Fins' Hafley: Success 'not just defined by winning'

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  Marcel Louis-JacquesAug 29, 2026, 02:58 PM ET

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  Marcel Louis-Jacques joined ESPN in 2019 as a beat reporter covering the Buffalo Bills, before switching to the Miami Dolphins in 2021. The former Carolina Panthers beat writer for the Charlotte Observer won the APSE award for breaking news and the South Carolina Press Association award for enterprise writing in 2018.

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Miami Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley said he won't measure the team's success this season by wins and loses.

In what is largely seen as a rebuilding season, Hafley explained that the goal is ultimately to build toward something special. Miami has one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.

"We, and I, want to win everything that we do. But success is not just defined by winning," Hafley said. "We are going to compete. I want to win everything that we do. I've said that over and over. But at the same time, we need to make sure that this foundation and the process is built the right way ... There's no shortcuts because it's bigger than that right now."

The Dolphins hired Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan in January, and spent the next few months stripping the team of its most expensive contracts in an effort to get "younger and cheaper," Sullivan said. These moves included trading wide receiver Jaylen Waddle and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, and releasing quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, wide receiver Tyreek Hill and linebacker Bradley Chubb.

In the process, Miami absorbed an NFL-record dead cap hit of roughly $180 million this season. Due to their salary cap situation, the Dolphins exclusively signed free agents to one-year contracts, with the exception of quarterback Malik Willis - who signed a three-year, $67 million contract on the opening day of free agency.

Miami drafted a league-high 13 players in this year's draft, several of whom will challenge for starting positions early in their careers. First round picks Kadyn Proctor and Chris Johnson are expected to be Week 1 starters at left guard and cornerback, respectively, while linebacker Jacob Rodriguez, tight end Will Kacmarek and wide receiver Caleb Douglas should all either start outright or play significant roles.

Hafley and Sullivan have been clear since their arrival about the team's need to build its foundation, although both men have avoided using the term "rebuild" because of the connotation it suggests - that the team is not looking to be competitive. The mentality has left an impact on the Dolphins' leaders.

"I mean people could say it's a rebuild, I don't look at it as a rebuild because I'm in it and I play the game," linebacker Jordyn Brooks said. "I realize being in the league, everybody is super talented, and it's not always what it looks like on paper. You can have the superstar-studded teams and they don't be worth a darn, you know what I mean? They don't have the right chemistry. They don't know how to connect the dots together. And then you can have a bunch of no-name teams who know how to gel together, who know how to win, know how to buy in together. I think if you have that, you have the perfect team. That's the way I'm looking at it.

"I don't really care if people think that it's a rebuild or they think we're going 0-17 or whatever people have been saying; I look at it as we got a bunch of football players who's hungry, super talented. Nobody in this locker room would be here if they didn't have what it takes."

During an appearance on the Stephen A. Smith show last week, Hafley told Smith the 2026 season was about "developing who we are as a football team" and that success was "not gonna be measured in wins and losses," although he admit that was probably not what fans wanted to hear.

The Dolphins' win total is projected at 4.5 games this season and they're slated to play the league's third-hardest schedule according to ESPN's football power index. Even with an intriguing draft class awaiting in 2027, Hafley made it clear that the Dolphins are not tanking - they're building.

"We want to get back on top," Hafley said. "And to do that, you got to go through some hard stuff with competing in mind to win in everything that we do, but keeping the main thing our process and the detail and the toughness, and not taking any shortcuts and not flinching along the way, regardless of what happens, so at the end of the year, we can look back and say, this foundation is strong and we're not going away because look out, we're coming."