The Green Bay Packers enter Week 16 with a record of 9-4-1, thanks largely to the performance of the defense throughout the 2025 campaign. With this unit performing at a high level week in and week out, defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley has become a hot name in coaching circles as the offseason coaching carousel prepares to begin turning in the coming days and weeks.
While the Packers' sole focus on Saturday should be on the Chicago Bears and the showdown the two have at Soldier Field that night, Hafley could have Nashville on his mind as Dianni Russini of The Athletic is reporting the Tennessee Titans have Hafley high on their list of potential replacements following the decision to relieve Brian Callahan of his duties during the season.
Hafley should have every desire to be a head coach in the NFL one day; it is the natural progression for a coordinator in his shoes to eye that kind of position next. With all of that being said, the Titans should absolutely not be the team he chooses to make that leap with.
Taking the Titans' HC Job Could Be Career Suicide for Jeff Hafley
There is a reason why the Titans owned the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, and why they are in line to have another very high pick come April of 2026. From top to bottom, this is a bad football team that is being overseen by a poorly run franchise.
Tennessee, willingly, ran Mike Vrabel out of town only to see him rejoin the New England Patriots as the team's head coach and help propel them to the top of the AFC standings in his first year on the job. Since Jeff Fisher's tenure from 1997-2010, the Titans have three playoff wins, and two of those came from Vrabel-led teams.
Now, just two years after telling its fan base that the franchise would be targeting an offensive-minded head coach, an absolute failure by the aforementioned Callahan, the front office and ownership are keying in on more defensive coordinators than anything else, per Russini's reporting.
Hafley would fit the bill as a defensive-minded voice leading the locker room. However, given the holes all over the roster and the lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball around rookie QB Cam Ward, this team needs much more than a defensive fix to move any closer to contending.
With the Titans having fired five head coaches since 2011, there is plenty of writing on the wall to suggest that Hafley would not be given as long as it would take to right the ship in Tennessee. That type of failure on his coaching resume would only make it more difficult for him to lock down better opportunities in the future.
This is why sticking with Green Bay, for now, at least, is the best thing Hafley can do for himself in the here and now as well as for what the future holds in his career.