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

Jeff Hafley: Before I get started, my thoughts and our thoughts and our prayers are with Jack Campbell. Obviously a scary situation that happened this weekend and we're thinking of him, we're praying for him, and for the Lions, I know that's a hard situation. But certainly there's things that are bigger than football, so I just want to make sure that I acknowledge that and we acknowledge that before we begin. So with that, I'll take questions.

You all are last in passer rating, allowed by a pretty wide margin. It would set an NFL record. I know pass rush obviously goes into that, and if you allow a star tight end to catch a five-yard pass on second-and-10, it's not a bad play, and all that goes into pass rating. But is your coverage from your safeties, your corners, and your inside backers simply not been tight enough this season?

Jeff Hafley: No, I don't think you can look at it as one thing, and I'm not going to look at it as one thing. It's all tied together from rush to coverage, but I'm also not going to look at one statistic like passer rating because we could sit here and I could look up 100 statistics and give you a variety of them that might be good, might be bad. So in Week 8 of the season, I'm not going to have a whole dissertation on passer rating. So no, I'm not going to go into who and why and when, it's going to be game by game and what happened and why it happened, because it involves a lot of things.

Has the play of your defensive backfield been up to the standards of what you want in pass coverage?

Jeff Hafley: There's been some really good games and there's been some moments with a young team that need to be better. I mean, it could go back to last week, for the most part, the quarterback struggled. But when you allow them to hit three big pass plays, the yards are going to go up and the passer rating is going to go up. When you hold a good quarterback to 190 yards passing, usually those are pretty good days, but you can't allow explosive plays, which is very important to me. So yes, in moments I'm very pleased with the way a lot of the young guys are playing in the secondary. And then there's moments that we need to learn from and that we need to build on and we'll continue to do that. But there's progress, there's improvement, there's development. And the nice thing is we've gone against some really good quarterbacks and some really good wide receivers, some of the premium in the league and some of the best quarterbacks in the league. So they're getting valuable experience that will make us better with a lot of football left to play.

Is Proctor still in concussion protocol?

Jeff Hafley: He is in the protocol, but he will practice today. So he is progressing in the protocol.

Will you have Darrell Baker Jr. return practice this week?

Jeff Hafley: We will not.

What is the toughest part about going up against the Lions and preparing for that offense? Because in addition to all their weapons, they're also a pretty aggressive team, even going for it on fourth downs. What is maybe the first thing you look at when it comes to that offense?

Jeff Hafley: Well, just in general, I have a lot of respect for Coach Campbell – how they play, how he's built their program, kind of from the ground up, built on toughness, built on both fronts, the physicality, and then they've drafted well and they've developed well. Regardless of who's been their offensive coordinator, there's a lot of similarity in the schemes. I think Drew Petzing's done a really nice job since he's got there, adding his offense to what they've already done and kind of mesh them both together. And you combine that and you always look at the quarterback first. And Goff has played at a really high level for a lot of years and he's really smart and he can do it all. I respect his toughness. I respect the way he hangs in the pocket and takes shots. He can make all the throws. He sees the check downs fast. And then you look at the back, I think Gibbs is one of the best backs in the NFL and he's one of the most explosive players in the NFL, whether he's in the backfield or a pass catcher. And then the wide receivers. St. Brown is one of the best slots, and then Jamo is one of the fastest wide receivers as an X or a Z or wherever he lines up, so they have explosive capability with him. And LaPorta at tight end, who I think is one of the premium tight ends in the league, and then their offensive line with Penei. I think the interior's gotten better. Both tackles are athletic; the rookie is playing well. The interior is where I've seen the most improvement – and sorry, I'm getting into very much detail, I feel like I've played these guys a lot in the last two years. But the interior of the offensive line, I see a lot of improvement there. So it's scheme, it's explosive playmakers, it's the ability to be physical and run the football. I think they're built the right way and they're the number one offense in the NFL for a reason. It's coaching, it's players, it's developing. Give coach credit and give them credit, he's done a great job.

With everyone you just mentioned, you obviously always want to contain like a top threat for an opposing offense. How do you handle that when there's that many caliber of threats?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, you got to pick and choose. It's got to be by down and distance. It's got to be by field position. It's got to be, what is their plan going to be to attack us? And there has to be a variety of different things that you have to throw at them. Because you're right, they could hit you from a variety of different angles, whether it's in the run game or the pass game. And it is going to be a challenge and I view that as a challenge that we look forward to. I mean, anytime you get a chance to go up against the top offense in the league, you need to prepare and you need to rise up to the level that you're going to play against. And for a young group of guys, I think it's really exciting. It's a great opportunity for us.

You mentioned Amon-Ra St. Brown. What is like one or two things that you picked up just from playing him so frequently? And also, what is the message to Chris Johnson?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, one, I just respect the way he plays a game. He's a competitor and he's going to fight you and he's going to play every down as hard as he can, not just in the pass game, but he's going to block and you guys all know how I feel about that. I think he plays the game the right way. He's going to be very physical at the top of the routes. He's got great hands and he's going to make competitive catches. He knows how to set up routes. He's good at coming off the motions and he can run the whole route tree and then he can catch and run. So when he catches the ball, it's like tackling a running back. So you got to make sure you wrap up and drive your legs.

When Campbell was hired, he famously said as part of his first speech that he wanted to "bite guys' kneecaps." How does the way the Lions play align with that mindset and how does it align with the type of football you want here?

Jeff Hafley: I probably never would talk about biting people, but I think it's pretty cool that he did. I think it's the same. I mean, that's how I want to play football. And let me retract that, that's how we are playing football. I mean, I think if you watch us right now, and I think every coach has said it and everybody who watches us, whether it's on TV or whether they turn on our tape and I get texts or phone calls, that's what's showing up on tape right now. And while it's disappointing that we're 1-6, the foundation of that with young guys, that's really important to us. When you see the physicality and the toughness and how hard guys are playing, it means that they're playing for each other and that they're bought in and that we've brought the right guys here. That's very, very important to me and it will continue to be.

With Kyle Louis last week, he got some action, some run at kind of big nickel, I'm assuming. What do you hope that he learned and took from that tape and that experience?

Jeff Hafley: First time really playing. When we put him in the Vegas game, it was for two plays in the second half. It was, I think, a run play and we intercepted them and he got hurt on the interception, so he didn't play much anymore. I mean, so it's the first real action that he got and playing in an NFL game. So hopefully he kind of dusted off any anxiety or any nerves that he had and hopefully going through one game, he'll see it faster of the play speed. But I also thought he did a pretty good job for the first time going in, and we'll continue to use him in a variety of roles. He's been good on special teams, and we expect him to be a good player. So in order to do that, he needs to play and develop, which is why you saw him more last week and we'll continue to find roles based on personnels and how teams are playing us. But I was pleased with the way he played, but we would expect him to take another step.

Kenneth Grant, his snap counts have gone up over the last three weeks. How has he done and how does he look health-wise in terms of coming back?

Jeff Hafley: Good. It's the same thing, right? It's like it's got to be a little bit of a build-up for him to play more, get his feet wet, get more comfortable playing again, and getting in shape to take on double teams over and over again and strain at the line of scrimmage. And hopefully as we go, he'll get more reps and continue to improve.

Can you give me a brief analysis of the receiving corps after eight weeks? Because this team and Malik have found ways to continue to spread the ball. Against New England, five players had over 30 yards, so just your analysis on that.

Jeff Hafley: I would start with Malik Washington and give him a lot of credit because he's in a room – Malik Washington, still a young player in this league, right? But he's kind of in a role where he looks around and it's him and a bunch of rookies, for the most part, for the guys that have been in, consistently throughout the year. So I give him a lot of credit for kind of taking on a leadership role probably sooner than he would have thought because he's still working on his game. But he's been really consistent. He's caught the ball. His run after catch has been really good. He's very reliable to be where he's supposed to be. And then you take another veteran like Tolbert, who's kind of been in and out, but what I respect about him and appreciate is he's embraced his role. I mean, it's not always easy when you're up, then you're down, then you're on special teams. It seems like every time that his number was called, he's made a play for us. And that's really important to have guys like that and I have a ton of respect for him. Caleb kind of started off fast, got injured, has come back, and he's done a nice job again and I think he'll continue to improve the more he plays and more confidence he has. Chris, you're starting to see a guy who really didn't have any training camp and now Chris is kind of getting in shape and he's able to play more and he's being physical in the run game and he's made some big catches, had some big catch and runs, had some big third down conversions. But there's still, with both of them, and then you add Kevin, and then I'd say all of them, there's still room for so much improvement. They're still so young in this game and in this league. And then Kevin Coleman popped last week and had a nice touchdown catch. And if you watch Kevin and you don't look at the ball and where it's going, Kevin's doing a good job of getting open, right? It's just there's one football. But you take a group like that and there needs to be constant improvement and development, they just haven't played very much. It's a new scheme. It's a new league for them. But there's a bright future there. They just have to continue to work really hard and that starts today again in practice. But I am excited about that group.

How do you keep a young team focused and disciplined when the results of wins aren't really good?

Jeff Hafley: Because, while disappointed being 1-6, it's bigger than the result. It's about the process. It's about the constant quest to be better today than we were yesterday. And that's our focus as we build this and we develop. There is no, "how do you keep them focused?" There is no, "how do you keep them working hard?" It's just not how we're built. We're not going to be phased that way. We're not built that way now, we're not going to be built that way when this thing gets rolling. It's always going to be about the process and regardless if we win or lose, how can I get better today in everything that we do? And when you keep that the focus, those questions, they never come into play.

Coaches can be fined for using certain words with officials and players can be penalized, apparently, for using certain words with opponents. My question is, do you have a clear understanding from the league, it's probably not written out, don't use these specific words, but as to where the line is? Are there certain words that everyone knows just can't be used?

Jeff Hafley: For player or coach?

I guess if you could address both.

Jeff Hafley: No, I've never like – maybe there is, but I've never gotten a book that says you can't use these words. I think it goes back to how you should treat people. I think myself, just like a player, there's times when frustration builds and there's times you got to take a deep breath and take a step back before you say something that one, you shouldn't say and two, you regret and you shouldn't treat people a certain way. I think it goes back to the golden rule of treating people the right way, with respect regardless of the situation, regardless how angry you are. And sometimes for players, things get heated and sometimes for coaches, coaches get heated, you got to be careful. But I think there's a fine line of respect that guys are trying to do their jobs the best that they can and they're not always going to be right, just like we're not going to always be right and you have to respect that. Sometimes it's hard in the moment. And if it's hard for coaches in the moment, imagine how hard it is for a 21-year-old in the moment. And we've got to continue to learn and teach and develop and not hold grudges on that stuff and constantly improve.

How do you balance Malik's growth as a decision maker with wanting to impress upon the importance of it's not there, throw it away or run?

Jeff Hafley: You watch tape. Show him the situations, show him other people in the same situations, show him other quarterbacks, like elite quarterbacks in the same situations. And then experience over time. And it's a good question, I think when you are watching and you look through the first course of however many games that he started now in his career, it's easier to watch and say "you should do that," right? I think that's always easier. Why don't you throw it away? Why don't you run? Well, I also think we gotta take a step back and he's the one who's actually doing it and going through the experiences and making some good plays and making some mistakes. He's got to learn from all of it. But it's just teaching and showing and doing it in practice and then having the opportunity to do it in the game and do it better this week than he did it last week.

Jordan Phillips on the defense, what are you seeing out of him that you like? And then in the second half of the season, is there anything you want to him to hone in on?

Jeff Hafley: I love Jordan Phillips and every time you guys bring him up, those are the unsung heroes. Those are the guys that don't get credit. I actually showed a couple clips of him today in the team meeting when we were talking about this week. I mean, if you watch him in individual, it's the same strain, it's the same focus, it's the same physicality. When you watch him in a walkthrough, it almost looks full speed and he's so locked in and he's so detailed and then it translates to how he plays and how much he cares and the effort that he puts in and how violent he is. And the whole thing to me is just consistency in everything that he does. He's just consistent from the time he walks into this building to the time that he leaves. And he's embraced his role, right? He's the type of guy that when he knows it's third-and-7, he turns and like jogs off the field. Most guys would be pouty because what do they want to do on third-and-7? They want to get a sack. This guy understands his role, he embraces his role and I can't say enough of good things about him. Is there room for improvement? Certainly. Would I love to see him in the pass rush continue to grow? Absolutely. Would I love to see him get a sack? Yeah. I can't imagine what his celebration would be like, but I'm hoping that we get to see that in the second half of the season.

With the pass rush, obviously nine sacks is not an ideal number. I know most people don't evaluate pass rush based on sacks, it's pressures, it's quarterback hits. Are you getting enough heat on quarterbacks to make them feel uncomfortable?

Jeff Hafley: Probably not consistently enough. If you look to some games, I think the answer would be yes. If you looked at last week, I thought, yeah, we got a lot of pressure on the quarterback. And there's other games where we were putting a lot of stress and a lot of pressure on the quarterback, whether it was through disguise, whether it was through us being aggressive. And then there's some games where we didn't and they weren't for a lack of effort or a lack of trying. We just needed to do better. I think that's been an improvement for us lately. And it's something that we do need to continue to work on because it is important. I was proud of the way they did get pressure against the Patriots in that game and made them uncomfortable for a majority of the game. And we need to build off of that.