FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The Atlanta Falcons are in search of the organization's 20th head coach in franchise history. The organization parted ways with Raheem Morris after the team's final game of the 2025 season. A new-look leadership group — including Falcons President of Football Matt Ryan — began the hunt to find his successor with the assistance of ZRG Partners and Sportsology Group.
"Our search committee will be structured a little bit differently than it has been in the past," Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Thursday. "[It will] still be made up of a component of people that represent our leadership in all areas of our businesses, but we're going to put heavy emphasis, we're hiring this president of football first. That's the goal, and over the next couple of days, we have a series of interviews set up. We want to get that person in their seat and have them lead the interviews for the head coach and general manager position going forward."
The Falcons will announce these interviews after they are completed with each candidate. We'll provide those updates here, along with relevant information and background about each candidate.
The NFL has specific rules for how and when teams can conduct these interviews. They are outlined here.
The Falcons have officially completed an interview with Jeff Hafley for their head coach position.
Interview date: Thursday, Jan. 15
Current role: Hafley is the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.
Resume highlights:
- Hafley has been the defensive coordinator for the Packers since 2024. In his first season, Green Bay had the No. 5 total defense and No. 6 scoring defense. It was the first time since 2010, when the Packers won the Super Bowl, that the defense ranked top 10 in both regards.
- Prior to taking the defensive coordinator position in Green Bay, Hafley was the head coach of Boston College from 2020-23. Before that, he was the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State University.
- Though he has made a name for himself as a college coach, Hafley's stops in the NFL include time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers — all three as a defensive backs coach.
Local connection: Alec Lindstrom — younger brother of Pro Bowl Falcons right guard Chris Lindstrom — was the starting center for Hafley when he was the Boston College head coach in Alec's final years at the university.
"He may not be out there yelling and slamming clipboards, but he's going to tell you if you do something wrong," Alec Lindstrom told Boston Magazine in 2021. "He's going to show you how to work on it, and you're going to get better."
Why he's a candidate: As detailed above, Hafley has shown a knack for changing the trajectory of a unit he was charged with leading.
After underperforming prior to his arrival in Green Bay, the Packers' defense of the last two seasons has been one of significant growth, particularly from a play-making lens. Interceptions jumped from just seven in 2023 to 17 in 2024. Overall takeaways nearly doubled, with the Packers going from 18 total in 2023 to 31 in 2024.
What's more: Even though Hafley hasn't been a head coach at the professional level, he still has experience as a CEO of an organization from his years with Boston College. If the Falcons are looking for an individual who has experience building staffs, running full-team meetings, setting vision and expectations beyond one side of the ball, along with managing all it takes to lead a team amidst an ever-evolving NIL landscape at the college level, Hafley could be their guy. Running and building an NFL franchise wouldn't be a brand-new endeavor, just a slightly different one.
