The first time Jeff Hafley went out on a limb and took a leap of faith, he was only 26.
The now Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator had a $40,000 job as the defensive backs coach at Albany, and his goal in the spring of 2006 was to learn as much about coaching as possible. Every weekend, he’d find a coaching clinic, jump in his Subaru Outback and drive there, soaking in as much football Xs and Os as he could.
Hafley met Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and learned that then-head coach Dave Wannstedt had an open-door policy – where young coaches were welcome to watch spring ball and sit in on meetings. He attended a practice, then the spring game, kept coming back, even working summer camps there.
“I grabbed my defensive coordinator and said, ‘Every time I turn around, this Hafley guy is here,'” Wannstedt told me. “This guy’s a grinder, man. He can’t get enough.”
Wannstedt had an opening on his staff for 2006 and a chance to work with an exceptional player in cornerback Darrelle Revis, but it was only a graduate assistant (GA) job, paying maybe $7,000.
Hafley took the job. He bought an air mattress, and for two years, he slept in his office at Pitt’s football facility. He’d go to dinner with his parents after a home game, and they’d drop him off at the office, joking he had the nicest house in all of Pittsburgh.
“For me, it was like ‘Look, I want to coach.’ I kind of gave up everything, like most coaches do,” Hafley told me. “You don’t really get to see family. You don’t see friends. You lose touch with people. I said I’m going to try to do this until I’m 30 years old, as far as I can. If it works out, I’m going to keep going with it, and if not, then I’ll reassess. I just kept going and never looked back.”
Former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt took a chance on Jeff Hafley in 2006, with the Packers defensive coordinator working under him as a defensive assistant for five seasons. (Photo by Ned Dishman/Getty Images)
Hafley didn’t even have an apartment, but he was making an impression on everyone around him.
“If we would have a 7:30 staff meeting, I’m in the office around 6, and I’d hear voices,” Wannstedt says. “He’s got our freshmen and all the young defensive backs in a meeting at 6:30 in the morning. There’s nobody in the building, coaches are just coming in and Jeff’s in there having a player meeting. I said to myself, ‘This guy gets it.’”
The humble roots had started earlier, as an oft-injured receiver from Montvale, New Jersey, playing at Division I-AA Siena, which would discontinue its football program three years after he left.
“This was Siena College. You had to really love football to play there,” Jay Bateman, Hafley’s head coach in 2000 and now the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, told me. “He was such a good teammate, a tremendous worker, loved football. That was a very driven group of kids, and Jeff was one of the leaders of that team.
“As far as being a good receiver? That was questionable, and he’d say the same thing. He’s the typical eye-black, wristbands, go in there to block people and run the right routes every time. But like he wasn’t getting open a whole lot. Just a leader of men, and he’s always been that way.”
When Hafley was pondering leaving Albany for the uncertainty of a GA job and the certainty of sleeping in his office, he called Bateman, asking what he should do.
“Bet on yourself,” Bateman told him. “You have the talent to coach at that level and above. He’s a tremendous football coach. He believes what he believes. I talk to him all the time, and we talk about scheme, but honestly, it’s more about how he’s messaging things to his players. He’ll be a head coach in the NFL soon.”
When Wannstedt resigned after the 2010 season, one of his former assistants, Greg Schiano, called him to ask who his best young coaches were. Schiano hired Hafley to his staff at Rutgers, and a year later, brought him along when he became the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ head coach.
“I learned so much from Coach Wannstedt, at a young age, on how to be a coach, how to treat people, how to treat a staff, how to communicate with players,” Hafley says. “He probably influenced me more than anyone else on all that stuff. That really helped shape me. [Schiano] is essentially the most detailed, demanding coach I’ve ever been round. He helped me be detailed in my X’s and O’s, to dot all my I’s and cross all my T’s. I believe it is a cool mixture to have these two, as a result of they’re fairly totally different guys. I take one thing from all people.”
Hafley went from the Bucs to the Browns for 2 years, then the 49ers for 3. He went by a 2-14 season, a 3-13 yr, two 4-12s, by no means a profitable report in his first seven years as an NFL assistant.
Jeff Hafley joined the 49ers in 2016, working alongside Robert Saleh as he was San Francisco’s defensive backs coach for 3 seasons. (Photograph by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Photos)
However Hafley had the nice fortune to be surrounded by future NFL head coaches. In Cleveland, he labored with Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Aaron Glenn and Kevin O’Connell. With the 49ers, he labored underneath Shanahan and with Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans, together with future Ohio State coach Ryan Day.
“It is all these younger guys, and we’re choosing one another’s brains,” Hafley says. “We’re speaking soccer. It is like heaven, proper? All these good people who find themselves good coaches. I have been round some nice, nice staffs. … I realized plenty of soccer simply being round Kyle Shanahan. You wish to discuss having to know what you are doing and having a solution for what you are doing, with the ability to be assured in what you are instructing scheme-wise and being challenged and being on it, if you do not know what you are doing round Kyle, it isn’t going to be excellent.”
Day employed Halfey to be Ohio State’s defensive coordinator in 2019, beginning a second stint in school soccer. After a yr with the Buckeyes, he was the top coach at Boston Faculty, nonetheless solely 41 years outdated. He pushed by the COVID-19 pandemic, by the beginning of the switch portal and title, picture and likeness (NIL) period, going 22-26 in 4 seasons, however making a bowl and profitable in his fourth yr.
However Hafley wasn’t actually teaching, and he wasn’t actually joyful.
“I am a man that loves soccer and loves to teach, and my final two years, I wasn’t teaching soccer anymore,” he advised me. “I felt like I used to be doing another job. It was exhausting for me to depart the staff, so exhausting for me to depart the staff, however I simply wasn’t myself anymore, as a result of I wasn’t doing what I actually needed to do.”
The emergence of NIL and the specter of participant transfers grew with every year at Boston Faculty. Wannstedt talked frequently with Hafley, and acknowledged how a lot of an uphill battle recruiting turned when different faculties within the ACC had bigger monetary commitments.
“Boston Faculty, they do not have the assets that Clemson has, a few of these,” Wannstedt says. “You are busting your tail recruiting these guys, you practice them for a yr, you coach them for a yr, after which they begin having success and you’ll’t afford to maintain them. The NIL was simply beginning to gear up then, and a few of these groups could not compete.”
Hafley remembers sitting down with receiver Zay Flowers, a future first-round draft decide, and Flowers was upfront with him, telling him different faculties have been calling with gives, tempting him to take extra money elsewhere. He satisfied Flowers to remain, however it was an indication of every thing to come back.
“It is devastating,” Hafley says. “When that retains occurring, over and over, you pour every thing you’ve into these guys and also you’re instructing them and training them and also you have been possibly their solely supply, and now they probably could be leaving for cash. They don’t seem to be occupied with their diploma. They don’t seem to be occupied with their training. So as an alternative of teaching, I am on the telephone making an attempt to lift cash.”
Jeff Hafley went 7-6 in his remaining season at Boston Faculty, main the Eagles to a bowl victory in his final recreation. A month later, he seemingly took a demotion with the intention to discover happiness teaching once more. (Photograph by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe through Getty Photos)
“I bought to the purpose the place I stated, ‘I do not wish to do that,'” he provides. “I had stopped teaching. I used to be doing a job that wasn’t what I would at all times dreamt to do.”
Hafley had two years left on a Boston Faculty contract reportedly paying him $4 million a yr, however prime NFL coordinators could make near that a lot, and Packers coach Matt LaFleur known as him. Hafley had labored with LaFleur’s youthful brother, Mike, with the 49ers, so there already was a connection. A return to the NFL was precisely what he wanted.
“I did not know what my expectation was, apart from I could not wait to get again to teaching soccer and immersing myself in soccer once more,” Hafley says. “Up to now, it has been plenty of enjoyable. You ask if that is what I anticipated? Yeah. I like what I am doing. I like going to work. I like the blokes I coach. I like being across the employees. I sit up for it day-after-day.”
Speak to the very best gamers Hafley has coached, and so they’ll inform you one among his strengths is that he’ll take heed to his gamers, asking them what works and would not work as he develops a weekly recreation plan.
“His preparation was unimaginable. His consideration to element was unimaginable,” cornerback Richard Sherman, who performed for Hafley with the 49ers, advised me. “The most important factor was his capacity to narrate to gamers and have an open ear. Protection and protection on paper appears easy, however there’s much more nuance to it, and that results in discussions within the DB room. […] He was at all times a man who was open to other ways of getting the job executed and being versatile, open to strategies. That is helped him perceive the strengths of his gamers.”
In 2012, Ronde Barber was 37 and taking part in security for the primary time, and Hafley was 33 and his place coach. The Corridor of Fame defensive again remembers him at all times being “curious,” not as a result of he did not know what to do however as a result of he needed to know what everybody within the room thought. It made him likable, the type of coach gamers do not wish to disappoint in video games.
“He has these quiet management qualities that individuals gravitate towards,” Barber advised me. “He is profitable as a result of he communicates, and the blokes know precisely what they’re imagined to do and after they’re imagined to do it.”
Barber continues.
“I’ve watched plenty of Inexperienced Bay tape, and so they do not make errors. They do not beat themselves. It reveals up on tape, again and again. He would not need to inspire gamers as a result of they’re already motivated themselves as a result of they perceive what their jobs are.”
Jeff Hafley’s lone season as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator has helped him elevate the Packers’ protection develop into among the best during the last two years. (Photograph by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)
The concept of listening to gamers and valuing their enter began out of necessity for Hafley. His first teaching job was at Division III Worcester Polytechnic Institute, teaching operating backs, near his consolation zone, however when he bought employed at Albany, it was to teach the defensive tackles.
“I had a defensive deal with, a fifth-year man, I believe he was older than me on the time,” Hafley says. “I keep in mind I known as him in, met with him. I used to be like ‘Look, I do not even know the best way to get into stance.’ I performed wideout. Let’s sit down, I will decide your mind. I coached the d-tackles for a yr, then I coached the skin backers for 2 years, then I turned a DB coach, so I bought to be taught it from the entrance to the again, and I knew I needed to be a defensive man. It began with simply what job I might get, and I ran with it.”
Hafley stated he learns from his gamers each week and can proceed to depend on their enter as he makes choices not solely about scheme, however particular person recreation plans from week to week.
“I wish to know, if these are the three blitzes, which do you want?” he advised me. “If that is your favourite one, then guess what? He is in all probability going to run that blitz rather well, and possibly going to take extra possession with it. ‘Hey, Xavier McKinney, what do you consider this disguise and the way it appears?’ It is, ‘Coach, I adore it,’ or possibly let’s have a dialog. Superior. Give the gamers possession, and if a sure man desires to play press method a bit of totally different, let me learn the way I could make it higher for him, somewhat than change the entire thing for him.”
Hafley’s weaving path between the school recreation and the NFL has uncovered him to extra concepts and challenges. Sherman stated the NFL has totally different appears from week to week, however nothing like the variety of thought and schemes in school soccer.
“You might get one staff completely unfold out, a man throwing it 56 occasions in a recreation,” Sherman says, “after which it’s possible you’ll get old-school Stanford operating objective line in the course of the sphere, energy soccer. You might get Oregon hurry-up. You must alter to each model of play you get, and that is undoubtedly helped him.”
Teaching in school meant working with youthful gamers that want extra teaching, and he stated shifting again to the NFL hasn’t modified his recognition that success and improvement should start at a really fundamental degree with gamers.
“It is to develop gamers and educate these younger guys the basics and method. I believe that is nonetheless an important factor that individuals neglect about typically,” Hafley stated. “I believe within the NFL, individuals get caught up in scheme, scheme, scheme. Finally, I consider in all my coronary heart that it is about fundamentals and method. It is about your eyes and your ft. It is about getting off blocks. It is about tackling. It is about leverage. At BC, we did not at all times have the highest-rated recruits, you needed to develop guys.”
Says Barber: “He is seen every thing. He is been the assistant, had his personal room, has been a head coach, now he will get to coordinate. The buildup of all these experiences make him what he’s now.”
Hafley’s first yr as an NFL coordinator final yr was an enormous success. The Packers went 11-6, made the playoffs with the youngest staff within the league, and Hafley’s protection ranked sixth in factors allowed, fifth in yards allowed and fourth in takeaways.
Then, in August, he bought a shock enhance with information. The Packers had traded for All-Professional edge rusher Micah Parsons, a transfer that elevated Inexperienced Bay to be seen as one of many prime challengers to the Eagles within the NFC. It is the type of transfer that makes you a greater coach instantly, but in addition raises the expectations for fulfillment even increased.
Now in his second season because the Packers’ defensive coordinator, Jeff Hafley leads a unit that options just a few stars and promising gamers, together with Micah Parsons. (Photograph by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)
“I texted him that day: ‘I do not know who your D-ends coach is, however I would like to use for the job,” Bateman advised me.
Hafley already had confidence in his protection and the Packers as an entire, and including Parsons solely added to that.
“I liked our group — final yr, by the tip of the yr, we have been a prime, no matter, 5, six protection,” Hafley says. “You construct the arrogance in coaching camp, and also you’re preparing for a season and all of the sudden, in comes one of many elite gamers in our league at a premium place. He is been unbelievable together with his power and being a teammate and being coachable. It raises the extent of who we’ve and what we will do, and he is introduced some further power to this group.”
The Packers play on the Steelers on Oct. 26, so Hafley will return to Pittsburgh, teaching in the identical stadium he did at Pitt. There isn’t a air mattress now, and he can go dwelling to his spouse Gina, whom he met at Pitt, and their daughters, Hope and Leah.
Hafley is teaching on the highest degree of soccer, however he additionally remembers when he was driving to teaching clinics and sleeping in his workplace. He’ll get a textual content now from an unknown quantity, a highschool coach with a query a few protection he desires to run.
“If I am at Texas A&M Excessive Faculty and I textual content and say, ‘Hey, do you’ve 5 minutes?’ he’ll name me,” Bateman says. “That is who he’s.”
Hafley’s at all times listening and at all times studying. Even coaches like to be coached.
“The most important factor I’ve realized is I haven’t got all of the solutions,” Hafley says, “and if I hold listening and I continue to learn and evolving, issues are going to be fairly good.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports activities. He beforehand spent a decade protecting the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Instances and The Athletic. You may observe him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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