There is no telling what the Miami Dolphins will be in 2026, but the team is now being led by head coach Jeff Hafley. 

Hafley has previous head coaching experience as he served in the role for Boston College from 2020 to 2023. He would go on to post a 22-26 record, and he won the Fenway Bowl in 2023. 

With Hafley having decades of experience at both the collegiate and professional levels, this is his first time leading an NFL franchise, and he already has his back against the proverbial wall. The Dolphins are a stripped-down franchise that is aiming for a better future in 2027. 

With that said, here is what a successful season could look like in 2026 under Hafley.

Let's face it, anyone saying that winning isn't everything does not know how football works. Winning is truly the only barometer that matters in the NFL, as moral victories don't account for much of anything.

With the sheer turnover that happens almost on an annual basis, head coaches who cannot put things together or show the semblance of putting things together do not get much of a chance.

Some organizations have less patience than others, like the Las Vegas Raiders firing coaching legend Peter Carroll after one season, but one thing the Dolphins are is patient.

Owner Stephen Ross is often patient to a fault, but Hafley has inherited a mess that was left behind by past regimes. Mainly the bloated contracts and mismanagement of draft picks, which is why the Dolphins are paying a reported $179 million in dead cap.

That said, the oddsmakers have the Dolphins sitting at 4.5 wins on the season, for obvious reasons. The roster has been torn down to studs due to the aforementioned bloated contracts. 

With a gaggle of low-cost signings, Miami is working with what it can. That said, if the team can somehow overachieve with more than five wins, that could be seen as the right kind of forward momentum.

Nobody expects the Dolphins to be competitive, but crazier things have happened. Tempering expectations of a new head coach in place of a roster that is missing some key players, having more than five wins should look like a big success.

In the same vein as the multitude of low-cost signings, nobody knows what Malik Willis will be. The former Green Bay Packers passer has six starts to his name, which is why many believed that nobody would give him the predicted $30 million per season deal that ran rampant from analysts and pundits. 

The Dolphins gave Willis a three-year, $67.5 million deal, with $45 million guaranteed. Simply put, this is a two-year rental deal that the team can bail on if he does not pan out.

Should the opposite be true and Willis showcases that he is worth the money invested in him by the Dolphins, Hafley and the front office will look like geniuses. However, what would success look like for Willis in a torn-down roster?

Having any semblance of being a mid-level quarterback would be an improvement over that of Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa ended the season with 2,660 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.

Granted, that was the worst year of his career, but Willis performing anything similar to that would lead to the ultimate question of why the Dolphins moved on and incurred that $99.2 million in dead cap for Tagovailoa.

If Willis throws something along the lines of 3,000 yards, 20 touchdowns, and seven interceptions, he would be in the realm of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones or Houston Texans passer C.J. Stroud.

While the Dolphins need Willis to emerge as the long-lost franchise answer, his ability to produce stats as a mid-range or above quarterback with receivers like Tutu Atwell and Jalen Tolbert would be a huge step in the right direction.

While Hafley is a defensive-minded coach, his hiring of the right staff to get the most out of Willis is what he will be judged more harshly on. 

Regardless of how Mike McDaniel's tenure ended with the Dolphins, he still had the team fighting until the final week. There were even moments where it seemed almost possible that Miami was going to turn things around, such as their 4-1 record between Weeks 8 and 14.

The Dolphins have been called soft by former players, pundits, and more for multiple years. Whether or not that is a direct reflection of McDaniel is irrelevant. 

Cold-weather games have been the Achilles heel for the Dolphins, and going scoreless from Weeks 8 and on in the third quarter in 2025 games is inexcusable. Hafley needs to have full command of his locker room, and the players need to follow his lead.

The good news is Willis played in Green Bay and knows all too well about cold-weather games. 

The Dolphins cannot have any sort of the same narratives haunting the team in 2026, and Hafley will be chiefly responsible for perpetuating the complete and utter culture change. 

It will be up to Hafley to ensure the rest of the team is on board and does not offer any kind of lackluster efforts throughout the season. If the Dolphins remain competitive, even with a roster that is not the most well-built, things will look like they are headed in the right direction.