Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on October 5, 2026.

As we would call it, housekeeping. Trader, of course, came back in the game. Is he okay with the knee?

Jeff Hafley: Trader will be day to day. He returned. We'll see how he is, but he should be day to day.

And Reese Taylor?

Jeff Hafley: Reese will be out. Yeah, Reese will not go this week. I don't see that being long term, but I would say it's week to week.

And is there a realistic chance of Caleb Douglas this week, do you think?

Jeff Hafley: We'll see. I would say we'll be one day at a time with him. He was in this morning. We'll see how he feels tomorrow, Wednesday, see if he can do anything, but I would not rule him out.

Do you know yet if Kenneth Grant will in fact begin his practice window on Wednesday?

Jeff Hafley: He will practice, just like I thought. He had a good weekend. He stayed back. We wanted him to get some work done rather than come with the team in order for him to have a really good day today and get ready to practice on Wednesday. So I'm excited to see where he's at.

It seems like the process has been incremental improvement per game different ways, but obviously that win hasn't come. How close do you think you are to that breakthrough of trying to get that step to finish the game and actually winning the game?

Jeff Hafley: I mean, against the Chiefs it was a four-point game going in the fourth quarter, and yesterday we were same thing, one possession away in the fourth quarter from winning. We're getting closer, but we've got to be able to finish them out and continue to take those steps. I think the biggest thing is, and I mentioned this to you guys last week, we had our best week of practice. We're getting better. The communication is getting better. The execution is getting better. The physicality is getting better. We're becoming a better football team. We've played really good football teams. And it is about the process, doing our best every single day, pouring everything that we have into it, coaches and players, so when Sunday comes, we go out there and we go play. And hopefully each week we see improvement and the next step is to win a football game. There was a lot of improvement yesterday when you watched the film and then there's still a lot of stuff that we have to work on. So we'll continue to do that and continue to grow.

You talked about the process a lot over the last few months. Obviously, it's clear from watching the games, it's clear you guys buy into that, but there's a point too where do you worry about they need a payoff at some point? Otherwise do guys start thinking about things differently? Do they get down on themselves, they get down on the process?

Jeff Hafley: It depends how you approach it. If you just base everything on that feeling, win or lose, then yeah, then you would. But to me, the end result is to win, so don't take that the wrong way and everything that we do is towards winning, but no, if we have the right guys in the building and they keep improving and they keep trusting in their teammates and trusting in themselves and develop, they'll continue to go forward and give their best and do everything they can because they respect and love their teammate and go after it and get better and win a game. So I don't believe that we have a team that will do that. As a matter of fact, this is, and it's what I just told them downstairs in the team meeting, I told the guys very clearly that this was going to be a tough journey that we were all going to go on. And I told them that if they weren't up for it, then go talk to Sully, right? This is the time to find out as we build this thing and grow, who are the real guys? Who are the guys that we can trust that want in the boat, because when we flip this thing and we will flip this thing, that we want to have around and the only way you find out those things is going through adversity together. And we're going to find out a lot about the guys. If there's any guys like you just mentioned, then they won't be here. But the way we're building this thing and the way we are talking about the process and the way we're playing together and the way we're getting better and the energy that we've played with and the toughness that we've played with, I do believe we have the right guys more or less that will help us get to that point.

I have a special teams question with Malik Washington, who rarely makes mistakes. Should he have fielded that punt, that first punt? I think he was 6-yard line or something like that.

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he made a decision. That's a high-speed decision where you got to make it or you got to get out of there and he made the decision to go for it. Normally he centers the ball up and when you're a punt returner, you want both feet in the ground, and you want the ball to come down, square and it just got off to the side a little bit, and that's all that happened. Fortunately, we got that one back.

I wanted to ask you about Chris Johnson. Just on this tape along I thought spatial awareness, physicality taking on blocks, the way he leverages the run and short passing game were all impressive to me. I wanted to get your opinion on those things and then also just his game as a whole?

Jeff Hafley: I think the last two weeks he's really shown me a lot. We've used him inside a lot, and I think he has a chance to be a really good nickel and he plays corner for us too, but you're mentioning most of the physicality shows up inside. He's really physical with wideouts. I mean, yesterday him getting off blocks, throwing off blocks, going after people. The perimeter game, they tried to attack us on the perimeter quite a bit yesterday and he set some really good edges and he made some tackles. I sent him off the edge multiple times yesterday and he affected the quarterback, affected the run game. He's not only a guy that can cover and play man and he's looking more comfortable and I thought he did a good job of man coverage yesterday, but he's a physical guy who will tackle. He has the ability to play in zones, and then we can kick him out to the outside in non-nickel situations and he has the capability to do both, which I think is very hard to do as a rookie. I'm pleased with where he's at right now.

Regarding penalties, you guys have 8-for-50 in the first half, 1-for-5 in the second half. What was the difference there?

Jeff Hafley: I mean, fundamentals and technique, and then there's other stuff that goes into it, right? It's take a deep breath, hit the reset button. It's the mental stamina and the strain to focus on every single play to stay on side or line up the right way. And that's the stuff that when you go out to practice every day, it's the things that with some of these young guys, we got to keep talking about. You can't get bored doing the little things. The little things make the big things go, right? And for some of these guys, they're learning that. It's can you do it over and over and over again and do your one-eleventh and do your job? And then with some of the holds, some of it's fundamentals and technique where we got to get our hands inside, then there's some unfortunate ones where something's happened. So say I'm going to block you right here and the ball's supposed to go inside, well all of a sudden the ball goes that way and you don't know it, so your hands get in front of your feet, there's other reasons for it. Hit the reset button. I told them to take a deep breath, trust their training, and they did a better job in the second half. We got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. It's we cross the 50, we go back. We get to the 40, we go back. We have to be disciplined and have that mental stamina to do right longer in those key situation, and we need to practice that way.

Not to get you in any trouble with the league, but JuJu Brents seems like he's had some questionable calls.

Jeff Hafley: With the illegal contact?

With that and there was another one, right? The taunting and I think there was another like hold or illegal contact. What do you say to JuJu about that? Do you just tell him to keep doing what you're doing?

Jeff Hafley: What would you say to him? Because it seems like you don't think they were very good calls, I'm not saying that.

I don't.

Jeff Hafley: I appreciate you publicly stating that, I'm going to stay away from that. To me, it's just – we had a conversation yesterday. I asked the official, I said, 'hey, can you please tell me exactly what he did so I can coach him better on not to do it again,' because we have to learn those things. And I think it's important that when the refs come in training camp and when they come in OTAs, it's to spend time with them and talk to them and have them sit in our meetings so we can kind of see what they're calling, why they're calling it, what they're looking for, so we can continue to train our guys and evolve as officiating evolves and I think that's important. So I need to have conversations with them to ask them what they're looking for so I can tell our players and coach them on those things because if they're going to call it, I just can't keep saying, 'it's going to be different.' We got to figure that out.

I know you emphasized the impressive communication from Jacob Rodriguez yesterday, but what stood out to you about the 18-tackle performance, which is a franchise rookie record?

Jeff Hafley: I didn't know it was 18, really. I think Anne had told me, but I probably forgot by the time I walked out to talk to you guys. But when I heard you guys say it, that's a lot of tackles. One, I do think it begins with his communication and the leadership that he was able to really, because yesterday there was a lot of checking and a lot of moving pieces that him and I talked through throughout the game up until the 15 seconds and he was outstanding. I just think he's just getting a better feel for one, what we're doing on defense, and I think you could kind of feel that yesterday our guys are starting to get comfortable, starting to figure out who we are, who can do what. With him, I think the game's slowing down for him. I think he, because now he understands his role on defense, he can spend more time studying what the offense is doing so he can kind of put himself in good position to make plays. But then he's just got this relentless motor to him that the way he runs to the ball, he's a great tackler, he's always punching at it. And then give credit to the defensive line. I mean, our defensive tackles yesterday, we played a lot of what people refer to as split safety. So when you're in split safety defense, just so you understand this and you probably do, so this isn't like giving you some huge insight, but you're short guys in the run game. So you're playing with a six-man box a lot of the times, so you're short a guy, right? So what you're relying on is you're relying on our defensive tackles and our d-line, those guys got to stay square, they got to eat up space and they got to take on double teams. So Jordan Phillips and Sieler and all those guys on the inside, it's impressive what they were able to do yesterday to keep him free to make those tackles. To me, yeah, it's credit to him; it's credit to the guys in front of him, too.

I think Next Gen's got Chop with 10 pressures yesterday. What was it, now that you've watched the film, what was he able to do in order to be so effective yesterday? What kind of clicked for him throughout the game?

Jeff Hafley: I think he's getting comfortable. He played Week 1, he didn't play Week 2, so then he just played in two consecutive games and he practiced for two consecutive weeks. I think there's something to be said about getting into a rhythm and getting into a routine. He's getting more comfortable in the scheme. I thought his get off was outstanding. I mean, watching him get off the football yesterday on the one third-and-1 I think it was, I mean, he just dipped, he went back and he was in the quarterback's lap. And then the thing what he's doing is he's not just playing using his speed, there was one when he kind of went speed to power and he walked the tackle right back into the quarterback, the quarterback had to step up and Uche made the play. So it was his pressure, Uche's sack. One, I think Austin and those guys are doing an outstanding job coaching him. I think he's starting to have more tools as a rusher, and then in the run game too, I still think people aren't going to give him credit, but he's physical in the run game. He's setting edges, he's getting off blocks, he's tackling. I thought he played well, and I'd like to see him continue to take steps and try to do it again. But I was proud of him yesterday, he did a nice job.

I think they said his average get off was like 0.7 seconds or something.

Jeff Hafley: That's what, if you look back and I remember when I was in Green Bay, the thing that intrigued us on him was his get off time was one of the best in years, and that's what we need to do everything we can to get back to that and let him feel comfortable because that is his game. You combine that with now we want him to be physical and tough and be able to run through people and be able to set edges. That's how you become a complete player, and I hope he continues to take those steps.

You mentioned the opponents obviously being part of the factor defensively, but offensively how do you kind of find more offense? Are you seeing or feel that there's plays that are maybe being left out there? Or is it just a matter of just generating those plays and how much does it fall on Malik to find those plays?

Jeff Hafley: I think it falls on everybody. When you watch the tape, one, I think there was 37 plays. So the opportunities are just – the game was like 78 plays to 37 plays. To have the score be 15-10 with 78 plays to 37 plays, I mean, it's kind of like, if you showed me those stats, I'd be like, no way. I mean, it doesn't even make sense. We need more opportunities, and there were plays there. We just had the team meeting, and it's just constantly for everybody to come together like I've been talking about to be efficient. It's we're one block away here, or hey man, we're right there, go right there early on in the down. It's just efficiency over and over and over again. It's just the limited opportunities, some missed opportunities to be very honest with you, but that's on everybody. That's everybody doing their one-eleventh and getting the execution down.

Two Malik Willis plays, one running, one pass I wanted to ask you about. The run where he bounces off the defenders who didn't wrap him up and he spins out and gets the first down, what did you think about that? What does that tell you about him? And then the play where he runs to his right and he throws to Kevin Coleman in the end zone incomplete. Should he have run that ball, was there space to run it?

Jeff Hafley: The first play, I thought it was a great run. I thought it was physical. He bounced off him. I believe that's when he first came back and then looped around and got more yards and a bunch of guys picked him forward, it was a huge run. He had another good one on the sideline where he actually drew the personal foul when the guy hit him late out of bounds. On the one that he rolled out and he got moving, there was a defensive end chasing him and then there was a linebacker kind of chasing him, so he had to make a very high speed decision whether to tuck and run it, kind of very similar he did in the Raiders game, or he thought he had Kevin on the pylon. Those are high-speed decisions that he's got to make as he sees them, so I could sit here and tell you holding the slow motion, but he's got to feel that and he's got to make the high-speed decision. And those decisions we got to live with, and we'll get more opportunities at those.

I have a kind of another question about pass rushing, and maybe this is more of a question for them, but how do guys choose how they want to rush on any given snap? Whether they want it to be with power or with speed, is that like a directive from you guys? Is it rooted in scouting or is it literally you just step up to the line and you figure it out in the moment?

Jeff Hafley: Other than figuring out at the moment, I think it's all the above of what you just mentioned. Who am I going against? Can I beat him with speed? Am I a speed rusher? Can I beat him with speed? Is he a guy that you see people going speed to power right through him? But then there's also, what's going on the other side of me? We'll run some games where you've got to go through a guy and you can't go up the field. Then we'll run some other games where we want to try to win with speed because something else is coming back inside to help you. So pass rush is kind like a beautiful thing that all ties in together. It's usually very well coordinated. It's not just one guy getting to the line and saying, I'm going to try this and another guy trying that, there's constant communication there, right? I think Austin is as good as I've been around getting that don, and then you have a guy like Zach Sieler who I've kind of referred to as our setup man, he's orchestrating a lot of stuff in those regards. But then there are situations too where there are calls, it's what's your best move, use it. And then as you play the game within the game, me and you keep going at it, all right, I gave you speed on this one. Now you think I'm going to come with power, maybe I'll give you speed again. Or maybe you're going to set high and I'm going to come underneath. So there's also the game within the game. It's probably a lot more detailed than you'd imagine, but that's a good question.

I didn't know if it was like catcher sending signals to a pitcher.

Jeff Hafley: There's games like that. There's d-line games where I'll tag a call and Austin will tag some signals into those guys, so they will do that. So that is like signaling into a pitcher. But then there's times Sieler's on the field, he'll know exactly based on game plan what we want to do, based on formation, based on a lot of other things that go into it.

Your thoughts on first game for McGraw and for Mazi Smith?

Jeff Hafley: I kind of mentioned both last week, I thought they both did some good things. They got their feet wet. I thought they both played hard. They were both physical. I mean, McGraw almost had a sack, he was inches away and that's a hard guy to sack. I thought he played with good power. I thought he played with good strength, and when I looked up and I saw it was him rushing Kyler, I thought he was going to get him down. That was a big play he made in the game. But to get an undrafted rookie NFL experience, I'm proud of the guy and we need to keep developing him. Again, I think the d-line guys have done a good job and he's worked really hard to get his opportunity.

I want to ask you about Sieler. Everyone knows the talent and the skill and everyone gets all that just by taking one look at him. But you see him in guys' ears on the field, you see him doing the same thing on the sideline, and I assume that's happening all throughout this building where we can't see. Is there any way of quantifying the value of what he brings? Forget the level of play. Just all the other stuff that he takes on, mentorship, leadership, all those things, how valuable is that?

Jeff Hafley: It's valuable to me. It's valuable to our young players. To have a guy like that around the youth of this team and having a guy that I can lean on, because not only does he do all that, but he's one of the best people ever. I mean, I'm sure you guys have been around him. There's not a much better person out there than Zach Sieler. He does everything the right way. He does everything for his teammates on and off the field, and we got a lot of guys like that. You know I noticed Brewer yesterday. Not only do I commend Brewer for how hard he plays on the field, but you asked earlier about worrying about guys kind of like not going this way. I mean, you should see these guys on the sideline. Brewer is just, they're so into it. They're so intent, even when it was 9-0. It's just these guys on the sideline are cheering for each other. They're just so energetic, they're so positive. So while we are like all these young players, we've got this handful of vets who are the perfect examples for these young guys how it's supposed to look, and I'm really appreciative of that.