative that might not be true of who you really are. And I don't believe any of us want that, right? And in doing so, you're costing your team, putting them in some adverse situations. He's young, so we teach him and we educate him and have conversations with him on why. As him and I really develop a relationship, which we are, I'm going to help him with that. He's got to help himself too. So I want him to use that energy and passion, but he's got to harness it. There's a time when you say enough's enough and you go back to the huddle and you play again. Because pre-snap and post-snap penalties are not okay with me, and I'm not just going to like sweep it under the rug. I'm going to meet it head on.

Caleb won some one-on-one reps against Christian Gonzalez. Coleman had his second touchdown catch. Bell had some nice catches as well. What, from your estimation, did your rookie wide receivers show yesterday?

Jeff Hafley: They played well and competed against a really good defense and one of the best corners in the NFL. The physicality was there again in the run game like it has been and that's important, but you're right, they got open and we had opportunities. In those two-minute situations, we had a lot of pass plays go up and down the field, just like we did on the one touchdown drive. But Malik Washington did a nice job as well. So I'd certainly throw him in the mix there, give him a lot of credit for taking that shot and coming back and scoring on that drive. But I'm proud of those rookies. It's not easy to play in this league, especially when you're looking to the left and it's a rookie and you're looking to the right, it's a rookie and it's like, where's the older guy to tell me what to do? And they're all sitting there together. So I give them a lot of credit, they're getting better.

While not revealing anything strategically that isn't available for any coach to see on the tape, how specifically do you want Kyle Louis to help you in terms of how he was deployed yesterday and how do you think he played?

Jeff Hafley: I thought Kyle played well. Again, I thought he got better as the game went, just him not played a lot of football. We kind of played him like an outside linebacker yesterday. And if you watch the film, you can call him a nickel, you can call him an outside linebacker. But overall, he was physical. I thought he did a really good job in coverage, and he tackled well. He'll continue to play if he continues to do that. To me, it's how he practiced last week. He had a great week in practice. He's only been back for two weeks now, and we felt it was a good time to try to get him going a little bit.

You talked about Jarrett Kingston, what about Jonah Savaiinaea at the other guard?

Jeff Hafley: I would say the same thing, it kind of like was the theme. Started off slow and got back to his physical self as the game went on. So we just need to figure out why, because if you look at this thing from an overall seven games, Jonah's played good football and he's played really good physical football, and for the most part, he did again yesterday.

Have you and Sully talked about whether you'll stick with Zane again after the miss yesterday? The other one, obviously, he had some good fortune on the 52-yarder. Are you going to stick with him a third week this week or is that a decision that has to be made tomorrow?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I mean, as of right now, we'll stick with Zane.

It feels like Jaylen Wright has gotten close to breaking a few kick returns this season. How would you evaluate his performance back there this season?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think he was a bright spot yesterday in the return game. He had a couple where we took him all the way out to the 40, the 50. He had another one where I thought he had a chance, too, but he's become a pretty reliable guy back there. Overall, I think that team played better. The return game was better yesterday, and that's important. Field position is obviously very important.

And as he just tries to find his rhythm as a runner in the backfield, can finding lanes and getting runs and just getting into a rhythm in the kick return game, can that impact his performance on offense?

Jeff Hafley: Sure. Depending on the situation of the game, depending on the runs, the team we're playing, I mean I have not lost any confidence that he can get back there and succeed as a running back as well. I mean, his time is going to come back there. We all know how this league works and we have a lot of football left to play, and his time will come. He's done a good job holding on to the football and being physical on those returns.

Question about one of the sacks yesterday to see what I saw and if you saw the same thing. So this is your second possession of the game, first down. Malik rolls to his left, there's pressure up the middle, and it looked like Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell were in the same area. And I'm wondering, is that, how do you see that play? Is that sack on the receivers on the offensive line? Did Malik do the right thing, if you remember that play?

Jeff Hafley: I do. The route was not run correctly, so you are correct on that. And when things break down, you got to run, you got to take off, you got to throw it to someone else. So it's on everybody.

I wanted to ask about another special teamer who popped on tape, Kaytron Allen. Just what do you say to a guy that might not have had the ideal start to his NFL career, but you get him in a position where he's giving like maximum effort in the role that he's doing?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I mean, that's what our expectation is of every player, whatever your role is. I think you guys have seen how we're building this thing. The foundation is going to be playing with that type of physicality and effort, and it's really cool to see him run down on a punt and make a play like that and have some big blocks on some of the other ones. In doing that, I think it gives us all trust. Kind of like what you were saying about the kick returns, it's anytime we put a guy on the field and he's doing those things, of course, it gives you more trust that you kind of know what you're going to get. Seydou is kind of an example of that as well. Just kind of like I talked about J-Wright, I mean, he's still new here, so his time's going to come too. It could be this week where all of a sudden you see him in the backfield. It might be next week, but we brought him here for a reason. He's a rookie, so he is young. He's joining a young team that's all going through this together, and at some point, your time's going to come. It might not be perfect the first time and you just got to keep working.

Jeff, do you put any credence into the stats about being outscored in certain quarters? It's 15-minute chunks all over the game, but does it mean more if you're not playing well in the third quarter coming out of the halftime? Does that make you pay a little bit more attention? Because as you know, you're outscored.

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, you can. So sure, the answer is yes, I do look at that. But then you got to look at the tape and you got to look at the games game by game, because what if for three games in a row we had the ball on offense coming out and we went on 8-minute drives and they didn't really have time of possession to score a lot of points. Is it because we played good defense or was it because we weren't on the field? And in turn, what if in the third quarter, they started with the ball and they went right down and scored and on the next play you had a turnover, so now you're on the field. Like how many possessions are you getting in that quarter? I mean, those are the things that are important to me. And then it's a complementary game, right? So like yesterday, for example, the defense stopped them three-and-out. We just couldn't get it going on offense, right, and we were going three-and-out quite a bit in the third quarter. In return, their offense is getting more possessions. So that's all complementary football where it's not just on the defense, it's on our whole entire team of controlling the football. But I used to get caught up in, why are we giving up so many points in this? It's all situationally, game by game, what happened. But then you look for a trend, and if there is a trend, and you got to figure out why, you got to fix it. If we're coming out of the half on defense every time, they're going right down the field and we look like we're behind them a little bit, then we have to fix that. I just think you got to go game by game.

I don't think we've asked you about Jamree Kromah picking him up, but what do you like from him?

Jeff Hafley: Just in limited action that we saw him on tape in the two games that we watched him, physical, played the run well, had some rush ability. He's good size. He's still fairly young, so we were excited to get him here. I haven't seen him do anything for us yet, but we'll get him going this week and might have an opportunity to play this week.