The Miami Dolphins' first day of their 2026 training camp wasn't earth-shattering. They did classwork, they did physicals, and they ran the conditioning test. Everyone passed it, if you were wondering.
Jeff Hafley is taking on his first job as a head coach at the NFL level. It's new territory, and there are restrictions and limits that he will need to abide by. Hafley wants a physically imposing team on both sides of the ball. That means his practices have to become physical too.
Speaking with the Miami media on Tuesday, Hafley was asked, "Do your plans for training camp include live tackling at any point?' His reply was direct, simple, and to the point. "They do."
Jeff Hafley will hold live tackling practices during Miami Dolphins training camp
You can't learn to tackle by knocking down dummies. You can't learn to tackle when the pad in front of you doesn't shift from right to left on a dime. If you want to be a physical team, you have to know how to knock the other guy down.
Live tackling practices always come with risk, but it's better to conduct these in a supervised setting that ramps up over the course of a few weeks than to wait for the live portions to take place on opening day.
It's unclear how many of these full-blown tackling practices have taken place under Mike McDaniel or Brian Flores, but it will be interesting to see if injuries increase or decrease. For what it's worth, Miami's defensive leader, Jordyn Brooks, seems to like the idea of emphasizing tackling.
"I think the only way you can get better at tackling is to tackle," Brooks said to the media Tuesday. "It's hard trying to get your feet ready and get that work in the first game of the season."
Physical practices lead to physical toughness. The Dolphins have been a team that has been more formulaic. A team that reacts more than attacks. This regime wants the latter. They want to strike fear.
While it is often easy to say, it is more difficult to do, but Jon-Eric Sullivan and Hafley don't come from a team of weakness. They come from one of the more physically tough divisions in the entire NFL, the NFC North.
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