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

Monday of the regular season, obviously. Does this feel like a normal Monday regular season or is this something special being your position and the start of a different era?

Jeff Hafley: It doesn't feel normal because we've had an extra week. Usually Monday you're kind of coming in and you're going over the previous game tape and then you're rushing to start getting ready for the next opponent. Nothing to do with me, this is about our team and getting them ready to play, but just have a little bit more time and a practice on a Monday, which we normally wouldn't do, so it feels different in that regard. But besides that, it's just no, not too different.

I'll ask about the captains then. What do you think of the group of six that you have? Did all of them just feel like real natural leaders on this team?

Jeff Hafley: I'm excited. I mean, the players voted for those guys, and I think they deserved it. In each of their own way they've showed the ability to lead in all different ways. I think it says a lot about those six guys that they received the votes from their peers. I'm excited for those guys. I think those guys kind of set the standard of what we want and what we're looking for, but it doesn't end there. I think developing leaders is very important and it doesn't have to just come from the captains and I talked to the team about that today. But I'm excited for those six guys. I think they've earned it. I think some of them a year or two ago, or three years ago, might not have been in that position. But I think it's misconception when you say, 'oh, you don't have any leaders here or there,' I think you can develop leaders and there's certain ways to do that. And it comes in many different ways, so I'm excited about all six of them.

With Malik specifically, how much do you like that it wasn't just that he's the quarterback, he gets to be a captain? He showed some real leadership moments, I thought throughout camp.

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, and I think that goes to anybody who's ever talked to him, you can feel that quiet leadership about him. He has a special way to connect with the players in his own way. Sometimes it's vocally, sometimes it's behind the scenes and I think a lot of it too is his work ethic and the work he put in. If you think about it, I just think it's a really cool example of a guy who really started out rocky in his career, didn't really go very well, was traded to another team, was the backup, and now here he is as a captain. So I think it's a cool message for everybody who's on our team right now about being persistent, putting in hard work, being true to yourself, and it doesn't always happen right away. So I'm really happy for Malik.

What role do the captain serve for you in terms of what your expectations are for them from a leadership standpoint?

Jeff Hafley: They are the standard. And that's what I'm going to talk to them about, I have talked to them about it. But like I said, it doesn't end there. Leadership can come all throughout the team; they're just the guys right now that they need to set the standard.

When Saturday gets here and you guys have gone through your last walkthrough, what will you have need to have seen from the team in the week of preparation to know they're ready for Sunday?

Jeff Hafley: I think we're going to find that out on the opening kickoff. I mean that's when it gets real. For me, the process is about putting in all the work and that's what it's always been for me. It's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. It's how hard did you work? How hard did you study? Did you do the extra? Did you get with your coaches? And then you go let it rip on Sunday. That's my philosophy, that's what I believe in. You just have no regrets if you do everything you possibly can do every single day, the best that you can, learning from your mistakes in practice, going out the next day, getting better at them, just continue to grind, put in the work, watch the tape, study the tape, and then Sunday you just go out there and you play free and fearless, you see where it lands and you got to keep doing it again and again. This group I'm excited for, but we'll find out Sunday when we kick off.

What are the kinds of things that you might want to survey the captains about relative to the pulse of the team? Practice intensity, travel decisions. What do you think you might go to the captains for?

Jeff Hafley: There'll be a lot I go to them for. I mean, it could be some of those things you just mentioned, it could be other topics, but there'll be constant conversation. I'm always talking to the guys and picking their brains, and I have always done that wherever I've coached. I want to know what they see, how they're feeling. Ultimately, I'm going to make the decision. I mean, that's just the way it's going to go, but there's certain things that I'm going to want to bounce ideas off of some of them. And it could be a variety in those topics.

You hear about sort of the "welcome to the NFL" moment that rookies go through as well as some of the nerves that are associated with your first NFL game. So given all of that, what will your message be to the many rookies on the roster?

Jeff Hafley: Same thing I just talked about. It's why you work hard during the week. It's why you prepare. It's why if your process is right, you can go out and you can play free and there should be no hesitation, and them knowing that I'll have their back and there is going to be some ups and downs. I mean, that's all these rookies. It's just how it's going to go. To me, it's just how do you respond, when something good or bad happens, what's their response going to be? And then there needs to be growth. I'm excited to go on this journey with them.

From a health standpoint, Will Kacmarek and Ronnie, are they the only two that you think are dealing with injury?

Jeff Hafley: They'll practice today, so we'll see how it progresses. But everybody will be out there today, so I'm excited for that.

For you nerves wise, what is it like for you to have your first game in the head coach job?

Jeff Hafley: Again, the way I just explained that process to you about the players is the way I'm going to approach this week. I'm going to study the game plan. I'm going to tweak the game plan. I'm going to go over the game plan until probably before kickoff and then go let it rip. Call the game on defense and make the decisions I need to make throughout the game, lean on the staff and make it not about me, about our players. I'll be anxious for it, but I'll have put in the work, so I'll make my calls fast and I'll be decisive. You can't have any regrets on game day. You just got to go out there and coach free and do everything that you can and respond. But I'll be more excited than anything else to coach this team.

You're unique in this cycle of coaches in terms of having head coaching experience previously among first-time NFL head coaches. How do you think that has benefited you most, judging from your first five, six months on the job here?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I think it's all benefited from – like just picking the staff, for example. I went through it. I had to hire a whole staff, I had to hire people, I had to let people go, I had to hire new people. Like I said, I made plenty of mistakes in four years that, again, you got to continue to learn, you got to continue to grow. Even being on the field, I mean, the first game that I ever coached on the field as a head coach, I was going over an adjustment with the defense and all of a sudden someone taps me on the shoulder and asked me if we want to punt and I'm like, holy cow, we're already about to punt? So I've been through a lot of the moments. Not that I have all the answers and not that there's not going to be a lot more that I have to learn from, but I've went through the games as a head coach and did some things that I've made note of and will do better the second go around.

When you were in Green Bay, were you on the field or were you in the booth?

Jeff Hafley: I was in the booth.

What are the differences, beyond maybe the obvious, of calling a game from the field versus calling it from the booth?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, just picture you're sitting up there in the booth. All my notes are laid out, like everything, and it's nice and quiet and all the emotions are kind of taken out of the game. So it's just constant, you're just working. And in between series, you're listening and you're taking notes and you're maybe scripting the next series and someone's handing you notes and you're studying the opponent's tendencies, and all of a sudden you're studying this tendency and you're maybe tweaking a little thing here or there. It's all slowed down. It's kind of like playing a video game up there. You can see it all. It's a lot different. I enjoyed obviously calling the game from there, it's just, I got to be on the field now. I have Sean up there and I think that is the equalizer, because his eyes up there are as good as anybody that I've been around. The communication that we have, how he sees it, how I see it, we can kind of finish each other's sentences now being together for eight years. So he allows me to have the eyes that I need up there and he'll be a big part of the defense and what we call, and he'll have plenty of ideas. I have full trust in Sean, but I'm excited to be on the field. I think with the young team that we have, being able to look them in the eye, being able to pick them up when they have a tough moment, being able to congratulate them then sit them down and tell them they got to go do it again, I think it's really important for me to be around this team where I didn't feel that way or I would have been on the field in the last two years.

On Sunday, you might get in your ear, "analytics say go, analytics say kick." How much of that do you think you'll go with analytics and how much do you like to go gut feeling?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, good question. I think during the week, you study that and you kind of have, analytics say in this game, in these situations, say for example, fourth-and 4 on this yard line is a go. And then you say, let's tweak that, let's probably go more fourth-and 2 in that situation. So I think what you do is we sit down, we have those conversations, and you kind of give them my mindset. So then during the course of the game in this situation, it's, hey, in this situation, we said fourth-and 2 was a go. And my gut at the time might be like let's punt it or let's kick the field goal. I think you do your homework. I think you have a plan, and I think a lot of the times you try to stick with your plan, but there's always got to be the feel of the game and where it's going and the momentum of the game and how I think everything is going and what the team needs from me right now. Again, I lived through a lot of that. I think there was one year where I think we were third or fourth in going forward on fourth down and we were like 92% conversion. I felt our team needed it that year, and then there was another year where we weren't nearly up there. So I think it's both. I respect the analytics, but there's also some things that's got to come down to the game.

A lot of the Raiders offense will go through Brock Bowers. Obviously, I don't want you to give away the game plan, but what goes in to stopping an elite tight end versus an elite receiver?

Jeff Hafley: One, he is an elite tight end. Just watching the tape, I have a ton of respect for him as a player, and he's totally shown he has the ability to change games. Just depends how you use them. I mean, a tight end could all of a sudden wind up in the C area over here, playing the tight end position, and then shift on the snap and be over here. They can line them up in the slot and then go one-by-three and put them on the backside of a nub. They can go three-by-one and put them all the way flexed out like an X receiver. He gives them the ability to use him lining him up as a tight end and lining him up as a wide receiver, so it kind of creates an extra variable than just say, hey, it's their X receiver, I know he's going to be into the boundary in three-by-one, or I know he's going to be field and two-by-two and then you can start game planning coverage for him based on what side he's on. This gives you another element where they can move him around even more, so you just got to have a good plan because you better know where he is, and we'll have a bunch of adjustments for that.

Building off of that, Maxx Crosby is an elite edge rusher, good against the run and the pass. Do you want your team like on edge and hyperaware of where he is? Or is it kind of a relax, trust your training through the week? How do you handle that?

Jeff Hafley: I think it's both, but you better know where he is. He's one of the elite defenders in the league that plays with a relentless motor. You can't just go into a game and say, 'hey, everybody take it nice and easy, Maxx', no, you better know where he is. But then there's times when we're going to use our rules and play football, and then there's times when he's a guy that you better game plan around because he's another guy that can wreck a game and we've all seen him do that.

You guys open the season against a lot of quarterbacks who have played a lot of football, veteran guys. How do you want your young guys especially on the defensive side, I know you have veterans on that side, but how do you want them approaching going against quarterbacks who have played a lot of football?

Jeff Hafley: I want them to play within the scheme, which is what I think they've done a really good job in camp and trust their training. The biggest thing when you get into these games early in the season is a lot of the calls that we have, they've playing all training camp. Don't change who you are and don't just all of a sudden try to make something up where you're going outside the framework of the defense and all of a sudden there's a huge gap or a huge hole, and we're getting hit over the middle or we're getting hit down the field and we have nobody there. Trust your training, do your job to the best that you can and we'll continue to coach throughout the game and help them out.

I'm not going to mention the Dolphins in terms of how I frame this question but I am curious, have you thought in general as a philosophy about whether you would coach any differently with a team that maybe doesn't have the best talent in the league, will be an underdog a lot in terms of being more daring, blitzing more, more trick plays, more bells and whistles? Have you had that thought in your mind over recent months, and what's your thinking on that?

Jeff Hafley: I think every week it's going to be different. I think you go into every single game and it's who you're playing, what are their strengths, what are your weaknesses. How are we going to attack what we feel are weaknesses? How are we going to protect against their strengths? Some games it might have to be more aggressive than others. I think that's a huge part of this league. A huge part of this league is matchups. Everybody wants to always talk scheme this, scheme that; there's also an element of player versus player and what can we do to maximize our player against the guy we believe is better and vice versa. So it's all going to be based on that each week, and I think that's the fun part of the game and coaching is every week is really a unique situation and a different season.

Special teams wise, it looked to me and I might be wrong, that some of those waiver claims were special teams oriented. Is that correct? And where are special teams right now as far as organization with all the personnel changes?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I don't know if any of those claims were made just with special teams in mind. But I think any time that you're looking to fill in your roster, you better have guys that can go out and help you on special teams. I think Sully's done a really good job with that. Time will tell. We've had not many real practices with them, so we're still in the evaluation phase as we go through Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to still see these guys really play football and then obviously in the early part of the season. But I think Sully and their staff have done a good job of filling in the roster with hopefully guys that will be able to help us on special teams.