Pros and Cons of Each Dolphins Head Coaching Candidate

The initial list of candidates the Miami Dolphins are expected to interview for their head coaching search has been released. 

In fact, the team interviewed Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak over the weekend. With the process underway, it’s a good time to look at the pros and cons of each candidate. 

We’ll also include John Harbaugh and Kevin Stefanski in this exercise since the Dolphins have interest in them, even if a formal interview hasn’t been set. 

John Harbaugh, Former Ravens HC 

Pros: The pros of hiring Harbaugh are pretty obvious. He’s a Super Bowl champion and has an extensive track record of success across multiple eras of football. He built an impressive program in Baltimore that kept the team competitive in nearly every season. 

The Dolphins have been sorely missing that consistency for the last 20-plus years, and someone as respected as Harbaugh feels like their best chance to build a similar program. Harbaugh is also known as an excellent culture builder, which Miami has struggled with. 

It just feels like the Dolphins need someone with prior experience this time, and Harbaugh is the most successful of the bunch this cycle. 

Cons: Harbaugh is an excellent coaching candidate, but he’s not perfect. 

Perhaps the biggest “problem” with Harbaugh is that he doesn’t call plays. He’d have no problem hiring a staff, but keeping that staff around would be an issue the second anyone stood out. 

One reason the Ravens missed the playoffs this past season was the downgrade at defensive coordinator: going from Mike Macdonald to Zach Orr over the past two years didn’t work out. 

Dealing with that “brain drain” every offseason can be tough — the Detroit Lions had a similar issue with Dan Campbell this past year. It’s a bit of a champagne problem, but it’s worth bringing up. 

Also, we're not even sure Harbaugh will consider the Dolphins.

Kevin Stefanski, Former Browns HC 

Pros: The benefits of hiring Stefanski are straightforward. He’s an excellent offensive mind with a track record of success working with a number of different quarterbacks. 

His record in Cleveland doesn’t look great, but he got the Browns to the playoffs twice, and one of those seasons included squeezing a late-season run out of Joe Flacco. Stefanski comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree, so he’d have zero shortage of quality candidates to hire on either side of the ball. 

There’s a reason Stefanski is getting a ton of interviews despite the Browns’ ugly 2025 campaign. If you need an example of why he’s a better play-caller than someone like Mike McDaniel, go back and watch the Browns-Dolphins game from this season. 

Only one coach in that game understood the type of game they were playing in, and it wasn’t McDaniel. 

Cons: The cons around Stefanski are mostly about how much you’re willing to absolve him of the blame for Cleveland’s struggles. 

Outside of his two playoff seasons, Stefanski’s Browns finished 8-9, 7-10, 3-14, and 5-12. There’s a lot of context that goes into those records, but the NFL is a results-based business, and Stefanski’s weren’t good enough. 

The real question is how involved he was in getting Deshaun Watson to Cleveland. That’s arguably the worst trade in NFL history, so if he was a strong proponent of that, it would be hard to absolve him of what happened in Cleveland. 

Klint Kubiak, Seattle Seahawks OC

Pros: Kubiak had his first interview with the Dolphins this weekend, and it’s not hard to see why he made the list. 

There is a severe shortage of young offensive minds in this year’s coaching cycle. Kubiak is really the only one getting consistent interest, and he did an excellent job with the Seahawks this year. 

Even Kubiak’s 2024 run with the New Orleans Saints is better than people remember. Before injuries (and natural regression) hurt that unit, Kubiak was getting a lot out of Derek Carr. 

He’s the son of former Broncos and Texans coach Gary Kubiak and has spent time working with various teams to pull different assistants for his staff. 

Cons: Kubiak would be a first-time head coach, which doesn’t mean he’ll fail, but the Dolphins have exclusively gone down that road since Stephen Ross started calling the shots and haven’t had success. 

Additionally, it feels a bit quick for Kubiak. This was just his second season calling plays, so there’s some proof of concept, but not an overwhelming amount. Of course, with every offensive coach, we have to ask about who their defensive coordinator might be. 

Kubiak should have some good options, but as we learned with McDaniel, sometimes it takes a few tries to get the right fit. 

Chris Shula, Los Angeles Rams DC 

Pros: The Dolphins hiring the grandson of the legendary Don Shula would certainly be quite the story, but Chris has done a lot more than leverage his name to get into this position. 

He’s done an excellent job with the Rams' defense. He’s in his second season running the Rams' defense, and he’s consistently proven he can out-scheme opposing offensive coordinators and get the most out of underrated free agents (Emmanuel Forbes) and draft picks (Kamren Kichens, etc). 

That development and cutting-edge scheme would be an interesting bet, especially paired with whatever insight Shula has on the Dolphins’ culture from back in the day. 

Cons: Shula comes with the same question marks as every defensive candidate: Who will coach the offense? 

He can pull from the McVay coaching tree, which is great, but if any OC he hires does well enough, they’ll likely get poached for a head coaching job. It’s easy to overlook the “brain drain” pitfall, but it has sunk a lot of defensive coaches in recent years. 

Additionally, Shula doesn’t have previous head coaching experience and has really spent most of his coaching years with the Rams. He had four years in college and one year with the Chargers, but Shula is pretty green. 

Miami hiring Shula would be an attempt to be early on him rather than late. 

Jeff Hafley, Green Bay Packers DC

Pros: Hafley’s resume is pretty similar to Shula’s, but he’s got a couple of different strengths. For starters, he has direct experience working with new Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan. 

It’s clear the Dolphins are focused on an aligned leadership group right now, and Hafley would certainly fit like a glove there. Additionally, he has prior head-coaching experience at Boston College. He left the college ranks because he didn’t want to deal with NIL, not because he was fired. 

Lastly, the reviews of Hafley as a teacher and leader are stellar. Everyone who covers the Packers talks about him like he’ll be a head coach at some point. 

Cons: Hafley also has the “offensive brain drain” problem, so we won’t rehash that again. The more interesting question is whether you believe in his defensive play-calling abilities. 

Green Bay’s defense ranked 11th in points allowed and 12th in yards allowed this season. However, it struggled quite a bit down the stretch when Micah Parsons tore his ACL. It’s fair to question whether Hafley’s talent development on that side of the ball is worth betting on. 

Scheme-wise, we’d tell you Shula shows more promise, so if you’re looking for another difference between the two, that would be it. 

Robert Saleh, Current 49ers DC/Former Jets HC 

Pros: Saleh checks so many boxes that he becomes an incredibly interesting candidate. He has prior head-coaching experience, has proven his scheme and player-development acumen are stellar, and is known for fostering a strong culture. 

For a defensive coach, he can also pull from the Shanahan coaching tree on offense, which is a feather in his cap. 

Saleh’s work with the decimated 49ers’ defense this season is probably the most impressive coaching job by any coordinator this season. 

Cons: Saleh would have to deal with offensive coordinator retention, but the real question is whether his connection to Mike McDaniel should push Miami in a different direction. 

This is less of a negative for Saleh in general, but it’s hard to imagine Miami hiring another 49ers assistant after firing McDaniel. Outside of those questions, it’s also fair to look back at Saleh’s time with the Jets as a failure. 

There was a lot that went wrong outside of Saleh’s control for sure, but he can’t lean back on playoff appearances like Stefanski can. 

• Making Sense of Latest Reporting on John Harbaugh's Interest in Dolphins HC Job
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• Keeping Tabs with McDaniel Moves
• Dolphins Sunday Mailbag: Should the Team Consider Trading Waddle or Achane?