John Harbaugh was reportedly among the coaches who received interest from the Dolphins, but an interview between the two parties was never conducted. Now Harbaugh is ready to take over the New York Giants.
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Still, there is a list of 10 coaches who have already interviewed with the Dolphins or are expected to interview with the team soon. Here are those candidates, ranked from best to worst:
Jesse Minter (Chargers defensive coordinator)
There’s a reason all nine teams with coaching vacancies this offseason had Minter on their interview request list. It’s also why the Dolphins probably don’t have much chance of landing the 42-year-old coach, even if he ends up being the one they covet the most.
Minter has been in the ranks of college and professional coaches for two decades, but rose to national prominence only in the last few years. During his two-year stint as the Michigan Wolverines’ defensive coordinator, Minter’s unit paved the way for the eventual national champions, allowing just 10.4 points per game in 2023.
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He followed Jim Harbaugh to the NFL and spent the last two years coaching a Chargers defense that allowed the fewest points in the NFL in 2024 and the fifth-fewest yards in 2025.
It would be a shock if Minter didn’t get a head coaching job this cycle and it would be a home run for the Dolphins if they were the ones to get the coach.
Anthony Campanile (Jaguars defensive coordinator)
Dolphin fans who saw hard hits In 2023 you will already know Campanile. He spent four years as a linebackers coach before leaving to join the Packers staff in 2024. His last stop was with the Jaguars in 2025, where he had his first defensive coordinator job.
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While that means he doesn’t have much experience, Campanile proved his worth when he took a Jacksonville defense with a virtually similar lineup from 27th in points allowed in 2024 to 8th a year later. Just as important, the Jaguars forced 31 turnovers, second most in the NFL.
Jeff Hafley (Packers defensive coordinator)
The drastic decline of the Packers defense at the end of the 2025 season takes some shine off his resume, but Hafley makes a lot of sense for Miami.
Unlike the rest of the top four here, Hafley has head coaching experience and did quite well at Boston College. He then took over Green Bay’s defense and finished fifth in the NFL last year. That was before He added Micah Parsons and began wreaking havoc in 2025 before injuries piled up and the wheels fell off.
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Klint Kubiak (Seahawks offensive coordinator)
With Sam Darnold at quarterback, Kubiak has done a pretty incredible job, relying on a run-heavy approach and explosive plays en route to the third-most points in the regular season.
The Seahawks led the NFL with 12 passes that went for at least 40 yards. Even when Kubiak was coaching a Saints offense without much at the quarterback position in 2024, he had eight 40-plus passing plays.
Miami has overwhelmingly looked at defensive-minded coaches, but Kubiak earned a closer look.
Robert Saleh (49ers defensive coordinator)
Saleh’s first career head coaching tenure didn’t go so well, but can you blame him? For most of his first three years with the Jets, his starting quarterback was Zach Wilson, who threw 23 touchdowns and 25 interceptions with the team. New York tried to correct that problem in Year 3 by adding Aaron Rodgers, but he tore his Achilles tendon in his Jets debut and wasn’t the same player upon his return in 2023.
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Meanwhile, New York’s defense finished in the top four in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.
A retread with a 20-36 record as head coach won’t have many fans doing backflips, but the Dolphins could do a lot worse than Saleh.
Chris Shula (Rams defensive coordinator)
The last name makes a job in Miami seem like a thing of the past, but Shula doesn’t rely solely on his grandfather’s name. His work with the Rams has more teams besides the Dolphins interested in his services.
After working in the defensive ranks in Los Angeles, Shula took over as defensive coordinator in 2024 and has led a disruptive group. The Rams’ 26 sacks ranked fifth in the NFL and only six teams had more sacks.
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Ultimately, though, it may be a little early for a coach who has spent almost his entire career in one organization and has led a good, but not great, defense the last two years.
Joe Brady (Bills offensive coordinator)
The question for any coach is how much credit is deserved for a team’s success and how much should the players take on the field.
Brady is difficult to evaluate. At age 30, he earned the Broyles Award in recognition of college football’s top assistant for his work as offensive coordinator of an LSU offense that featured Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase. He then spent two years as the Panthers’ offensive coordinator, leading a severely talent-deficient unit to 24th and 29th in points scoring before being fired.
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Now he leads a Bills offense that is scoring big points with Josh Allen at the helm. But Buffalo has finished six straight seasons in the top six in points scored, including the two years before Brady arrived.
Bills players love Brady’s “everyone eats” philosophy, but would it be a repeat of his Panthers days if he coached a team like the Dolphins that needs a lot of work?
Patrick Graham (Raiders defensive coordinator)
Graham has the respect of the players and there is something to be said about a defensive coordinator who manages to stay in one spot despite head coaching changes. He was hired in Las Vegas by Josh McDaniels, retained by Antonio Pierce when McDaniels was fired, and then retained by Pete Carroll when Pierce was fired. There’s a reason the Raiders don’t want to lose Graham.
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But it would be difficult for the Dolphins to be so excited about a defensive-minded coach who led Raiders defenses that finished 25th in points allowed the last two years.
Kelvin Sheppard (Lions defensive coordinator)
There are some inexperienced coaches on this list, but none are greener than Sheppard. The former Dolphins linebacker began his coaching career just five years ago as an outside linebackers coach with the Detroit Lions. While he had a quick and impressive promotion to defensive coordinator, expecting him to be ready to handle a 53-man staff would be tremendously risky.
There’s a reason he’s already generating interest among head coaches. But the Lions’ late-2025 collapse on defense and that unit’s 22nd finish leave some questions that more time in that job will help answer.
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Kevin Stefanski (Browns head coach)
It feels wrong to put a two-time NFL Coach of the Year at the bottom of this list, but it’s a little difficult to see how Miami would give Stefanski a different result than his six years in Cleveland.
With the Browns, he had an elite defensive unit led by Jim Schwartz. But Stefanski, a coach with a long history of working with quarterbacks, could never get the position right and went through 13 different starters. Even in Cleveland’s two trips to the playoffs during Stefanski’s tenure, the offense was 16th in the NFL.
Are the Dolphins, a team with a difficult quarterback and without many resources to solve it, going to have a better situation? And unlike Cleveland, the Dolphins don’t have Myles Garrett leading the way for a top-five defense.
This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: New Dolphins coach: Ranking 10 candidates interviewing for job