A few weeks ago, Jeff Hafley and Jon-Eric Sullivan were both still working for the Green Bay Packers.
Now, they’re down in South Beach, working together again with new jobs and big goals.
Hafley, as the head coach, and Sullivan, as the general manager, sat side-by-side as they were introduced on Thursday, Jan. 22, in their new positions with the Miami Dolphins in a joint press conference.
Sullivan, the Packers’ vice president of player personnel the last four years and who worked over 20 years in Green Bay, was named the Dolphins’ general manager on Jan. 9.
His first job was to find a new head coach after Mike McDaniel was fired a day earlier. And while he went through an extensive search, Sullivan didn’t have to look far for the team’s new leader.
“I came into this and I was very vocal from the jump I have a lot of conviction with a guy I’m in Green Bay with,” Sullivan said.
The Dolphins will be Hafley’s first NFL head coaching job.
Sullivan said that while hiring someone with head coaching experience would have been “an asset” it became clear that it wouldn’t be a deal breaker.
“I always had the conviction on ‘Haf,'” Sullivan reiterated.
He added that the others in the interview room with him felt the same way as he did, calling Hafley a “slam dunk” on their talks together. In one of the interviews with Hafley, Sullivan said he deliberately sat back so “I could watch them grow in the conviction that I had coming into the door.”
But the 50-year-old Sullivan adds that “it was never done from the start. That is a misnomer.”
Given that both Sullivan and Hafley are coming from the Packers, the franchise was a common theme for both during the press conference.
“I want to thank Matt LaFleur and the Green Bay Packers,” said Hafley, who was hired by LaFleur in 2024 to run the Packers’ defense after four years as the head coach at Boston College. “The last two years have been two of the best in my life. He’s a great football coach. He’s a great friend. He’s gonna have continued great success.”
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Hafley, 46, was only with the Packers for two years but he developed deep personal relationships with the organization. Players like Micah Parsons, who spent just one season with Hafley, was one of the players who wished him well earlier this week.
“I also want to thank those players there,” said Hafley, who will be the defensive playcaller for the Dolphins on game days. “Two years we really got close. It was hard to say goodbye to those guys but the phone calls and texts, you guys, have meant everything to me. I love you. I wish you the best other than when we come to Lambeau next year.”
Hafley will return to Green Bay next season when the Dolphins play the Packers. The time and date will be announced later this spring.
Who plays quarterback for the Dolphins will be something Sullivan and Hafley have to figure out. Tua Tagovailoa has been the team’s quarterback since midway during his rookie season in 2020 but Sullivan didn’t offer any guarantees for the starter in 2026, saying more conversations and evaluations need to happen.
And Sullivan said he’s bringing the Packers’ quarterback playbook to Miami.
“I’ve learned if you can help it don’t wait until you don’t have a quarterback to find one,” Sullivan said.
He reminded those in attendance that he watched then-Packers general manager Ted Thompson draft Aaron Rodgers when the Packers still had Brett Favre and then watched GM Brian Gutekunst do it years later when he selected Jordan Love when Rodgers was still playing. Both Rodgers and Love sat for three years before taking over the position.
Sullivan learned from Thompson to always do “what’s best for the team even when it’s not popular.”
Sullivan said he won’t be afraid to continue stockpiling at the position.
“We’re going to invest in that position every year,” he said. “We will draft quarterbacks every year if not every other year.”
It’s another tactic that he learned in Green Bay.
“If you look at the history of the Green Bay Packers, Brett Favre’s backups were Matt Hasselbeck, Kurt Warner, Aaron Brooks, Ty Detmer going down the line. I can’t say enough about the importance. We’ll be very active in acquiring quarterbacks to make sure we make it as deep as we can make it.”
Watch Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley press conference
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Jeff Hafley said about Packers at Dolphins introductory press conference
Reporting by Christopher Kuhagen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
