There was word last week that Nathaniel Hackett would be joining the Dolphins’ staff as their quarterbacks coach, but Miami is going to have to look in a different direction.
According to multiple reports, Hackett will instead be the offensive coordinator for the Cardinals. Hackett has a number of connections to Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur.
Hackett worked as the Packers’ offensive coordinator under LaFleur’s brother Matt from 2019-2021. He moved on to a 15-game stint as the Broncos’ head coach in 2022 and then joined the Jets as their offensive coordinator for the next two seasons.
That job was available because Mike LaFleur was fired after two years running the offense on Robert Saleh’s staff. Hackett returned to Green Bay to serve as a defensive analyst for the 2025 season.
Hackett has also worked as an offensive coordinator for the Jaguars and Bills during his time in the NFL.
Bobby Slowik is new to the offensive coordinator role in Miami, but he’s not new to the team.
Slowik was the Dolphins’ senior passing game coordinator under Mike McDaniel in 2025 and he moved into his new role after Jeff Hafley was hired as the team’s new head coach. In a press conference on Wednesday, Slowik said “the bones are the same, the roots are the same” when asked how much his offense will resemble the one they ran with McDaniel before saying that it will evolve beyond where it was last year.
One key part of that evolution will be based on the quarterback position. Tua Tagovailoa was benched in favor of Quinn Ewers late in the regular season and his future with the team is unclear thanks to that change, the coaching change and his outsize salary cap number. Slowik complimented the “grace” that Tagovailoa showed after being benched and said he believes in the quarterback’s ability to rebound.
“Tua can absolutely bounce back,” Slowik said, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
If someone outside of Miami believes that’s the case, the Dolphins could move Tagovailoa and start Hafley’s run with a new face under center. The money — Tagovailoa is guaranteed $54 million in 2026 — will have to be worked out for that to happen and more clarity on where things are headed should develop in the coming weeks.
For years, the NFL has utilized a unique system of handling many potential legal claims made by non-players against the teams and/or the league. In this specific context, “unique” means “secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration.”
All coaches and plenty of other team and league employees sign contracts that require them to submit any disputes to arbitration ultimately controlled by the Commissioner, who is hired and paid by the league and its teams. (And when the contract doesn’t do the trick, the league will resort to the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws to argue that such matters can’t be resolved in open court.)
The practice has taken multiple hits over the past year, with high-profile rebukes from both the Nevada Supreme Court (as to Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against the NFL and the Commissioner) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (as to Brian Flores’s lawsuit against the NFL, the Dolphins, the Giants, the Broncos, and the Texans).
Most recently, the NFL filed a petition for appeal to the United States Supreme Court in the Flores case, teeing up the question of whether the practice is legitimate under the Federal Arbitration Act. (The next step is for the Supreme Court to decide whether to even take the case.)
During Monday’s Super Bowl press conference, Jarrett Bell of USA Today asked Commissioner Roger Goodell for his response to the contention that he can’t be fair and impartial in resolving such disputes.
“Some of this is legal, Jarrett, which I’ll let the lawyers discuss, but I would just tell you from a broader standpoint, arbitration is a part of what we have between our clubs and the league and the Commissioner’s responsibility between individuals who are under contract, and the Commissioner’s role,” Goodell said. “So it is part of the Commissioner’s role, has been, and continues to be, and is an important element in getting resolution to issues so that we can move forward without unnecessary litigation. So, beyond that, I’ll leave it to the lawyers to go from there.”
The lawyers will argue in court that the practice is legally justified. But the Commissioner’s answer is clear. He’s basically saying “it was like that when I got here.”
The core question is whether any company should be allowed to compel arbitration of legal disputes to be resolved by, essentially, its CEO. Many American businesses use arbitration as an alternative to litigation. Nearly all of them designate an external arbitrator, with no ties to either side.
The NFL has persisted, for decades, in its belief that it’s proper for the Commissioner to preside over these disputes. It’s inherently impossible for the Commissioner to be truly fair and impartial, even if he’s trying to be. His bread is amply buttered by one of the parties to the dispute.
Judges routinely recuse themselves from any case that presents even the slightest possibility for an actual or perceived conflict of interest. Plenty of judges will step aside based on something as simple as knowing one of the parties socially.
So, no, the Commissioner cannot be fair and impartial. And the NFL shouldn’t want to put the Commissioner in that spot, if the league is interested in true justice being done.
The broader concern is that, if the league gets a license from the Supreme Court to handle legal disputes in this manner, other companies will decide to do the same thing, making it even harder for people whose rights have been violated to get a truly fair and impartial resolution to their grievances.
For the NFL, it’s not about justice. It’s about avoiding the costs of going to court, keeping potentially embarrassing facts from becoming public, and ensuring that, at the end of the day, The Shield will deflect any and all slings and arrows.
The Jets have completed in-person interviews with Darrell Bevell and Greg Roman for their offensive coordinator position, the team announced Monday night.
Bevell, 56, spent the past four seasons as the Dolphins’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
He was the Jaguars’ offensive coordinator in 2021 before taking over interim head coach duties for the team’s final four games. Bevell was also the offensive coordinator in Detroit in 2019-20 before handling the reins as interim head coach for the Lions’ final five games in 2020.
Bevell entered the NFL as an assistant quarterbacks coach with the Packers from 2003-05. He held offensive coordinator posts with the Vikings (2006-10) and Seahawks (2011-17). The Seahawks appeared in two Super Bowls during that time, and Bevell was part of Seattle’s Super Bowl XLVIII championship team.
Roman, 53, has served as NFL offensive coordinator for 12 of the past 14 seasons. He held that role with the Chargers (2024-25), Ravens (2019-22), Bills (2015-16) and 49ers (2011-14).
Roman got his start in coaching in 1995 as the Panthers’ strength and conditioning assistant and defensive quality control coach. He also worked with the defensive backs and the linebackers. Roman moved to offense in 1997 before eventually serving as Carolina’s offensive line coach in 2001.
He also has spent time with the Texans (2002-05) and was assistant offensive line coach in Baltimore in his first stint with the Ravens in 2006-07.
The Jets conducted virtual interviews with Bevell, Roman, Ronald Curry, Frank Reich and Lunda Wells last week.
Jeff Hafley succeeded Joe Barry as the defensive coordinator of the Packers and the new Dolphins head coach will be keeping Barry on his first staff in Miami.
According to multiple reports, Barry will remain the linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Dolphins. He spent the last two seasons in those roles and will remain on hand as Hafley takes over the helm of the team.
Barry was the Packers’ defensive coordinator from 2021-2023 and Hafley was hired after Barry was dismissed in January 2024. He’s also been a defensive coordinator in Washington and Detroit during a career that’s included stops with the Rams, Chargers, Buccaneers, and 49ers.
Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Dolphins will also retain defensive line coach Austin Clark. Clark has been with the team since 2021.
