'I Had Stopped Teaching:' How Packers' Jeff Hafley Discovered Himself In His NFL Return

[ad_1] The primary time Jeff Hafley went out on a limb and took a leap of religion, he was solely 26.

The now Inexperienced Bay Packers defensive coordinator had a $40,000 job because the defensive backs coach at Albany, and his objective within the spring of 2006 was to study as a lot about teaching as attainable. Each weekend, he'd discover a teaching clinic, bounce in his Subaru Outback and drive there, soaking in as a lot soccer Xs and Os as he may.

Hafley met Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads and realized that then-head coach Dave Wannstedt had an open-door coverage – the place younger coaches had been welcome to look at spring ball and sit in on conferences. He attended a apply, then the spring recreation, stored coming again, even working summer season camps there.

"I grabbed my defensive coordinator and stated, 'Each time I flip round, this Hafley man is right here,'" Wannstedt advised me. "This man's a grinder, man. He cannot get sufficient."

Wannstedt had a gap on his workers for 2006 and an opportunity to work with an distinctive participant in cornerback Darrelle Revis, but it surely was solely a graduate assistant (GA) job, paying perhaps $7,000.

Hafley took the job. He purchased an air mattress, and for 2 years, he slept in his workplace at Pitt's soccer facility. He'd go to dinner along with his dad and mom after a house recreation, and so they'd drop him off on the workplace, joking he had the nicest home in all of Pittsburgh.

"For me, it was like 'Look, I wish to coach.' I sort of gave up the whole lot, like most coaches do," Hafley advised me. "You do not actually get to see household. You do not see mates. You lose contact with individuals. I stated I'll strive to do that till I am 30 years previous, so far as I can. If it really works out, I'll preserve going with it, and if not, then I am going to reassess. I simply stored going and by no means regarded again."

Former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt took an opportunity on Jeff Hafley in 2006, with the Packers defensive coordinator working below him as a defensive assistant for 5 seasons. (Picture by Ned Dishman/Getty Photographs)

Hafley did not even have an condominium, however he was making an impression on everybody round him.

"If we'd have a 7:30 workers assembly, I am within the workplace round 6, and I might hear voices," Wannstedt says. "He is obtained our freshmen and all of the younger defensive backs in a gathering at 6:30 within the morning. There's no person within the constructing, coaches are simply coming in and Jeff's in there having a participant assembly. I stated to myself, ‘This man will get it.’"

The common-or-garden roots had began earlier, as an oft-injured receiver from Montvale, New Jersey, enjoying at Division I-AA Siena, which might discontinue its soccer program three years after he left.

"This was Siena Faculty. You needed to actually love soccer to play there," Jay Bateman, Hafley's head coach in 2000 and now the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, advised me. "He was such an excellent teammate, an incredible employee, liked soccer. That was a really pushed group of children, and Jeff was one of many leaders of that crew.

"So far as being an excellent receiver? That was questionable, and he'd say the identical factor. He is the everyday eye-black, wristbands, go in there to dam individuals and run the correct routes each time. However like he wasn't getting open a complete lot. Only a chief of males, and he is all the time been that manner."

When Hafley was pondering leaving Albany for the uncertainty of a GA job and the understanding of sleeping in his workplace, he known as Bateman, asking what he ought to do.

"Wager on your self," Bateman advised him. "You've got the expertise to teach at that stage and above. He is an incredible soccer coach. He believes what he believes. I discuss to him on a regular basis, and we speak about scheme, however truthfully, it is extra about how he is messaging issues to his gamers. He'll be a head coach within the NFL quickly."

When Wannstedt resigned after the 2010 season, one in all his former assistants, Greg Schiano, known as him to ask who his finest younger coaches had been. Schiano employed Hafley to his workers at Rutgers, and a 12 months later, introduced him alongside when he grew to become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach.

"I realized a lot from Coach Wannstedt, at a younger age, on find out how to be a coach, find out how to deal with individuals, find out how to deal with a workers, find out how to talk with gamers," Hafley says. "He in all probability influenced me greater than anybody else on all that stuff. That actually helped form me. [Schiano] is probably 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 feel it is a cool mixture to have these two, as a result of they're fairly completely different guys. I take one thing from everyone."

Hafley went from the Bucs to the Browns for 2 years, then the 49ers for 3. He went via a 2-14 season, a 3-13 12 months, two 4-12s, by no means a successful 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. (Picture by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Photographs)

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 below 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 numerous soccer simply being round Kyle Shanahan. You wish to speak about 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 educating scheme-wise and being challenged and being on it, if you do not know what you are doing round Kyle, it is not going to be superb."

Day employed Halfey to be Ohio State's defensive coordinator in 2019, beginning a second stint in school soccer. After a 12 months with the Buckeyes, he was the top coach at Boston Faculty, nonetheless solely 41 years previous. He pushed via the COVID-19 pandemic, via the beginning of the switch portal and title, picture and likeness (NIL) period, going 22-26 in 4 seasons, however making a bowl and successful in his fourth 12 months.

However Hafley wasn't actually teaching, and he wasn't actually completely satisfied.

"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 laborious for me to depart the crew, so laborious for me to depart the crew, however I simply wasn't myself anymore, as a result of I wasn't doing what I actually wished to do."

The emergence of NIL and the specter of participant transfers grew with annually at Boston Faculty. Wannstedt talked repeatedly with Hafley, and acknowledged how a lot of an uphill battle recruiting grew to become when different colleges 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 12 months, you coach them for a 12 months, 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 colleges had been calling with gives, tempting him to take extra money elsewhere. He satisfied Flowers to remain, but it surely was an indication of the whole lot to come back.

"It is devastating," Hafley says. "When that retains taking place, time and again, you pour the whole lot you've into these guys and also you're educating them and training them and also you had been perhaps their solely provide, and now they probably could be leaving for cash. They don't seem to be excited about their diploma. They don't seem to be excited about their schooling. So as an alternative of teaching, I am on the telephone making an attempt to lift cash."

Jeff Hafley went 7-6 in his closing season at Boston Faculty, main the Eagles to a bowl victory in his final recreation. A month later, he seemingly took a demotion as a way to discover happiness teaching once more. (Picture by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe by way of Getty Photographs)

"I obtained 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 might all the time dreamt to do."

Hafley had two years left on a Boston Faculty contract reportedly paying him $4 million a 12 months, however high 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. "To date, it has been numerous enjoyable. You ask if that is what I anticipated? Yeah. I really like what I am doing. I really like going to work. I really like the blokes I coach. I really like being across the workers. I stay up for it every single day."

Speak to the very best gamers Hafley has coached, and so they'll let you know one in all his strengths is that he'll hearken 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 largest 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 all the time a man who was open to other ways of getting the job completed and being versatile, open to options. That is helped him perceive the strengths of his gamers."

In 2012, Ronde Barber was 37 and enjoying security for the primary time, and Hafley was 33 and his place coach. The Corridor of Fame defensive again remembers him all the time being "curious," not as a result of he did not know what to do however as a result of he wished to know what everybody within the room thought. It made him likable, the sort 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 presupposed to do and once they're presupposed to do it."

Barber continues.

"I've watched numerous 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 must encourage 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 turn out to be top-of-the-line over the past two years. (Picture by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs)

The thought 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 obtained employed at Albany, it was to teach the defensive tackles.

"I had a defensive deal with, a fifth-year man, I feel he was older than me on the time," Hafley says. "I bear in mind I known as him in, met with him. I used to be like 'Look, I do not even know find out how to get into stance.' I performed wideout. Let's sit down, I'll decide your mind. I coached the d-tackles for a 12 months, then I coached the skin backers for 2 years, then I grew to become a DB coach, so I obtained to study it from the entrance to the again, and I knew I wished to be a defensive man. It began with simply what job I may 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 seems to be?' It is, 'Coach, I find it irresistible,' or perhaps let's have a dialog. Superior. Give the gamers possession, and if a sure man needs to play press approach slightly completely different, let me learn how I could make it higher for him, relatively than change the entire thing for him."

Hafley's weaving path between the faculty recreation and the NFL has uncovered him to extra concepts and challenges. Sherman stated the NFL has completely different seems to be from week to week, however nothing like the variety of thought and schemes in school soccer.

"Chances are you'll get one crew completely unfold out, a man throwing it 56 occasions in a recreation," Sherman says, "after which chances are you'll get old-school Stanford operating objective line in the course of the sphere, energy soccer. Chances are you'll get Oregon hurry-up. You need to alter to each model of play you get, and that is positively 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 growth should start at a really primary stage with gamers.

"It is to develop gamers and educate these younger guys the basics and approach. I feel that is nonetheless a very powerful factor that individuals neglect about generally," Hafley stated. "I feel within the NFL, individuals get caught up in scheme, scheme, scheme. In the end, I consider in all my coronary heart that it is about fundamentals and approach. 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 all the time have the highest-rated recruits, you needed to develop guys."

Says Barber: "He is seen the whole lot. 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 12 months as an NFL coordinator final 12 months was an enormous success. The Packers went 11-6, made the playoffs with the youngest crew within the league, and Hafley's protection ranked sixth in factors allowed, fifth in yards allowed and fourth in takeaways.

Then, in August, he obtained a shock increase 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 high challengers to the Eagles within the NFC. It is the sort of transfer that makes you a greater coach instantly, but additionally raises the expectations for fulfillment even greater.

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. (Picture by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photographs)

"I texted him that day: 'I do not know who your D-ends coach is, however I might like to use for the job," Bateman advised me.

Hafley already had confidence in his protection and the Packers as a complete, and including Parsons solely added to that.

"I liked our group — final 12 months, by the top of the 12 months, we had been a high, no matter, 5, six protection," Hafley says. "You construct the boldness 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 along with his vitality and being a teammate and being coachable. It raises the extent of who we've got and what we will do, and he is introduced some additional vitality to this group."

The Packers play on the Steelers subsequent week, 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 stage 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 needs 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 all the time listening and all the time studying. Even coaches like to be coached.

"The largest factor I've realized is I haven't got all of the solutions," Hafley says, "and if I preserve 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 masking the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Occasions and The Athletic. You may comply with him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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