The Dolphins hiring Jeff Hafley is a bad bet, and the Titans hiring Robert Saleh is the same bad bet with a different logo. This is the NFL’s most predictable failure cycle: owners get seduced by “toughness” and “leadership,” hire a defensive mind to run the whole building, then act stunned when the offense stays stuck in the mud. In 2026, hiring a defensive coordinator as head coach without a locked-in offensive plan is basically telling your fan base you’re cool with wasting two to three seasons.
Here’s the part that drives me nuts. Defensive coordinators get these jobs because they sound smart in interviews and talk about “controlling the game,” but modern football is played through quarterbacks and points. If your head coach can’t build and protect an offensive identity, you’re going to live in coordinator chaos, where the OC is either getting fired or getting hired away. That’s not “culture.” That’s instability with a whistle.
Defensive coordinators make terrible NFL head coaches because the modern game is offense-driven, they rarely develop quarterbacks in a stable system, and their best-case scenario is “hire a great OC and hope he stays.” Yet teams keep doing it anyway, and franchises keep paying for it in the most painful currency: wasted seasons.
Thesis: The NFL’s obsession with hiring defensive coordinators as head coaches is organizational malpractice that ignores decades of evidence proving offensive minds win championships more consistently, defensive minds stall out more often, and franchises waste years repeating this cycle until they finally hire an offensive coach.
Look at the Defensive Coordinator Head Coach Graveyard
Vic Fangio (Failed), Matt Eberflus (Fired), Dennis Allen (Fired), Robert Saleh (Fired)
If you want to know where playoff hopes go to die, start with the defensive coordinator head coach pipeline. Vic Fangio is a brilliant defensive mind, and he still went 19-30 as the Broncos head coach because the offense never became dangerous enough to matter. That’s the whole issue in one sentence: you can be elite on defense and still be a mediocre franchise if the offense can’t keep up.
Matt Eberflus got three seasons in Chicago and finished 14-32. Dennis Allen got run out in New Orleans after going 18-25 there, and his overall head coaching track record is the kind that makes you wonder why teams keep hiring the same archetype and expecting a different ending. These guys can coach defense. They just couldn’t run the entire operation at the level the NFL demands now.
And then there’s Robert Saleh, who just got hired by the Titans after going 20-36 as the Jets head coach. That’s not me taking a cheap shot. That’s a fact that should make Tennessee ask one question before they even print the welcome banner: how does this hire help the quarterback and the offense stay consistent?
What Do They All Have in Common? They Couldn’t Score Points
This is where teams try to talk fans into accepting the wrong problem. They’ll say head coach is “leadership,” not play-calling. Fine. Then why do so many defensive head coaches spend their tenure cycling through offensive coordinators like they’re swiping on an app?
If the OC is good, he’s gone. If the OC is bad, he gets fired. Either way, the quarterback is learning a new system again, and the offense never gets to build the continuity that wins in January. And the saddest part is fans get trained to accept it, like it’s normal for your franchise to reinvent itself every single year.
Here are the receipts that matter when you’re talking about NFL defensive coordinator head coaches:
- Vic Fangio: 19-30 as a head coach
- Robert Saleh (Jets): 20-36 as a head coach
- Dolphins offense in 2025: 20.4 points per game, 25th in the league
- Tua Tagovailoa in 2025: 2,660 yards, 20 TDs, 15 INTs in 14 games
- Mike Vrabel with the Titans: 54-45 in the regular season, proof the exception exists, but it’s rare and not a strategy
Offensive Coordinators Win Championships (The Data Is Overwhelming)
Reid, Shanahan, McVay, LaFleur, Sirianni: The League’s Power Brokers Live on Offense
Look at who owns the league’s biggest moments. Andy Reid builds an offense that has answers every week. Sean McVay is basically a walking solution manual for modern passing games. Kyle Shanahan’s floor is “annoyingly competitive,” because his offense creates structure even when the roster changes. Matt LaFleur has been a regular-season hammer for years because his team never looks lost about who it is.
Even when those teams have down stretches, they rebound faster because the offensive identity stays in-house. The head coach is the system, not a supervisor hoping the system works. That’s why offensive coordinators vs defensive coordinators isn’t just a debate topic, it’s the most important hiring decision a franchise makes.
Compare Super Bowl Winning Coaches’ Backgrounds (Offense vs. Defense)
People love to scream “defense wins championships,” but the recent era has been dominated by coaches with offensive backgrounds. That doesn’t mean defense doesn’t matter. It means the head coach needs to protect the offense from turnover, because continuity is what keeps a quarterback from getting ruined.
You can build a nasty defense without handing the franchise to a defensive coordinator. Hire a top DC, pay him, draft well, and keep the standards high. But when your head coach is offense-first, you stop living in fear that your entire identity is going to disappear the second an assistant coach gets a better offer.
Defensive Coordinators Can’t Develop Quarterbacks
The #1 Job of an NFL Head Coach Is Maximizing Your QB
This isn’t complicated. The NFL is a quarterback league, and your head coach is the person responsible for making sure the quarterback is supported, improved, and protected from chaos. If you have a franchise guy, you build the ecosystem. If you don’t, you build the environment that makes finding and developing one possible.
That’s why the Hafley hire is such a flashing red light. Miami didn’t fire Mike McDaniel because the defense was too soft. Miami fired him after a 7-10 season and an offense that fell apart. The Dolphins ranked 25th in scoring at 20.4 points per game, and Tua’s season ended with 2,660 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 15 picks in 14 games. That is an “offense and quarterback” emergency, not a “we need more grit” speech.
How Many DCs Have Successfully Developed a Franchise Quarterback? The List Is Short, and That’s the Problem
Yes, defensive head coaches can win. Mike Tomlin is the best example of a defensive-minded leader who kept a franchise stable for nearly two decades. Mike Vrabel put together a winning run in Tennessee, went 54-45 in the regular season there, and proved a defensive background doesn’t automatically mean failure.
But here’s the issue: those guys are the exception, and the league hires the exception like it’s the rule. Most defensive head coaches end up depending on an offensive coordinator to do the most important job in the building. That’s fragile. That’s gambling with your quarterback’s development, and you’re hoping the roulette wheel lands on the right number.
The “Defense Wins Championships” Myth Needs to Die
Modern NFL Is About Scoring 30+, Not Holding Teams to 17
Defense matters, but the league is built to score. Rules protect quarterbacks, favor receivers, and punish physical coverage. If your franchise philosophy is still “we’ll win 20-17,” you’re playing an older version of the sport.
The teams that consistently win now can score in different ways. They can win shootouts, they can win ugly, and they can adjust when a defense takes away Plan A. That requires offensive infrastructure, and the cleanest way to keep that infrastructure intact is having an offensive-minded head coach.
Every Recent Super Bowl Team Had Elite Offensive Infrastructure
Even when a defense dominates the big game, it usually gets to feast because the offense did its job first. Playing from ahead changes everything. It forces the opponent into predictable situations. It creates turnover chances. That’s why “defense wins championships” is often backwards. A good offense puts your defense in position to finish the job.
Miami is the perfect example of why this myth is dangerous. The Dolphins don’t need a philosophical sermon about toughness. They need a plan to score again, and now their head coach is a defensive specialist who has to build that plan through hires and delegation.
Why Teams Keep Making This Mistake (And Why It Needs to Stop)
Defensive Coordinators Interview Well (But Can’t Execute the Offensive Side)
Owners love the buzzwords. “Accountability.” “Discipline.” “Hard-nosed.” None of that is bad, but none of that fixes a third-and-7 problem when your offense has no answers.
A defensive coach can absolutely lead men. The issue is what happens when the offense breaks. Offensive head coaches can step in and fix it because it’s their language. Defensive head coaches usually can’t, so they fire the OC and start over. That’s why so many of these tenures feel the same: constant offensive staff churn and a quarterback stuck learning new rules every season.
Owners Get Seduced by “Toughness” and “Accountability” Language
“Toughness” is the easiest thing in the world to sell at a podium because nobody can disprove it in January. It sounds like leadership. It sounds like control. It sounds like a reset button.
But toughness doesn’t throw touchdowns. Toughness doesn’t create explosive plays. Toughness doesn’t keep an offensive coordinator from getting hired away after one good season. If your hiring plan is built around vibes, you’re going to end up living in the same results.
The Steelers Are Staring at This Trap Right Now
Steelers fans should be paying close attention because Pittsburgh is leaning hard into defense in this search. The Steelers’ official virtual interview list included Chris Shula, Jesse Minter, Ejiro Evero, Anthony Weaver, and Jeff Hafley, plus offensive names Nate Scheelhaase and Klay Kubiak. That’s five defensive candidates out of seven right off the top, and the reporting around the search suggests defensive minds are getting heavy attention.
I get it. Pittsburgh’s identity has always been defense, and Mike Tomlin just stepped away after 19 seasons. The instinct is to stay comfortable and keep the same flavor. But the league doesn’t care about your comfort food when you’re trying to win in January.
If the Steelers hire a defensive head coach, the offense becomes a department, not the foundation. If the OC is good, he’s gone. If the OC is bad, you fire him. That’s how you end up stuck in the same loop while the teams at the top keep building quarterbacks and scoring.
What Happens Next (Prediction + Fallout)
Jeff Hafley Fails in Miami, Gets Fired in Three Years
Here’s the cleanest prediction: Hafley’s success or failure in Miami will come down to the offensive coordinator hire. If he nails it and the Dolphins score again, Hafley looks smart. If he nails it and that OC gets poached, Miami risks starting over again. If he misses, Hafley won’t have the offensive wiring to save it, and the fan base will be right back to demanding a reset.
Miami hired a defensive coach after an offensive collapse. That’s like fixing a leaky roof by repainting the basement. It might look better for a minute, but you didn’t solve the real problem.
Robert Saleh in Tennessee Is the Same Bet With Higher Stakes
The Titans hiring Saleh is even scarier if Cam Ward is truly their future, because young quarterbacks need stability. Tennessee is basically betting it can build a quarterback environment through an OC hire, and that’s fragile by design. Saleh can make them tougher and better on defense, but that’s not the job that changes the franchise’s trajectory.
NFL Finally Learns: Stop Hiring Defensive Coordinators
Maybe this trend never dies because owners keep chasing the same idea of “leadership.” But the evidence keeps piling up, and the league keeps tilting offense for a reason. Quarterbacks decide seasons. Offensive continuity decides quarterback development. It’s that simple.
Final Thoughts
The real point is simple: NFL defensive coordinator head coaches are a bad bet in an offense-driven league, and teams keep lighting seasons on fire pretending it’s still the old NFL. Jeff Hafley to Miami and Robert Saleh to Tennessee are the latest proof that franchises keep chasing “toughness” while the rest of the league is chasing points and quarterback stability. And if the Steelers keep interviewing mostly defensive guys, Pittsburgh might be next to learn this lesson the hard way.
You can build a nasty defense without making your head coach a defensive coordinator. But you can’t build a modern contender without protecting your offense from turnover and your quarterback from chaos.
Should the NFL basically ban defensive coordinators from head coaching consideration until they prove they have a real offensive plan, or is there still a path for defensive minds to succeed without dragging the offense down with them?
ROLL WITH HAIL MARY MEDIA
Like this kind of chaos? Stay tapped in.
Follow us on X for live reactions, bad beats, and daily sports rants.
FOLLOW @HAILMARYMEDIA_ ON XNot done yet? CLICK HERE for more blogs.
Leave a Reply