Picking your battles, falling on the sword when appropriate, and maintaining poise in the midst of chaos or uncertainty. These are great tenets for life, and they'll serve Jeff Hafley well as Miami Dolphins head coach if he can keep adhering to them.
Hafley is doing well on all those fronts in the very early going of his tenure. Ugly as Saturday's 26-3 Week 2 preseason loss to the New York Giants was, it might've felt even worse than the scoreboard.
But that didn't deter the first-year boss. Nor will the criticism he's fielding for not playing his starters, who've now gotten only one series through two preseason contests.
By the mere nature of taking the Dolphins gig, Hafley knew what he was getting into. He knew this roster was getting a massive makeover. That fact reared its ugly head versus the G-Men, yet despite the shame Hafley knew it'd probably bring, he made the right call for the sake of the team.
Hafley took the heat to protect the Miami Dolphins' present and future in preseason flop
In order to not spam y'all with reactions from Elon Musk's X/Twitter, this is a mere sampling of what Dolphins fans are saying on social media about Jeff Hafley's preseason personnel deployment tactics:
Don't understand why the dolphins are finishing game 2 of the preseason and the starters only played one drive
— Splash and Furious 🐬 (@SplashnFurious) August 22, 2026
After 2 preseason games where the starters played one drive and the rest of the team is filled with young kids and holes, rabid Dolphins Twitter already calling for this. pic.twitter.com/ek8R14Dr1Y
— David (@DavidFischer) August 23, 2026
Tough scenes. However, Hafley is smart enough to know that if he ran the starters out there too often, too soon, the risk of injuries to any key players would dwarf any benefits from live reps.
Think about how bad the offensive line looked in training camp once right tackle Austin Jackson went down for a spell. The backup o-line is a disaster, which, combined with the unproven commodities at wide receiver, I don't know, might have something to do with the dreadful QB play this preseason.
Literally any single injury to any of Miami's starting five in the offensive trenches would be a full-blown catastrophe, barring an unforeseen acquisition outside the building.
And do you really think Hafley, a defensive coach, wanted to put any of his best defenders' bodies on the line in the Giants game? Heck no! The Dolphins have the youngest team, too, so it behooved Hafley to give them as much experience as possible.
Hafley knew the results that were on the horizon. It was going to be ugly. He stuck to his plan anyway. A rookie head coach could easily be forgiven for being a try-hard and wanting to gut out a positive preseason result by playing his starters longer than is advisable. Hafley didn't fall for that noob-ish trap. Good on him.
Dolphins still have time (if desired) to unleash starters vs. Falcons in preseason Week 3
Plus, Friday presents a unique opportunity for Miami. The third week of the preseason used to be a dress rehearsal, where most teams would play their starters a significant amount. Now that there's no more fourth preseason game, and teams are less inclined to play starters in general, the whole exhibition phase dynamic has changed.
This is where Jeff Hafley could dig up a hidden edge. The starting offense led by Malik Willis and De'Von Achane, along with a largely unproven receiving corps, could get snaps against a lot of Atlanta Falcons backups in the preseason finale to gain chemistry and confidence.
How Hafley decides to deploy his defense will be very interesting to monitor, if only because the Falcons employ ex-Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. With Tua's main competition, Michael Penix Jr., finally cleared for 11-on-11 activity, I do wonder how Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski will deploy his QBs, who are still competing for the starting job.
Miami's roster is littered with perhaps the most players who'd be on the bubble for other teams. That's just the nature of the beast after the Fins' massive purge this offseason. They should have a fair amount of clarity as to who can help them in 2026 and beyond, especially considering they brought in the near-equivalent of two draft classes with 13 picks.
All this sets the stage for an intriguing finish to the preseason. A series, maybe two from the starters, will do. If Hafley sits them all again, though, can you blame him?
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