Official 2026 NFL Black Monday Thread

[bobblehead]

The Miami Dolphins are finalizing a deal to hire Green Bay Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan as their general manager, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Friday.

Sullivan joined the Dolphins after working for the Packers since 2003, starting as a scouting intern before being hired full time in 2004. He moved up the ranks from college scout to director of college scouting to co-director of player personnel before becoming Green Bay's vice president of player personnel in 2022, working closely with general manager Brian Gutekunst for a team that has reached the playoffs six of the past seven seasons.

The first major move for Sullivan in Miami will be to hire a new head coach. Mike McDaniel was fired Thursday after four seasons that included a 7-10 record in 2025. That was the Dolphins' second consecutive losing season after making the playoffs in 2022 and 2023.

The Dolphins have been linked to former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, though sources told ESPN's Jeff Darlington that Miami had not yet been in touch with John Harbaugh or anyone in his camp as of Thursday.

A possible candidate with an existing connection to Sullivan could be Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, who has also received interest from the Cardinals, Falcons and Titans.

That settles it. If the 49ers got a 3rd for McDaniel I want a 3rd for the heavily tanned Sullivan.

[pbmax]

Y'all were sayin'??

I'd burn my source for being wrong, if I had one. Whoever leaked it was just playing for time. Or the Dolphins were hanging on to a coach to determine if they needed to let him go to land their new GM. The candidates might have wanted their own guy right away.

[RandsRevenge]

His targets were reduced because he had to spend a lot of time blocking, because the OL was porous.

yes. And things got worse on the O-line after his exit

[Fritz]

In the game discussion thread I posted about a Justis Mosqueda podcast in which he discussed the overarching team structure since Wolf's days. According to Mosqueda, since that time the Packers as an organization have paid their GM/Sal cap guys/admin pretty well because the organization believes that that group IS the Packers. It's not the coaches, it's the GM and his people that form the core of the team as an organization. So they get paid pretty well, in part because their salaries have not skyrocketed like coaches' salaries have. The glitch in the system came when Ted started getting sick - much earlier than most of us knew - because they didn't know what to do with him. In any case, Mosqueda is more sanguine about the Packers being able to replace Sullivan, though he was a rock for the Packers, than he is about the Packers' handling of coaches.

If the Pack doesn't keep LeFleur, according to Mosqueda, it's because they won't or can't afford to pay him the going rate. And their previous "magic trick" of hiring offensive coordinators on the cheap (McCarthy, LeFleur) won't work any more because now coordinators (like Ben Johnson) are commanding big dollars when they become head coaches (I think Mike Holmgren was like that way back when). So if The Flower leaves, they'll end up hiring someone cheap - and backfill with inexperienced coaches who will be cheap for that reason. Mosqueda basically argues the Packer coaching outside of the big names (Bisaccia, Covington, etc) is cheap and inadequate. He also had a fascinating analysis of Packer special teams - that of the six parts of ST, the Packers only care about three of them (kick coverage, punting unit, and field goal team), so they put their resources there and don't put resources into the return game at all. In his view, Bisaccia has done his job admirably - those three units are doing pretty well, and the Packers are content to limp by with the return parts in their draft-and-develop scheme. Yikes. From an organizational perspective, it's pretty spooky. The small town publicly owned thing might be hitting the limits of what the team can do.

[bobblehead]

I'd burn my source for being wrong, if I had one. Whoever leaked it was just playing for time. Or the Dolphins were hanging on to a coach to determine if they needed to let him go to land their new GM. The candidates might have wanted their own guy right away.

Just for the record I think he is a brilliant offensive mind and probably didn't deserve to be fired, but Miami also fired Flores right as he turned things around so they have been a hot mess since Don Shula left.

[George Cumby]

Just for the record I think he is a brilliant offensive mind and probably didn't deserve to be fired, but Miami also fired Flores right as he turned things around so they have been a hot mess since Don Shula left.

I loved the Don.

There's something profoundly wrong about the Miami culture that goes WAY back.

Towards the end of Shula's career, he was struggling getting the team to perform. Their stand-out LB, Bryan Cox, who was controversial but forever earned my respect by defending Shula saying something like "Jesus Christ himself couldn't get this team to play hard".

[Vincenzo]

Fired So Far

Brian Callahan - Tennessee
Brian Daboll - New York Giants
Raheem Morris - Atlanta
Kevin Stefanski - Cleveland
Pete Carroll - Las Vegas

8 total so far:

• Arizona Cardinals: Jonathan Gannon
• Atlanta Falcons: Raheem Morris
• Cleveland Browns: Kevin Stefanski
• Las Vegas Raiders: Pete Carroll
Harbaugh of Ravens
McDaniels of Phins,
Giants -Daboll
Titans - Brian Callahan

[MadtownPacker]

Damn, would our most hated, Pete Carroll be the answer in Green Bay? Im probably a piece of shit for thinking it might actually be a good fit.

[pbmax]

Damn, would our most hated, Pete Carroll be the answer in Green Bay? Im probably a piece of shit for thinking it might actually be a good fit.

Pete's two kids are coaching with him now in the NFL. He's gone past NFL coach and is now a hiring firm.

[bobblehead]

I have to ask a serious question here. Has a Joe Barry playoff defense ever hemorrhaged 31 points especially after a team was down 3 scores? Why in God's name is Hafley getting so much love??

Personally I'm fine if he goes. Lets bring in someone who doesn't let the Bears run all over him. I prefer an asshole, but would settle for someone like Evero (who isn't available, but you get the type).

[Joemailman]

jason Wilde
@jasonjwilde

Aaron Rodgers, when asked about Mike Tomlin, speaks on Tomlin and on #Packers head coach Matt LaFleur after the @Steelers’ playoff loss: https://x.com/i/status/2010938513601020258

[Joemailman]

I have to ask a serious question here. Has a Joe Barry playoff defense ever hemorrhaged 31 points especially after a team was down 3 scores? Why in God's name is Hafley getting so much love??

Personally I'm fine if he goes. Lets bring in someone who doesn't let the Bears run all over him. I prefer an asshole, but would settle for someone like Evero (who isn't available, but you get the type).

Once Wyatt went down, the DT room was very weak. When they traded away Kenny Clark, they just had to hope Wyatt could stay healthy. Didn't happen. Think about it Last year they had Wyatt, Clark and Slaton at DT. They finished this year with none of them.

Losing the pass rush with the losses of Wyatt and Parsons exposed the weakest pair of starting corners we've seen here. Hobbs contributed nothing. Gute has done some good things here, but his work on the CB room was a huge swing and a miss.

[texaspackerbacker]

All true, but I have to agree with bobblehead, if Hafley is so damn good as a DC, he shoulda been able to put together something even with the injury and trade depleted D Line personnel and shoddy Corners. It certainly seems like other coordinators are able to do that.

[Joemailman]

Mike Tomlin has stepped down.

Fired So Far

Brian Callahan - Tennessee
Brian Daboll - New York Giants
Raheem Morris - Atlanta
Kevin Stefanski - Cleveland
Pete Carroll - Las Vegas
Jonathan Gannon - Arizona
John Harbaugh - Baltimore
Mike McDaniel - Miami
Mike Tomlin - Pittsburgh

[Fritz]

Wow. Aaron Rodgers looking and sounding like a wise old man.

Those of you who want Halfley gone should read Justis Mosqueda. If he goes, the Packers will - because they historically don't pay coaches well, especially assistants - promote Covington or Ainsley to DC, and all the lower level coaches will just be moved up, and they'll fill the empty position created by all this with an intern who's been getting coffee for the assistant to the assistant linebackers coach.

Packers had the least-experienced assistant coaches of all the playoff teams. By a lot. Read Mosqueda on this. And it showed. The offensive line couldn't pick up the blitzes. Linebackers got scorched in the passing game. The "little" things that are the big things.