Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley's media availability on October 7, 2026.

So when you looked at the tape of Kenneth Grant this offseason, what did you like and what area did you see that you hoped for improvement from him in?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I kind of said this when I got here. To me, it was more about when I got a chance to see him in person rather than what I studied on the tape. I really liked the way he was progressing. I thought he was starting to play with the play style that we were asking him to. I thought he had a quickness to him. I thought he gave us a little different body type on the inside. And I thought he'd have the ability to be good against the run and help us out in the pass game. Smart player, good instincts, just really excited to get him back practicing today. Don't know exactly where he's going to be at because he has not played football. So hopeful that he gets back into the groove of where I thought he was trending, really, the last couple of days that we had him.

Getting reinforcements, what kind of things does that allow you to do on the interior?

Jeff Hafley: Without getting too specific for obvious reasons, it allows us to move some pieces around to help us in some certain situations, whether it's move other people to other positions on certain downs based on personnel. It just gives us more flexibility, more versatility, and it gives us another good player.

You've obviously been limited in being able to see him, evaluate him. How much does that process just excite you now as he starts a little ramp up here?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for him. I mean, he had a big smile on his face coming out for the walkthrough today. And I just, I could feel that joy from him. I think his teammates do too. They know that he hadn't been able to go and they're excited to get him back. But I really am excited. I'm excited to see him go through individual, watch him practice. Again, I just think let's just watch today and see how he does and we'll progress from there. But he's attacked his rehab. He's been such a positive guy and I'm excited that he's able to come back out for him.

What's it like game plan against a quarterback that's so good in pre-snap like Joe Burrow?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, it's a challenge. I think he's one of the top, top guys in the league. He can make all the throws. He's smart. He sees it all. He can get in and out of the right calls constantly at the line of scrimmage. I have so much respect for how tough he is and how he sits in and takes shots and holds on and makes throws when guys are coming right at him and keeps his eyes down the field. Last year I didn't get a chance to go against him because he was injured when we played them. But just studying him on film for the last two years, I think he's one of the top guys in the league. And I love the way that he plays. And I think it also helps that he's got some premier weapons around him, some of the best receivers in the league. I think Chase is at the very top. After we played them last year and I saw him live, I have a ton of respect for him. Complete route runner, great hands, great body control, can catch and run, is strong, is willing to block. I think he plays the game the right way. And then obviously they have Higgins and a very athletic tight end and a good capable back who I think runs really, really hard and he's good in pass protection. And they've got a good o-line. They've got a lot of talent, so it's always a challenge to go up against a quarterback like that with some weapons. I'm looking forward to it.

We're almost at the one-quarter mark of the season. Regarding Malik Willis, I'm wondering how you evaluate him. Is it more week to week or total body of work?

Jeff Hafley: It's game after game to see what are the improvements, what he needs to work on, what can we do better to help him? Kind of like I talk about the defense with you guys sometimes, starting to figure out what do we do best, right? What do we need to call more of? What can our guys handle going into a game plan? How many calls can we execute? And that's always, when you get a new group of guys, it's always something you really have to look at and work with and communicate. And you want to see progress as you go. And I would say the same thing as for Malik, without getting too detailed. I think that's the case there as well.

He has twice as many turnovers as touchdowns produced. Is that a concern? We know that Malik is a work in progress. Is that a concern?

Jeff Hafley: I would say like everything else, like what can we do better, right? We got to look ahead at this point and not behind and we got to improve. And that's with everything that we're doing right now in all three phases with all the coaches and all the players and that's where we're at.

With Austin Jackson, obviously there have been some struggles that we attribute to the caliber opponents that he's faced. But at what point do you get concerned about how he's performing and how it's impacting the offense?

Jeff Hafley: I'm not concerned. I think if you really study that tape and watch the tape, you'll see improvement from Austin in that last game as well as the rest of our offensive line. So I am not concerned.

What do you see in the run game overall this season? Essentially, the last two games without De'Von Achane, you rushed for 119, then 121. You had 31 carries two games ago, which are positive things. Where is the run game? What have you seen?

Jeff Hafley: I thought the run game in back-to-back weeks has shown signs of improvement. The problem last game was we ran 37 plays. I mean, you don't get a lot of opportunity to get at bats to run the ball. We have to sustain drives. We have to get off the field on defense and get more opportunities to play offense. So that's a team – offense, defense and special teams. But I think we're capable to run the football. Our offensive line I think has improved across the board. I think they're getting better. And I'm excited to see that as we go throughout and excited to see it this week. And I do think Cincinnati – we're playing the Bengals, so let's talk more about the Bengals. I think it's one of the better defensive lines in totality that we've seen. I think their interior is really good. Probably the best interior d-line that we've played against, and they got some edge guys, multiple guys that can rush. I think their front seven is really good. So I think this is a challenge to the offensive line, and I think they're excited for it. This is a good front that we're playing. I know we just spoke about playing certain really good players on the edge. I think this is a really good defensive line.

How is Jaylen Wright doing?

Jeff Hafley: Jaylen's good.

How did he perform on Sunday?

Jeff Hafley: Again, he didn't get many attempts, you know? But I'm excited to see him going forward. He's going to. He had a good week of practice last week coming back after being out a little bit. I'm excited, I thought he had a good week, and we'll see what he can do this week with more plays.

When it comes to Ollie, we always talk to him and he seems like a fun guy to be around. What's he like behind the scenes? Especially with how he stayed ready for this opportunity.

Jeff Hafley: Probably just like you see him. He's very upbeat. He's got a big personality. He's a very positive person. Kind of lights up a room when he walks in. I've seen growth as far as how he's practicing though. I think he's matured on the field. Even last week I complimented him after one of the practices how when he gets the ball, he's going full speed and he's not stopping and he's taking it past the area we tell him he could stop and he's running about 30, 40 more yards. I think his practice habits, I think the way he's handling teammates and talking to teammates, I think he knows now the role he's in. He's got to grow in a lot of areas, and he is, and he's still young. So we'll see how it goes.

Where do you feel has been the biggest issue in terms of defending tight ends?

Jeff Hafley: I think you have to look in terms – like this is how I view defense. When you go into each game, who do you want to stop? Is there a wide receiver you want to stop? Is there a run game you want to stop? Is there a quarterback you have to stop? Can the quarterback run the ball? So you got to kind of pick and choose when you go into a game. If you have an elite receiver, and we're going to say we have to really focus on that guy to make sure he doesn't beat us because your quickest way to get beat a lot of times is with these elite receivers and getting the ball thrown over your head and not paying a lot of attention to him. Is it a run game? Are they going to try to run the ball 30 times? Do we have to load up the box and be really aggressive in certain situations in the run game? And then is there a quarterback that can run the ball that we have to keep an eye on him in case he breaks out? You can't do it all. So some games it might be the tight end. Some games it might be the wideout. Some games it might be the running back. So I kind of look at it game by game. And that's how I've always been on defense. So I don't look at it like "oh man, this week the tight end had this many catches for this many yards." It's, what do we need to do to keep the points down to help us win the game? And that's how I've always coached. Some weeks it's the running back. We're going to have to load the box and we're going to have to do everything we can to stop the run. I don't look at it in that regard. I look at it big picture of what we need to do to win and keep points off the board.

Is there ever a time where you would look at the opposing offense and go, the tight end is the guy we have to stop?

Jeff Hafley: Absolutely, yeah. If he's the most explosive player and we need to pay attention to that guy, for sure. But just in general, when you look at a team, it's who do we have to stop that can beat us the fastest? And you kind of go down in that order. Or who do we need to protect on our side of the ball that they're going to go after, right? So I think that all kind of balances out as you go. I mean, if you want to look at this week, there's a couple guys that we're going to have to pay very close attention to. You can't pay attention to all of them. So I respect the question, and there's some plays we need to play better on tight ends in situations where we're right there and there's some where they might get a five-yard pass because in zone defense there's a no cover zone that they're dumping the ball off to and you're rallying. There's give and take. Does that make sense?

Speaking of tight ends, Kacmarek had his high in snaps last week. Things he's doing to impress you?

Jeff Hafley: I think it's his physicality in the run game that's probably the best. There's multiple times where I've showed clips where he's just getting after people and putting them on their back. He had the nice catch early on in the game. He had a chance for another one, we just missed it. So I see the development as a young player. He's getting better.

Can you speak on Chop Robinson's mindset? Because obviously he's coming off this sack. He led the NFL in pressures in Week 4. And we all have our opinions of what happened in Week 3 against  Kansas City. Can you speak about his performance this week?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he's confident. And I talked to him about it last night. He's getting into a rhythm and he's playing again and he's playing fast and he's practicing fast and he understands that how he prepares is how he's gonna play. And that was really the topic of our conversation. I wasn't surprised he played well because of the way he practiced. Now, can he do it again? Like that's the challenge. Can he go out and practice that way to give him a chance to play the same way he did? Because if he doesn't, he won't, right? So now it's time to put the pressure – I got it, congrats. You had your 10 pressures and your sack, I love it. But can you do it again? Because if you don't, then it doesn't matter. And the only way to do that is to come out today and have the best practice he's had all year because now people are going to be watching him and they're going to be trying to get after him a little bit. Just like we talked about a tight end, there's going to be some teams that say, I'm not going to let Chop have a sack and it might open it up for somebody else. That's how our game works. So he's gotta go out today and he's gotta have a great practice, but I love this guy's attitude. I love the way he practices. I love the way he works. He is totally bought in and I'm excited for the guy.

How's Caleb Douglas doing since we last spoke?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, he will not practice today. I would say he's still one day at a time. He's getting better, but it's just not there today.

Kind of building off of what you said about your defensive mind and somebody on the other team that you've got to stop. Flipping it, how do you think defensive coordinators look at your offense without De'Von Achane? Who do you think they think, we've got to stop him?

Jeff Hafley: That's a good question. I think you answered it pretty clearly when we had 28, it was probably to stop him. I would say right now, they're probably looking at the strength of our offensive line and what we were still able to do in the last two weeks running the ball. And I'd say that's probably what they're looking at, but it's probably a better question for you to ask Al Golden. So if you want to call him up and ask him how he's going to plan to stop us, I'm all for it.

Going back to Chop, you mentioned during the spring that you want to see him become a complete player this year. Where is he as far as that trajectory and how do you as coaches make sure the potential that you see in a guy, he's actually on that track?

Jeff Hafley: You coach him hard and you show him plays that it wasn't good enough and you challenge them, just like all great players. Whether it was the best player I've ever been around, when you turn on the tape – like when a guy has a really good game, we don't need to tell him he had a good game. Everybody's telling him he had a good game. He knows it. Our job is to turn the tape on and challenge him in the areas where he needs to improve and push him when he's feeling good. I mean, that's my job is when they're feeling good, it's my turn to kind of push them and to make sure that they stay on it and get better, right? Because there's certain things, whether it's his first step, whether he can tighten up his stance, where are his eyes? Can he still improve in his physicality in the run game? Like all the little things that he's getting better at to continue to challenge him because he can be a complete player. But we have to coach him and continue to develop him like all these players because one good game, can you do it again? Because that's what you have to do in this league.

Sticking with the defensive line, you guys obviously got a lot of pressures in that game. Was there an unsung hero? Is it coverage on the back end, just great individual efforts that opened things up for someone else? When you watched the tape, was there a group?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, it's how you play team defense. It's rush plus coverage. It's the guys in the back end are doing their job and they're where they're supposed to be. Because even on that first sack, on the first play of the game, Kyler went to throw the ball into an area where we had disguised, which was a great job from the safeties, and we were in a cloud. So he went here thinking he'd have free access based on what we showed, and he had to step and rehitch and something was coming back. And by the time he stepped and rehitched, Sieler had made a play and we were right in his face. So it's those guys over there did a great job, which bought them an extra a click to get the sack. So to me that's team defense, that's how we need to play. Our style is going to be playing together where one benefits from the other. The unsung hero in the game is Jordan Phillips. Because the stat line is never going to be like as much as a Chop Robinson. But when I turn on the tape and there's three guys blocking him and he's still throwing them off and he's making a play or there's three guys blocking him, so now Rodriguez has 18 tackles, right? Those are the unsung heroes of the game. The guys doing the dirty work that are grinding on double teams and getting 650 pounds on him the whole entire game. Like that's not fun and you don't get rewarded for it. That's what's fun about defense, it's totally everybody has to be on it.

You've spoken a lot about how Chris Johnson can be successful outside and inside. The snaps are actually about evenly divided. Is there an advantage to having the slot be a guy who doesn't come off the field? Is that your preference for some strategic reason or is it just what happened to work out this way this year?

Jeff Hafley: It can be an advantage, but as you go throughout the game, I think people kind of figure out who's subbing in and what we're getting into. I think there's some packages where it hides a little bit, and he's always on the field, and they might not know where he is going to be. But I really do believe that, and we've seen it the last two weeks, he's really good inside. I mean, he is physical and how physical he was with those wideouts last week, who I thought were good blockers and had a lot of respect for, and he blitzed a couple times off the edge, which forced some really bad throws. I think that's hard to do as a rookie and I told you guys since the beginning, I knew he had it in him. We need to still coach and develop him and he needs to continue to work but I think if you can get a guy that can do both in this day and age, especially on third down when it's – we'll give you an example here to make more sense of this as I'm thinking. Say you want him to match up on a wideout, but that wideout goes in the slot, now he has a capability to go inside and they might not know are we in man or zone because he's in the inside, where if I just took an outside only guy and I brought him inside, they might say, "oh, he's inside, he doesn't do that. They're only playing man coverage." Or maybe the guy on the outside doesn't have the ability to cover a slot. But now as he grows and develops, he could be a guy that I'm going to follow you around the whole game regardless of where you are and I can do that.

You told us about the 7-on-7 practices that you've had for guys who don't play a lot. Have you seen the benefit of that? Where have you seen the benefit? And where did you get that idea?

Jeff Hafley: It's something that Sully and I always talked about, even before we got together. And we kind of joked, usually you talk about this stuff, but you don't implement it. So it's been really important to me. I think regardless of where you're at, I think we're still in a developmental league. We just happen to be on a team that has a lot of developmental younger guys, but I think it's still a developmental league where you need to coach and you need to get your guys who aren't getting a lot of reps ready because eventually you want to see if you can get them ready to play and kind of grow them in your scheme and in your system and within your fundamentals and your techniques. So I think, one, for a guy like McCord, for him to get all those extra reps, rather than just him running the scout team, every week he's banking reps. So after 10 weeks, if he's doing that, that's 100 extra reps in our offense, that's a big deal to me. Or if you take a guy like Simpson who might not be getting as many reps, it's the same thing at corner. Or it's like we seem to bring in a new guy every week. Well, we got to get him going, that's the way to do it. Sundays, those are important. Get these guys practiced and coach them and develop them, that's our job. So we're going to stay on it and do the best that we can helping these young guys grow. It's fair to them, too.