The Green Bay Packers are going to get a chance to face off against a couple of old friends in the 2026 season when they take on Jeff Hafley, Malik Willis, and the new-look Miami Dolphins.
And if Hafley has it his way, they'll get that one on the schedule first thing this season. Why?
Not because he doesn't want to travel to the frozen tundra of Green Bay late in the season. Not because he wants to catch the Packers early as they're trying to get their footing for the coming season. No, Hafley has seen up close the impact of Micah Parsons, and with the star pass rusher expected to miss the beginning of the season, he wants to get the Packers game out of the way so he can avoid facing Parsons entirely.
"I hope it's Week 1," Hafley said, via ESPN's Rob Demovsky. "One of my favorite guys might not be ready to play."
Jeff Hafley wants to face off against Packers early to avoid seeing Micah Parsons on the field
Obviously, this is a lighthearted comment from Hafley, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. He's having some fun.
And we know how highly Hafley thinks of Parsons. He has gone on record as saying he thinks Parsons is going to come back this coming season with a vengeance and break the sack record. We just saw Myles Garrett break the single-season sack record with a whopping 23 on his own in 2025, so that's a hefty statement by Hafley.
And to his credit, it would be nice for Malik Willis not to have to face off against Parsons in the first week of the season. The Packers will be breaking in a lot of new defensive players themselves, as well as a new scheme under coordinator Jonathan Gannon.
It could work to Hafley's benefit to have all of the new pieces on his side, and use all of that familiarity with the Packers' offense to his advantage.
The Dolphins have been one of the most active teams this offseason when it comes to reshaping their roster. General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan is putting his stamp on that roster early on, moving on from a ton of notable veterans, including Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Bradley Chubb, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and plenty of others on top of it.
Whenever the Packers face off against the Dolphins, it's going to be interesting to see what that team looks like. They have a ton of picks in the 2026 NFL Draft and are likely going to go through some tough growing pains in year one of this new era.
But in Week 1, weird stuff tends to happen. And if Hafley can face his old buddies without having to go against Parsons? He might be kidding, but that joke has at least a degree of truth to it as well.