Asleep beneath the desk in his small office, Jeff Hafley once dreamed of landing a head coaching job. It didn't have to be in the NFL, not back then. It just had to be somewhere. Coaching football was Hafley's life, and thanks to former Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt, it became a reality.
The Dolphins' hiring of Hafley continued the string of first-time head coaches hired by owner Stephen Ross, but at least this time, he went outside of the organization for help. That, too, is an irony that can't escape the dot-to-dot connections for this new regime.
Dave Wannstedt was the defensive coordinator for the Jimmy Johnson-era Cowboys. He faced Troy Aikman every day in practice and watched him grow into a Hall of Fame player. Now, all these years later, it would be Aikman who drove Ross to Jon-Eric Sullivan, and Sullivan to Hafley, but it hasn't come full circle just yet.
Jeff Hafley welcomes mentor Dave Wannstedt to Miami Dolphins training camp
On Tuesday, Wannstedt returned to the team that he once coached. He met with his own former assistant, who once slept under a desk. It hasn't been lost on fans with a keen interest in history and winning.
Former Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt, who happens to be Jeff Hafley’s mentor, seems to be taking a more active role while watching practice. pic.twitter.com/028BFZHR70
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) August 18, 2026
Wannstedt, sadly, is the last Dolphins head coach to win a playoff game. That was in 2000. Long before his mid-season resignation, long before Ross would buy the team. Long before some Dolphins fans were born.
Hafley is the next coach in line to break that 25-year void. A void that will likely last another year at least, if not two. It's a tough climb for Hafley, but he doesn't have to look far to find a comparable situation through his own connections.
While he may not have had the blockbuster trade that Jimmy Johnson had with Hershel Walker, there are odd similarities nonetheless.
The Cowboys gutted their roster from the previous season. They leaned on youth, draft picks, and even undrafted free agents. They built their team from the bottom up, through the draft. In their first season under Johnson, the Cowboys went 1-15. Miami faces a similar situation in 2026. It gets even more interesting when you look at the timeline.
- 1984 - Jimmy Johnson joins the Miami Hurricanes
- 1989 - Johnson and Wannstedt join the Cowboys
- 1989 - Johnson drafts Troy Aikman
- 1989 - Cowboys finish 1-15, then 7-9, win 2 Super Bowls over the next 3 years
- 1996 - Johnson takes over HC job for the Dolphins
- 1999 - Johnson hires Dave Wannstedt to serve as DC
- 2000 - Dave Wannstedt named Dolphins HC - last Dolphins playoff win
- 2006 - Jeff Hafley joins Wannstedt's staff at Pittsburgh
- 2026 - Danny Silllman hires Troy Aikman to find their next GM
- 2026 - Dolphins hire Jon-Eric Sullivan
- 2026 - Sullivan hires Jeff Hafley to be their head coach
Will Hafley take the Dolphins to a level they haven't been at in 25 seasons of football? It's hard to say, but Miami is following a similar path that Johnson took in his first year as an NFL head coach. Sure, times are a lot different now, but football is still football.
For fans who love the thought of our football world being guided by supernatural phenomena, this one should get the juices flowing, but in reality, it's a lesson that in the world of professional sports, everything can come back around. For the Dolphins, maybe it has.
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