The Pomp And Joe Show
1PM - Dominique Yates on Jeff Hafley meeting with Steelers; Malik Willis outlook; National Championship and NFL divisional round picks 1-16-2026
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: Who is Jeff Hafley and what is his coaching background?
The reporting is that among the eight candidates to replace Mike Tomlin, one of them is Jeff Halfley and a former Pitt guy, I might add, spent time on the Pitt staff here, and that he is here interviewing, as far as we know, Donnie. Yes, today.
Yeah, I believe he was the first one. Now, I know they had the virtual interviews with the two Rams guys.
Yeah. He's an interesting candidate. Alex Cazorra over at Steeler Depot wrote a really good piece today on how Halfley is a very well-rounded football guy. He was the head coach at Boston College. I believe he's coached and recruited both sides of the ball. He's got plenty of pro experience now. And how he's ā Cazorra wants him to be the next guy.
So let's get a little more insight on Jeff Halfley. I remember talking to Jeff Halfley one time a long time ago because he was the primary New Jersey recruiter for Pitt, and he got them Deion Lewis, who was not a good player but a great player at Pitt. I think he had 1,800 yards one year and then became a pretty helpful member of at least one championship New England team.
So that's what I remember about Jeff myself mostly.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of Jeff Hafley's potential hiring by the Steelers?
Dominique Yates, multimedia reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, joins us now. Dominique, how are you?
Hey, doing great. How are you guys? Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. We appreciate you taking the time. So tell us about Jeff Halfley. We got to know him a little bit here, but he's grown into the job a lot more and had a lot of jobs in between Pitt and this one. What would the Steelers be getting here if they hire him?
I mean, he's a guy that has really climbed the ladder in the game of football. He started in college. He spent the first 10 years of his career playing in college, coaching at various schools, then went to the NFL, spent six years there, spent time with the Tampa Bay Bucks, the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and had a lot of success, and went back to college for five years.
One year as co-defensive coordinator for Ohio State, and then was head coach at Boston College for four years.
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Chapter 3: How has Jeff Hafley impacted the Packers' defense this season?
Granted, it's really tough to win games at Boston College. Quite frankly, it's one of the worst teams in the ACC, just because it's hard to recruit there, and Hard to sustain success with the resources and all of that. But he did coach Zay Flowers and A.J. Dillon, some guys that are in the NFL. And then he went to Green Bay.
And over the last two years, he's done everything right with the struggling defense. He turned things around and made significant improvements. And, you know, we can jump into some of that later on throughout this interview. But, you know, he's a guy that has worked hard. And he's just done a lot of really good things. And players love him.
and they seem to really be on board with him and what he tries to do. It's really funny. We talked to Michael Parsons during locker room clean-out, and we asked him about Hathaway, and he said, I can't wait to work with him next year.
Chapter 4: What are the players' opinions on Jeff Hafley's coaching style?
We said, well, he might get a head coaching job. He said, oh, Hathaway, he ain't going nowhere. The players really love him and they want him around, but he's a guy that, deservably so, is in the position he's in right now.
What kind of other endorsements has he gotten from not only Parsons, who is the best player on that Packers defense, but some of the others, just in the situation where he could be going out the door for bigger things?
Really all of the defensive guys, some of the younger guys like Javon Bullard, who has made a big jump in his second season. Edwin Williams, another safety who made a big jump and had a good second season. Edgerton Cooper, Keyshawn Nixon. I mean, really every defensive guy we talked to had a big ringing endorsement for him. And they know how the business works.
You know, when you have success, you're a candidate for other jobs. So they understand that there is a chance they could lose him. But really, all of the notable guys on this Packers defense really have sung Hathaway's praises, and they believe he is a head coach in the NFL.
Yeah, Richard Sherman, I see, and they spent a year together in San Francisco, Halfley and Sherman. Said he's among the best defensive minds he's ever worked with. How about personality-wise?
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Chapter 5: How do injuries affect the Packers' defensive performance?
Because that's how the Steelers have really chosen their coaches, Dominique. They want the CEO. They want the guy with the big commanding presence that has lasting power. What is Jeff like as a guy, as a personality?
Very likable, very personable. Anytime I've had conversations with him, just you could say they have like a little window before practice when everyone's getting ready. Anytime, you know, I've had a conversation with him, he's been very friendly. And just the guy that, again, he seems to just get it, especially dealing with the media.
You know, obviously I didn't listen to every Mike Tomlin press conference, but I could tell at times he would get a little short or snippy or maybe just walk out of the presser if he didn't like a question. You won't get that from Hathaway if he was the Steelers coach. He does a really good job in just standing there and taking the questions.
He had some good games this season where he would talk and a game like the Ravens where Derrick Henry just ran all over them and the defense struggled, especially when they lost Parsons. During the back half of the season, he understood that's what's going to happen. You can say he took those bullets. He never threw players under the bus either.
Chapter 6: What is Malik Willis's outlook as a potential free agent?
So there would be times where maybe a Keyshawn Nixon or Carrington Valentine in the secondary had some missed assignments or missed tackles. He would always defer to, well, that just means we didn't coach it better. So he's one of those guys that will take the bullets for his players. But you don't leave a press conference saying, man, I didn't really get anything from him.
or he was rude or disrespectful. You just don't deal with that from Halfley. So he's the type of coach that fans would want to represent the franchise. And, you know, he's a guy that, again, the media would enjoy talking to and just kind of picking his brain about football. That's really been the type of guy that I've seen over the last two years.
Dominique, going back to something that you said earlier about the time that Halfley spent at Boston College, it sounds like you think it would be pretty unfair to base any sort of head coaching prospect that Halfley has in the NFL just based on some struggles at BC, where he went 21-26 in his time there.
You can't.
It's
like I mentioned, it's just, it's really tough to win at Boston college. You look right now, you know, Bill O'Brien, who is a, you know, solid coach who's coached in the NFL as well. And, you know, had some success with offenses and went to the playoffs and even on the, you know, collegiate ranks at Penn state, he had a good two years there.
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Chapter 7: What are the potential coaching changes for the Packers?
And right now he's struggling at Boston college. It's a program that won two games this past season. So it's, I couldn't look at Hathaway as a coach and say, oh, man, look at that time at Boston College. Because, again, in terms of what he had to deal with, he did a good job in developing guys because I mentioned Zay Flowers and A.J.
Dillon, and I'm probably even missing some guys that are in the NFL during his tenure. So I think he did a good job in retaining players the best he could. And like I said, trying to win a few games here and there. So if you're looking at Hasley as a head coaching candidate, you just can't really look at Boston College. I think more than anything, you could see that he did more with less.
But then he gets to the NFL with the Packers, and he has Devontae Wyatt, Micah Parsons, Xavier McKinney, Edgeron Cooper, and some talented players. and they were really good defensively, so I feel like he's the type of coach when he has good players that can understand his system, he can have some success.
Dominic, some of the Packers' struggles defensively late in the season, how much of that do you put on Halfley, or how much do you put it on Parsons being injured and changing the defense? It's both. I would say I wouldn't give him a complete pass for that, but I do think it's no question Parsons
Chapter 8: What are the predictions for the National Championship and NFL playoffs?
was able to hide some of the issues defensively, in particular, in the secondaries. It's clear that when the Packers released Jair Alexander, they would have some issues in the secondary. They traded for Nate Hobbs, who they hoped could play outside, and he dealt with injuries as well. But when he did play outside corner, they didn't have some success.
So when you lost Devontae Wyatt in the interior, who was playing ā the best football of his career and Parsons, you had an idea of what this defense was like. And one thing that he did, you could tell he tried his best to hide the corners, but you can only hide so much when you don't get pressure on the quarterback.
So I think that, you know, I would say he has a little bit of blame in terms of playing it safe in the secondary. And obviously Caleb Williams and those guys took advantage of that late in the season. But there's no question when you take one of the best players in all of football off the field, there are going to be struggles.
He had 12 and a half sacks in terms of Parsons, 83 pressures, 26 quarterback hits. So, yes, when he's not on the field, it's a different defense. But I think that he maybe could have done a little bit better job in making sure the corners were in better position to have success. But injuries, number one.
But then number two, like I said, he maybe could have done a little bit better in having those guys more prepared.
Dominique, do you think there is a particular position group on the defense that thrived or grew the most under Halfley's watch? Oh, good question.
You know, it's kind of interesting because I know I just mentioned some of the secondary play that struggled, but there's still a lot of guys ā I'm not trying to use a cop-out with this answer, but there are guys on each level that did some really good things. So obviously on the defensive front, Devontae Wyatt took a really good step in the interior.
He had four sacks before he was injured, so I think he was doing some good things in this system. Linebackers, Edrin Cooper, he was a young guy, but he has thrived at linebacker, and he looks like a future star. But then on the back end, Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams did some good things. McKinney, he was with the Giants, and he was a good player, no question about it.
That's why the Packers paid him a lot of money. But he's having some of the best success of his career as well. He was a first-team All-Pro last year, second-team All-Pro this year. So those are some of the guys that have really ā elevated their games because of Hathaway.
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