Packers Coach Tells Story of Oddly-Short Stint With Bills: ‘What’s Going On?’

Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley shared a story about his tenure with the Buffalo Bills, which was much shorter than anyone had anticipated.

The Green Bay Packers hired former Boston College Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley to be their defensive coordinator on Wednesday. He brings with him a bevy of knowledge, experiences, and stories from a coaching career that spans over 20 years.

He’s coached for six different schools and four NFL teams. However, he’s signed a contract with a fifth team: the Buffalo Bills.

Hafley isn’t found in staff directories or record books – just a single pay stub. And yet, his idiosyncratic case isn’t etched in Buffalo lore. He told his story on “Next Up with Adam Breneman.”

Sep 23, 2023; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Boston College Eagles head coach Jeff Hafley yells instructions to his players during the first half against the Louisville Cardinals at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium / Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

In 2014, Hafley was interviewing for then-head coach Doug Marrone and the Bills, to be their defensive backs coach. Headlining the effort to bring Hafley in was defensive coordinator Mike Pettine.

“I had a chance to interview for the Bills, and that interview was like two days long – watching film, drawing some stuff on the board, they were calling everybody I knew,” Hafley said. “I got the job. [Marrone] said, ‘Hey, take two weeks off, our staff’s gone, they’re on vacation.’”

Meanwhile, Pettine was looking for a promotion of his own. In that span, he was hired to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. The staff Hafley had met during the interview had almost entirely left to move down the shore of Lake Erie.

“I don’t know anybody here. So I go to coach Marrone and I was like, ‘Coach, what’s going on?’”

“Well, Pet put in for you,” Marrone told him. “Well, he wants you to come with him but you’re under contract here. I understand he interviewed you, he wanted you to be his guy on defense. If you want, you can go to Cleveland.”

Hafley did just that.

“I didn’t even know how to get out of the office and then I text my wife and say, ‘Hey, forget the houses we were looking at, start looking at Cleveland.’ On my resumé nowhere does it say ‘Bills DB coach.’”

He would spend the 2014 and 2015 seasons with the Browns before Pettine was fired and the staff was dismissed. From there, he would take the same position with the San Francisco 49ers for the next three seasons before a half-decade back in college football.

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Hafley’s stint in Cleveland may not have been particularly successful, but the defenses he has helped build have pushed him up the ladder. Now, he’s the one making staff decisions on the defensive side of the ball. He’ll supervise a Packers defense that ranked 26th in success rate in 2023.

“Funny part was now I get a check like a month later from the Bills,” Hafley concluded. “I was there for two weeks, they had to pay me!”