Read the full transcript from HC Jeff Hafley 's postgame media availability on September 9, 2026.

Every coach is different with the depth chart that is released to the media by all 32 teams every week. With you, should we take yesterday's as gospel in terms of these are the starters for Sunday?

Jeff Hafley: Some of it, not all of it.

Chris Bell – obviously just a couple weeks removed – Caleb Douglas, Malik Washington as starters. With the two rookies, I know winning is a priority, but how much at that position do you want to know what you have long term with Caleb and Chris this year? Do you have a sense of that yet with their talents? And is that important to know that this year?

Jeff Hafley: Well, we're going to find out. Winning is the priority. We're not going to put a guy out there Week 1 just to see what we have. We believe those guys deserve to start and we're going to start them. And we'll find out what we need to work on, how we need to develop them, with winning as a priority.

Is the performance staff sort of recommending a Chris Bell pitch count, ramp up situation or is he not requiring any pitch count?

Jeff Hafley: We're gonna we're gonna play him see how he feels but there's no pitch count on Chris.

With Kyle Louis now listed with the safeties, do you see that as a full-time move now or do you still see him as this versatile piece just listed with the safeties?

Jeff Hafley: Versatile piece. He's been working more with the safeties so when they told me I had to have a home for him, and I couldn't have both, I picked the safety position because that's been where he's been working with right now. But he's also still lining up at linebacker and he'll be a versatile piece. I just had to have a home for him.

How have you seen him grow over the last however many weeks in that role?

Jeff Hafley: I think he's done a good job. We've put him truly as a linebacker, we've put him as more of an apex cover down nickel, as you'll call him, we've put him as a safety. I think he's getting more comfortable with the different roles.

When it comes to health and performance, practice I noticed is that 1 p.m. today. Is that by design with so many 1 o'clock starts?

Jeff Hafley: It helps for sure. Is that the only reason? No. That time also allows us to maximize meeting time, install time, walkthrough time. But that certainly was taken into consideration. Every game this year will be at 1 o'clock.

I had asked you last week whether Dante Trader Jr. and Zayne Anderson were the starting safeties. Understandably, you didn't want to answer. Depth chart yesterday did have both of them as the starting safeties. Are they your starters?

Jeff Hafley: I see all three of them as starters, and I think you're going to see the same thing as we play in the game on Sunday.

Michael Taaffe, obviously.

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, I see all three of those guys that we're going to count on, rely on and all three of them are going to play.

During the summer, as Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell progressed, what kind of benchmarks, what kind of things are you looking for in order to be convinced that the light bulb is starting to click and turn on? What do they do that makes you say that?

Jeff Hafley: Just learning the plays, lining up, giving great effort, doing their job consistently. I think the key is being consistent within the scheme of the offense, and when their opportunity comes to make plays, that they make those plays. I mean, just like all the rookies, we're gonna play a lot of them on Sunday. I think that's very clear. I don't know what the number is, but there's a lot of guys, so there's no expectation. Our process is to do everything we can. We just finished a walkthrough, we have practice coming up now, then we're gonna go out and practice, then we're gonna watch the practice, and then they're gonna recover and they're gonna go home. Our goal is to do everything we can every single day. So when it comes time for Sunday, I'm not worried about that. I just want them to go play free, play as fast as they can, as physical as they can, clear mind, fast feet, and let it rip. And however that falls, we'll look at it. We'll work to get better and improve as we go. And that's going to be the way for all these guys.

Will you allow yourself a moment on Sunday to take in your first NFL head coaching day, what that moment means to you and your journey?

Jeff Hafley: My guess is it will probably happen, like if I'm answering truthfully, during the national anthem when I finally can like take a deep breath because leading up to the game will be about the team. It will be about the game plan, it will be about adjustments, it will be constantly going over the call sheet, talking to Bobby Slowik, talking to Chris Tabor and probably during the national anthem is usually some times when I can finally take a deep breath for a few seconds and just reflect on important people that have helped me throughout my life and usually in that time I'll think about them.

How unique is preparation in a game where you have a new head coach, a playcaller, a quarterback that's all new together – you don't have much tape on what they might do. How unique is that to other weeks and other games?

Jeff Hafley: I think it's the same situation exactly that they're in. I mean, that's why Week 1, 2 and 3, there's not a lot of tendencies, right? I can go back and I can study Seattle, which is what we're doing. We're watching Seattle, but we're trying to watch the Raiders players and a bunch of free agents that they brought in to kind of figure out the personnel, but trying to piece together how, for example, Kubiak is going to use X, Y and Z within his scheme now that he has these guys. I mean, it's a big challenge. I think early in the season, it's got to be about yourself and that's my message to the team. It's got to be about using our rules. It's got to be about the fundamentals and techniques that we've talked about all training camp because we don't know what it's going to look like. And they truly, they don't know what it's going to look like. I'm sure they're watching Packer tape right now with players that they're not going to play against and trying to figure out how we're going to use these guys within multiple things that we've all done throughout our careers. So when you start building later in the season and you have tendencies, down distance, personnel, how they're using a guy, who's getting the ball on 3rd down, who's their red zone target, like that's when it becomes different. But this is, it's got to be, worry about yourself, right? Focus on the little things, the details of the game, the things that can get you beat fast. And then you got to adjust as you go and you see it on the fly. They're in the same situation that we are.

Are you one of those coaches who believes the biggest one-week jump a team can make in the season is between Weeks 1 and 2?

Jeff Hafley: No. I think you can make strides throughout the season, and I think that's our job with growth and development. But no, I don't think you can pigeonhole it into Week 1 to Week 2.

Is there a stat or two stats that you value more than others, whether it's turnover margin, points allowed, et cetera?

Jeff Hafley: Turnover margin. Turnover margin is going to be huge, especially early in the season. You got to protect the ball and then penalties early in the season. I just think if you look at early games, it's 1st-and-10, now it's 1st-and-15 because a guy moved or it's 3rd-and-2 and you're all excited about your 3rd-and-2 call and now it's 3rd-and-7 because there was a mis-motion or a guy was covered up and a lot of self-inflicted things that cause you to go backward. But those are probably the two biggest things early in the season that you're going to see – starting tonight. Those are the things that you're going to see. And then you've got to clean those up as you go. I mean, that first game, there's going to be some anxious guys and some guys that are fired up to play the game. And you've got to take a deep breath and trust your training.

I know the defense is multiple and I know that a lot of it is matchup based. So I know at times we'll see four defensive linemen, at times we'll still have three. At times we'll see one, two, or three linebackers. But I'm curious, the depth chart was a 4-2-5. Do you think that will end up being the alignment that the team ends up using most?

Jeff Hafley: That was our depth chart versus 11 personnel. So yes. You got four d-linemen, two linebackers we listed a nickel, two corners and two safeties. So when we did the depth chart, we did it versus 11 personnel. So we're not listing a Joker and a Sam, and then all of a sudden we've got 15 positions. We took a normal personnel grouping, we put it out there and had a depth chart.

So it would be correct to say that it's a 4-2-5 base?

Jeff Hafley: Well yeah, if you're looking at it just squarely by people. It could be 4-3, it depends who we put at that spot and what you want to call this guy versus that guy. I mean 4-2 versus 4-3, if you really want to get technical, it's the same thing. You got four d-linemen, three guys, four secondary guys. You want to get really deep and you're just calling like two backers and then five DBs it's just, what do you call that guy? Is he a linebacker or is he a DB? So it's all going to look the same, it's just a matter of who that person is.

I want to ask you about Jacob Rodriguez because for a rookie to wear the green dot on defense, it takes a very special type of person, I can only imagine the trust that you have in him. If you can talk about some of those attributes, as well as any challenges that have come along the way with that communication or any anecdotes that you want to share with us in order for him to be translating those responsibilities from college now into the NFL?

Jeff Hafley: Yeah, it is a challenge. I'm excited for him. He's earned it. He works really hard at it. Like I've mentioned before, the guy's here all the time. He was in my office this morning going over the call sheet before 7 a.m. And we're talking, here are the calls that I like in this situation, here's why I like it so if you hear me call it on this down and distance, we need to start thinking alike. And I might tag it with this, so you need to listen for this. We joke back and forth. Some of the calls get long and I'll say, 'no, say it like this' because there's a cadence to it, so it can come out and he'll say, 'well, I like it more like this,' and I'll say, 'well we got to work on that stuff together.' There's certainly challenges. I mean, that's a big responsibility in this league. I'd be curious to know how many rookies in the NFL wear the green dot. But I'm excited for him and he's going to do a really good job and he'll get better at it as we go.

When you talk about the excitement for guys fired up is there an eagerness to kind of finally display on Sunday what you guys have been working hard towards? What's the level of excitement? How are you feeling? How do you see your players just kind of get eager to get things started?

Jeff Hafley: It should all be excitement. That's why we do what we do. Training camp's hard. Training camp was long. And as much as we love practicing football, we all love playing football and there's nothing better than Sundays. And that's why we do what we do. It's why we coach. It's why we play. You make a really good point, though. I want to make sure that towards the end of this week, as hard as we're working and preparing, there's some guys doing it for the first time. I also want to take a step back and enjoy it. I mean because we're playing a game and they need to enjoy it and they need to play free and they need to play with that mindset and not worry about anything else. They've already put in the work. Yeah, I can't wait. That's why we do what we do.

What have you seen out of Malik Willis this week that kind of reinforces the idea like, yeah, I have the right guy?

Jeff Hafley: Well, we've only really had the one quick practice for this week. Just the guy is here, he's studying, he's meeting with the wide receivers, he's got a smile on his face. It's really nothing this week, it's everything that he's done up to this week and being consistent with it that gives me confidence in him.

Play calling question for you. How much do you believe in kind of saving your bullets or having an ace up your sleeve because everything's unscouted at this point versus throwing your best stuff Week 1 to make sure that you get a win?

Jeff Hafley: That's a good question. I'm going to call what I believe our guys can execute on a high level. So right now the call sheet, if I have one on me, it's probably bigger than it will be on game day. I just feel like it's really important early on to throw this is what we want to do and as we go through, say, all right, we can handle this, this and this, and let's hold off on this. I got to see where we're at and what these guys can execute at a high level. There's plenty of bullets as we go throughout the year the goal each year is to continue to evolve. So what we look like Week 1 might not be Week 7 because there's a heavy self-scout component where I'm going to look back and say, 'he knows I'm going to call, no I'm not going to call it anymore' and then you come back to it. That's a big deal and it's a really good question, but I'm not going to go in with the intent of saving bullets for a later time and do everything that we possibly can do to win the game with whatever calls that I need as long as our players can execute them at a high level. Because it's not about me tricking anybody, it's about our guys playing good football.

You talked about all the unknowns at this point, at what point in the season do you expect to have the clearest vision of what you have in your team as far as strengths, weaknesses, identity?

Jeff Hafley: I think it's going to evolve as we go. I think it's going to take time as that clears up and we get film and we get guys comfortable and figure out on game day exactly what some can do as they get more experience and more reps. I think that's going to be a huge part of this season.

You have two talented young big boundary corners with Jason Marshall Jr. and with JuJu Brents. How can each maximize their skills this year from watching both of them?

Jeff Hafley: They both have great opportunities out in front of them. Year 2 for Marshall, which I'm excited for him to be on the outside and just get all of his reps on the outside and gain that experience because I think it's where he best belongs. JuJu, God willing, he continues to stay healthy and gets those reps in experience and he's worked really hard for that up to this point. So I think for both of them it's just going out and finally getting the experience that they need. They've had nice camps.

What are you most curious to learn about your team on Sunday?

Jeff Hafley: There's a lot of things that I want to learn about them. I think that the biggest thing for me for this team is going to be, regardless of the circumstance, who we're playing, where we're playing; how hard we play, how fast we play, how physical we play, and if we really, really can get connected as a team and do it together. I'm not sure if that answers your question, but as I think through your question, which I think is a good one. I usually don't get stumped there for a second, but you got me. That's what like my vision – that's what I'm curious to see. And that's what I'm excited to see and I think we'll get that out of these guys as we go.